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42 Our Future at Stake Every year approximately 100,000 people come to live in North Carolina. Many people and business owners are attracted to the state's rural beauty and heritage yet few, if any, come here to till the soil and contribute to agricultural production. Some of the state's high- est valued farmland, dedicated to `tobacco, fruit, vegetable and row crop production, is located on the state's urban fringes and is subject to increasing development pressures. As development has spread across the state, elected officials and public managers have come to realize the associated costs and burdens. A growing populace requires serious investment in public services such as roads, schools, water and sewer ser- vices and police and fire protection. Land devoted to farming, on the other hand, does not require constant dipping.into the public purse. When farmland is lost, the pressure builds to increase property taxes. Increased taxation results in greater pressure on remaining agricultural production. - It is worth noting that this state's unique cultural, educational and political institutions were crafted from agrarian roots. Tobacco is the chief commodity that built the Tar Heel state but unbridled develop- ment is putting prime farmland, as well as our heritage, at risk. Healthy farms and farm families promote sound local economies and help com- munities maintain their rural culture and heritage. The current economic climate provides another reason to preserve open land. Some economists believe America may be entering a period of recession and the marked loss of jobs in rural North Carolina is a telling sign. Hundreds of textile jobs have been Iost and the service jobs depen- dent on an employed workforce are at growing risk in rural North Carolina. FEATURE ARTICLE The fortune's of our top two economic engines, agriculture and tourism, are intertwined. We need open space for agricultural com- merce and we need undeveloped land for the state's number two income producer, tourism, which is highly dependent on the open vista which agriculture maintains. In the Apex area of Wake County, bumper -to- bumper subdivisions and new housing are squeez- ing out family farms and traditional ways of life. What the State is Doing North Carolina enacted the vol- untary Farmland Preservation District Statute, G.S. 106 -744 in 1986. This legislation allowed the state to set up a fund for receiving monies and administering a statewide farmland preservation program. The state also created legislation to permit counties to set up agricultural districts. At present, 12 counties have established such districts or agriculture protec- tion areas. 5 The North Carolina Farmland Preservation Trust Fund was estab- lished in 1998 with $250,000 in non- recurring funds. NCDA &CS administers the fund and has con- tracted with the Conservation Trust for North Carolina (CTNC) to accept farmland easement applica- tions and administer state- appropri- ated funds. With these monies CTNC secured agriculture easements on five farms and 1,200 .a acres of farmland. La In 1999 the Gener- al Assembly provided $500,000 in additional non - recurring funds. Again, CTNC used the funds to help defray the costs of bargained and sold conservation ease- ments. Easements total- ing 1,500 acres were secured on nine farms in the state. New development is a common sight in once -rural North Carolina. A 21 percent increase in North Car- olina's population during the past decade has given the state another seat in Congress, but has also put pressure to develop once - productive farmland, At the local level, Forsyth County formed its own PDR (Purchase of Development Rights) program. Continued on next page NC F.4R.Ll BUREAU NENS - FEBRUARY 2001