Drive for 100,000
Lancaster Farmland Trust will turn 25 in 2013.
And what better way for the private, nonprofit organization to celebrate its birthday than helping Lancaster County crack the next big farmland preservation goal — 100,000 acres under easement.
"We know it's a lofty goal, but we're going to work as hard as we can to get there," said Karen Martynick, executive director of the Trust. "If we don't make it, at least we will have moved the ball forward."
No county in the nation has preserved 100,000 acres of farmland.
And, according to Farmland Preservation Report, Lancaster County is closer to that figure than any other in the United States.
Combined, the Trust and the Lancaster County Agricultural Preserve Board have protected from development 1,151 farms on 90,794 acres.
A few more farms on a few more acres are likely to be preserved by both organizations over the remaining weeks of 2011.
So that means about 9,000 acres — 4,500 per year — would have to be preserved over the next two years for the Trust to reach its goal of 100,000 acres by the end of 2013.
And that would require an increase in the preservation rate here, since the two organizations combined to preserve about 4,000 acres this year.
"We have not asked the county to give us any more money or to do any more than they are already doing," Martynick said. "We're saying that we will put forth the extra effort to try to make this happen."
Martynick discussed the Trust's goal Tuesday in the wake of the release last week of the 2010 National Land Trust Census by the Land Trust Alliance, which shows a slowing of the conservation by trusts of all lands in the U.S. from 2005-2010, compared to 2000-2005.
According to the report, the number of acres conserved by national, state and local land trusts grew by about 13 million acres from 2000-2005.
From 2005-2010, those trusts preserved 10 million acres.
"Certainly funding has been a challenge to everyone in this economy," Martynick said.
Lancaster Farmland Trust, however, has maintained a steady pace at raising funds and preserving farms the past few years.
Martynick said the Trust has been raising about $2 million per year from all sources — individual donations and government and foundation grants.
"We have been pleasantly surprised that the level of interest from our individual donors has not let up, even in these difficult economic times," she said. "They continue to make donations to us."
Foundation and government grants, however, have staggered.
Lancaster County commissioners provide the Trust with its single largest pot of money through an annual challenge grant.
The grant requires the Trust to raise in private donations $1 for every dollar the county provides, up to a set limit.
In 2007, the county gave the Trust $1 million.
In 2010, that figure had been reduced to $800,000, and funding was cut again this year to a maximum of $750,000.
County Commissioner Dennis Stuckey said his board has not yet determined what if any amount will be set aside for the Trust in 2012.
"We've been working to get our general fund budget together, so we have not yet made any decisions about" funding for the Trust, he said.
Typically, the commissioners announce their annual plan for farmland preservation in January.
That plan includes setting funding for both the Trust and for the county Ag Preserve Board.
"I certainly believe that, even in these difficult times, there is room for county funding for farmland preservation in 2012," Stuckey said. "What that dollar amount will be, I don't know."
Stuckey said the commissioners are aware of the Trust's goal of hitting 100,000 preserved acres here by 2013.
He said he supports the effort, but he stopped short of saying the county would adopt the same goal.
"Certainly my view is 100,000 acres is a commendable goal and it is the next milestone for farmland preservation," he said. "We are going to have to look at it in terms of financing to see where we are, and we haven't crossed that bridge just yet."
Martynick expects the Trust to preserve 25 farms on about 1,500 acres by Dec. 31, which is comparable to the 2010 effort — 23 farms preserved on 1,412 acres.
She said she's been working with the Pew Charitable Trust to try to increase funding over the next two years, so even more farms can be preserved.
And she said she's been lobbying federal lawmakers to extend a 2006 tax credit, which has encouraged farmers to donate easements on their lands in exchange for a higher rate of tax deductions.
That credit is set to expire at the end of this year.
"We might have had one or two easement donations a year before 2005, but now we get five or six," Martynick said. "The very first year, we had 12.
"The point being, when farmers donate their easements to us, we can make our dollars go farther."
Martynick said there is bipartisan support for the tax credit, but she's worried it will get lost in the ocean of issues facing Congress today.
"I'm not sure it's very high on the list of priorities," she said. "That's why we've been encouraging people to contact their legislators to tell them to push this through."
