Preservation Groups Woo Tobacco Farmers to Save Farmland

Source from:  The Associated Press 06/20/2005

As tobacco farmers consider whether to cope with a changing market by selling land to developers, North Carolina's land preservation groups hope to show them a way to hang onto the family farm: conservation easements. The state Department of Agriculture estimates that farmers expected to plant 23,200 fewer acres of tobacco this year, as the federal government dismantles the decades-old federal program that supported leaf prices. Environmental groups worry that many tobacco farmers may decide to sell formerly productive fields for house lots. The Tar River Land Conservancy is mailing packets to North Carolina's largest tobacco growers, explaining how they can get cash or tax benefits for preserving farmland. Farmers can receive a state tax credit and a federal income tax deduction by donating a conservation easement to a nonprofit land trust. "Tobacco has been the crop, especially in the Piedmont, that has sustained farms for a long time," said Jeffrey Fisher of the Louisburg-based conservancy, which sent the mailing on behalf of the state's 23 land trusts. "Now, a lot of farmers are saying, 'What is the crop that's going to keep my ag land viable?'" Keith Parrish, head of the National Tobacco Growers Association, said he applauds any effort to keep farmers on their land. The Harnett County farmer said most growers are waiting to decide whether to continue growing tobacco, switch to other crops or get out of agriculture. "I think there's an awful lot of farmers that are going to be looking at the net result of this year's operations to see whether they want to continue or not," he said. About 100,000 acres of farms and forests are developed in North Carolina each year, according to the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The issue is more one of sprawl than a changing farm economy, according to Ernie Averett, a seventh-generation Granville County farmer and a member of the Tar River Land Conservancy's board. He said farmers directly in the path of development would probably sell regardless of the end of the tobacco program. "It seems like the overriding issue there is just this unabating demand for more land," Averett said. But the loss of the quota system may coax farmers in more distant areas to sell, too. The land trusts must show farmers that they can preserve their property and continue farming on their own terms. "This is a fairly new concept in our region," Averett said. "We have to be careful not to come across as eco-nuts, because we're not." Under a conservation easement, a farmer continues to own and farm his land but gives up the right to develop it. The easement becomes part of the property's deed and is enforced by the nonprofit land trust that holds it. Land trusts sometimes buy easements, but more often landowners donate them in return for tax breaks. Conservationists covet farmland not only for its economic and cultural value, but because it provides important wildlife habitat and scenic vistas, and can help prevent water pollution of streams and lakes. North Carolina tobacco growers stand to get nearly $4 billion over the next 10 years as the federal government compensates them for the loss of their quota. The accompanying tax liability may make conservation financially attractive for farmers, who already have a sentimental attachment to their land, said Rusty Painter, land protection director for the Conservation Trust for North Carolina, an umbrella group for local land trusts. "A lot of these people have been on their land for generations, and they feel very passionate about that property and they want to save it," he said. Enditem