Families sought for farmland program

Matthew Hill

Carl Thompson, a Fayette County representative for the West Virginia State University Extension Service, wants the local agricultural community to know the Fayette County Farmland Protection Program is actively seeking to identify farm families who might have a desire to protect their farm properties through the county program.

Simply put, Thompson said, the program “protects vital farmland by placing a conservation easement on the property. This voluntary easement protects the farm from extensive commercial development in perpetuity.”

Acquired easements are either donated by the farm owners or obtained through a purchase agreement. They apply only to those properties that qualify for consideration under terms established and adopted by the program.

The program’s mission, as Thompson described it, is that “agriculture should continue to be an integral and viable part of the county’s economy, landscape, natural resources and sense of community.

Agricultural land is a non-renewable resource and farmland protection seeks to provide a balance between conservation and development.”

The intent of the program is to provide farmland owners an opportunity to voluntarily protect agricultural areas and woodlands for the future.

Properties with a recorded conservation easement continue to be owned by the property owner, Thompson clarified.

The deed of easement does provide for some restrictions on the property. The property can be used for a wide array of agricultural purposes. However, commercial development unrelated to agriculture is restricted.

On May 16, 2005, the Fayette County Commission authorized a resolution creating the Fayette County Farmland Protection Board.

As appointed by the commission, the board was charged with creating and administering the Fayette County Farmland Protection Program in consultation with the Southern Conservation District and as approved by the commission, Thompson recalled.

In 2002, the Legislature modified the Voluntary Farmland Protection Act that it passed unanimously in 2000 allowing each county with a farmland protection program to provide funding for such a program through a real estate transfer tax.

The county commission in each eligible county may enact an additional tax on the privilege of transferring real estate to be used solely to fund the county’s farmland protection program.

The maximum allowable rate is $1.10 per $500, or a fraction thereof of the real estate transfer value, to a maximum transfer value of $1 million, Thompson said.

The board meets at 7 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at the Fayette County Courthouse.

For more information, call 304-574-4339 or write to Fayette County FPB, P.O. Box 8, Fayetteville, WV, 25840.

You may also e-mail Thompson at cthomps7@wvstateu.edu or call him at 304-663-1960.

According to the American Farmland Trust, America loses 2.2 million acres of rural lands to urban sprawl every year.

In an effort to address the issue, more than 20 states have implemented farmland protection programs, Thompson noted. In 1996, the U.S. Department of Agriculture funded a farmland protection effort with a six-year goal of saving between 170,000 and 340,000 acres of farmland.

From 1964 until 1997, the USDA reported, West Virginia lost 17,732 farms and more than 1.82 million acres of farmland. Between 1982 and 1997, 25 of the most productive Mountain State counties had a combined loss of 103,519 acres of farmland.

West Virginia is also estimated by the USDA to have lost 21,676 acres of orchard land from 1964 until 1997.

— E-mail: mhill

@register-herald.com