Abstract

A review of conservation programs in the state shows that agricultural easements are concentrated in central coastal counties. Many of these counties, such as Marin and Sonoma, are not top agricultural regions, while some of the state’s most productive agricultural counties have no easement programs at all. To date, there are approximately 120,000 California farmland acres in easements, nearly 80 % of them grazing land and the rest in crops. Our review shows that state coastal conservation programs and sentiments among local populations are major reasons why easements are plentiful in some counties and not in others. About one-third of the state’s land trusts and open space districts that focus primarily on protecting farmland hold 90 % of the agricultural easement acreage in California. Most acreage is concentrated on the coast and in the Bay Area. In Sonoma County, the Santa Rosa Plain can be seen from Taylor Mountain. ust a few local and regional conser-vation programs have secured the vast majority of farmland acres cov-ered by agricultural easements in Cali-fornia. Among the 34 land trusts and districts identified by our research as having significant farmland protection objectives, 12 held about 90 % of all acres under agricultural easements throughout the state as of mid-2000. Why are some farmland protection programs more successful than others in easement acquisitions? And what do these findings suggest for the fu-ture of easements as a farmland pro-tection technique in California? After reviewing statewide patterns and the achievements of the most active pro-grams, we examine the revenue and organization and other factors in-volved in the development of a suc-cessful agricultural easement acquisition program. Statewide easement patterns pensatory and nonregulatory tech-nique for protecting farmland from urbanization, through the purchase of development rights (or their donation) from landowners. Local conservation Agricultural easements are a com-organizations, land trusts or public agencies acquire and hold the ease-ments and manage them over time