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f <br />Page 1 <br />DRAFT MINUTES <br />AGRICULTURAL PRESERVATION BOARD <br />February 21, 2001 <br />PRESENT: Whit Morrow, Nancy Goodwin, Bob Strayhorn, Louise Tate, Noah <br />Ranells, Environment & Resource Conservation Preservation <br />Planner Tina Moon, Administrative Assistant Carol Melton. <br />Guests present: Gerry Cohn. <br />ABSENT: Charles Thompson, Elizabeth Walters, Tony Kleese, Marty <br />Mandell, Rodney Recor. <br />ITEM #1: CALL TO ORDER <br />The meeting was called to order at 7:40 by Chair Morrow. <br />ITEM #2: CONSIDERATION OF ADDITIONS TO AGENDA <br />Moon reported information about a local farmer who has expressed <br />interested in the Voluntary Agricultural District program. <br />ITEM #3: APPROVAL OF MINUTES January 31, 2001 <br />The members present reviewed the minutes but deferred the vote <br />due to the lack of quorum. <br />ITEM #4: SPECIAL PRESENTATION <br />Gerry Cohn, American Farmland Trust (AFT) <br />Morrow introduced and thanked Cohn for attending. Cohn gave an <br />overview of the American Farmland Trust (AFT), its twenty -year history and its <br />mission for the future. The AFT maintains several regional offices along with its <br />main office in Washington DC, which focuses on federal policy. Cohn has <br />recently opened a new office in Graham, North Carolina that will serve a five - <br />state region including the Carolinas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia. He <br />noted that North Carolina is ahead of most of the southeast in farmland <br />preservation with its state funded farmland trust fund and conservation tax credit <br />program, and its Agriculture District programs administered at the local level. <br />North Carolina has also begun a very active land trust movement as a form of <br />farmland preservation. <br />Cohn said that his charge was to support farmland preservation wherever <br />possible throughout his southeast region. "I'm here to learn about this group's <br />work and to share with you some things that AFT has done in other places <br />Draft 2/21/2001 <br />