The Washington Association of Land Trusts has identified the Farm Bill as one of its top policy priorities. Since the Dust Bowl, the United States Department of Agriculture has supported private land and wetland conservation. This is now accomplished in part through programs like the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), which allow land trusts to partner with private landowners to keep working farms working. These programs protect working farms, ranches and forests now and for generations to come through permanent conservation easements.
Farm Bill funding is under threat
The current Farm Bill does not expire until September 2018, but the administration has already proposed major budget cuts at USDA. The President’s budget proposes cutting ACEP funding and eliminating RCPP altogether.
Our priorities are to protect conservation funding through ACEP and RCPP, especially now they are under threat of being slashed in 2018, and to make these easement programs more accessible for land trusts and landowners.
Protecting our farms and ranches
Across the nation, we are losing nearly 40 acres of farmland every hour. Once farms are gone, we cannot roll up the pavement. Our food system depends on quality soils, and in Washington we are blessed with some of the most productive farmland in the world. The amount of agricultural land, particularly family-owned farmland, in Washington has declined significantly in recent years. The Puget Sound region alone lost over 750,000 acres, 57 percent of its farmland, since 1950, with some counties losing 70 percent.
Farmland preservation is a vital investment in Washington’s future, for so many reasons: to support rural economies, conserve water, maintain soil, support fish and wildlife habitat, and produce abundant food and fiber.
Nearly all WALT member land trusts work to protect farm and ranch land through their missions. Federal Farm Bill funding has made this possible, ensuring that rural agricultural economies across the state will stay intact. Working with landowners, land trusts can use this funding to help next-generation farmers get a start and buy land, through easements and other tools to reduce the purchase price of a farm. Additionally, farms and ranches provide critical habitat for species, like salmon and sage-grouse.
A survey of Washington land trusts and local governments in 2015 found that there were 27 ready to go farmland preservation projects in need of federal Farm Bill funding to protect over 22,837 acres, totaling over $10 million. But funding appropriated by Congress barely scratched the surface: nine out of ten landowners in need of funding to protect their land through an easement did not receive funding. According to NRCS, nationwide ACEP-ALE funding was only able to address 26 percent of the demand. Now, there is a threat that funding could be cut significantly.
Call your member of Congress
Land trusts will have a key role to play in communicating the importance of these programs. Alongside partners like the Washington State Conservation Commission, American Farmland Trust, and counties, WALT is working closely with our partners to advocate for shared priorities for the Farm Bill. We’ll be working closely with our member land trusts to ensure that Washington’s Members of Congress know why these programs are important, and how they can be improved for their constituent farmers and ranchers.