Permanently Preserving Agricultural Land

Kira Santiago's central Illinois flower farm exists thanks to a legal maneuver by landowner Dave Bishop to protect his East Peoria farm, which Santiago now rents, from development pressure.

Bishop, who also owns a farm near Atlanta, Illinois, couldn't bear to sell the 100 acres, first purchased in 1868 by his great-great grandfather and farmed by each subsequent generation. 

Dave Bishop, producer - Atlanta, Illinois: "It is ideal development property because you've got some trees already as well as some flat land so there is a lot of development interest. If you look at it from the air, you will see a subdivision that is poised to attack, as well as East Peoria city limits just across the field."

Despite encroaching housing developments, he put off numerous interested buyers over the last 20 years.

Dave Bishop, producer - Atlanta, Illinois: "It's quite often likely to be double the price of farmland, typical farmland … If the land doesn't mean anything to you and it's just an opportunity for profit, I can see how people would do that. Since I have a five-generation vested interest in this land, it means something to me."

Five years ago, Bishop learned about agricultural conservation easements - a way to permanently protect land for agricultural use only. It meant sacrificing development potential for preservation.

Dave Bishop, producer - Atlanta, Illinois: "You don't do that in a knee-jerk reaction type of way, you know? Because you are giving up a significant income potential… But if you do decide to proceed with it, you do need to find someone who acts on your behalf in setting all this up."

Bishop’s loss was covered by USDA and The Conservation Fund, and Illinois-based Prairie Lands Conservancy holds the easement. Similar groups across the nation help achieve the same goal.

The nonprofit American Farmland Trust, founded in 1980, is a national leader when it comes to efforts to permanently protect farmland, especially in high-development areas. The organization connects landowners to state and local land trusts, and helps guide lawmakers.

Kris Reynolds, Midwest Regional Director, American Farmland Trust - Nokomis, Illinois: "We are losing about 2,000 acres a day to development pressure…And so our approach as an organization is to promote farmland protection programs that are voluntary that offer farmers and landowners the opportunity to protect that land with an ag conservation easement, which in turns allows that land to stay in agriculture for perpetuity."

At the current pace of 2,000 acres lost to development daily from 2001 to 2016, another 18 million acres will likely disappear by 2040 - nearly the size of South Carolina. Reynolds, who is a fifth-generation farmer, worries about feeding the nation if poorly planned development continues on prime agricultural soils.

Kris Reynolds, Midwest Regional Director, American Farmland Trust - Nokomis, Illinois: “Those are lands that we refer to as prime, versatile and resilient because essentially there’s a lot of options of what can be grown on those lands now and into the future.”

The process of gaining an agricultural land easement involves third-party land trusts, legal costs, and often, waiting lists. Farmland is appraised at its current value versus its value with restrictions against development. The difference becomes the easement cost - sometimes donated by landowners, sometimes 50% covered by a land trust, and possibly the other 50% by a federal, state or municipal program.

Kris Reynolds, Midwest Regional Director, American Farmland Trust - Nokomis, Illinois: “It doesn’t mean that you are giving anybody else access to that land but it does mean that that land is going to stay in agriculture.”

As the value of the land is reduced by giving up development potential, the property tax burden could ease. Once established, protected land can still be sold, but new owners must maintain agricultural use.

Currently, 30 states have agricultural easement programs, but most Midwestern states, including Illinois, Iowa and Indiana, lack state government purchase programs.

Reynolds encourages allowing for future flexibility when it comes to farming types and farming practices.

Kris Reynolds, Midwest Regional Director, American Farmland Trust - Nokomis, Illinois: "For the most part, you know, the easement language needs to be fairly open because we don't know what agriculture might look like in 100 years. So it doesn't need to be so restrictive that we are saying that it has to be corn and soybeans produced on this farm."

Very little land - less than one percent nationwide – is currently protected by agricultural conservation easements.

Florida, which is expecting another 10 million new residents by 2070, is using several types of legal maneuvers, including this kind of easement, to try to save farm land and other green spaces.

Tom Hoctor, Director of the Center for Landscape Conservation Planning, University of Florida: "It seems like the rate is at least on the order of 60,000 acres of rural land lost a year based on our newest estimate....In Florida the pace of development is probably faster than anywhere else in the U.S. We have really good data. Do we have the political will to get it done?... There's a lot of agricultural land that we could protect if we are proactive. We have the opportunity to do that ….Them staying in agriculture is completely compatible with our long-term conservation goals."

As for Dave Bishop in Illinois, his children supported the idea of locking the land into agricultural uses. After several years of preparation, the assessment revealed the difference between development and agricultural values was several hundred thousands of dollars. 

Dave Bishop, producer - Atlanta, Illinois: "We used …most of the easement money to repaint and work on the house. Do some repairs on it. The entire roof had to be replaced on the barn and some other work done on it. The amount of money we got from the easement was enough to keep us in shape for another 30 years hopefully."

The conservation group checks the farm annually to ensure compliance. Bishop’s youngest son hopes to eventually farm the East Peoria land, which is currently rented by Santiago, the flower farmer, to serve metro area residents in the future. It’s a possibility the easement helped protect.

Dave Bishop, producer - Atlanta, Illinois: “It's not for everybody...The point for me was I know  now that this land will always be a farm."

By Colleen Bradford Krantz, colleen.krantz@iowapbs.org