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Fifty-seven Pennsylvania counties have agricultural land preservation boards that purchase agricultural conservation easements. Sixty-five private charitable organizations accept donations of conservation easements or, less commonly, purchase them. These two paths to farmland preservation differ in many ways.
In Pennsylvania, owners of farmland can permanently protect their farms with the help of private charitable land trusts or through the Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program (ACEPP), jointly administered by the state and county agricultural land preservation boards. The private and public approaches both have long-standing and proven records of preserving farmland. However, each has distinctly different features. There are pros and cons associated with each alternative, and landowners will need to explore them to understand which approach will best meet their needs and goals. Some of the most successful conservation efforts involve using both your local land trust and the government program.
The questions below provide general comparisons of the alternatives. When reviewing them, keep in mind that every county and land trust is different. Some answers are the same for every county and land trust; some vary. The State/County Program descriptions address the most typical situations—where state funding will be applied to the purchase and where, even if state funding isn’t being used, the county program adheres to the state rules including using the standard state easement document. Some counties take their own path for projects that don’t involve state funding and, in these cases, the answers may vary from what is presented below. You will have to contact the individual county program to get a clear answer. Likewise, you will have to contact an individual land trust to get more precise answers to many of the questions.
State/County Program: Little to none.
Land Trust: Can be tailored to the land, the landowners’ needs, and particular conservation objectives.
State/County Program: Yes, if the farm scores high enough in the county’s ranking system.
Land Trusts: Usually not, but it depends on the locality and the resources available to the particular land trust.
State/County Program: Some counties pay market value or could be limited to a maximum. price/acre or a percentage of market value
Land Trusts: (See previous answer.)
State/County Program: Most counties have long backlogs of qualified farms seeking to be placed under easement. The highest ranked farms are protected first and lower ranked farms may have to wait for years or decades to be protected. Once a farm ranks high enough for funding, there is a multi-month, sometimes multi-year, process of completing the transaction.
Land Trusts: Generally a few months. The amount of time will vary depending on whether an appraisal and other preparation work are needed.
State/County Program: The deed language required for easements purchased using state money does not conform with federal requirements for qualified conservation contributions. (If a county is not using state money, flexibility might exist to better address tax issues.)
Land Trusts: Yes, if structured properly.
State/County Program: The law establishing the program describes it as preventing development or improvement for any purpose other than agricultural production.
Land Trusts: Mutually agreed to by landowner and land trust. Protection of soil resources is a typical objective. Objectives might also include protecting scenic views, water quality, and other natural resources.
State/County Program: All activities and improvements on the land must be associated with agricultural production (with a few exceptions).
Land Trusts: Mutually agreed to by the landowner and land trust.
State/County Program: Yes.
Land Trusts: Depends on what is mutually agreed to by the landowner and land trust.
State/County Program: Rules vary by county.
Land Trusts: Depends on what is mutually agreed to by the landowner and land trust.
State/County Program: In addition to structures existing on the land on the date the easement is granted, landowners can build one additional residential structure as the principal residence for the landowner or to house farm employees.
Land Trusts: Depends on what is mutually agreed to by the landowner and land trust.
State/County Program: Probably not unless most of the energy is used on the farm.
Land Trusts: Depends on what is mutually agreed to by the landowner and land trust.
State/County Program: Yes.
Land Trusts: Depends on what is mutually agreed to by the landowner and land trust.
State/County Program: At least once every two years (the minimum required by law).
Land Trusts: Typically once a year (the minimum required by Land Trust Standards and Practices).
State/County Program: The farm must be part of an Agricultural Security Area. Each county has a scoring system to rank farms for potential inclusion in the program. Highest ranked farms receive offers first.
Land Trusts: Land trusts usually have project selection and prioritization guidelines used for considering potential conservation projects.
State/County Program: Woodlands can be included. However, landowners sometimes improve their farm’s ranking by excluding woodlands from the proposed easement purchase. A county sometimes partners with a land trust—the county purchasing an easement on the actively farmed area and the landowner donating to the land trust a conservation easement on the woodland.
Land Trusts: Land trusts work with landowners to identify the most appropriate conservation objectives for the land, whether farm, forest, or otherwise.
State/County Program: Act 43, the Agricultural Area Security Act, as well as the associated state regulations and county programs approved by the state.
Land Trusts: Most land trusts have voluntarily adopted Land Trust Standards and Practices, the national guidelines for ethical charitable operations. (Act 29 of 2001 provides statutory authority for conservation easements not covered by Act 43 but does not require any particular process.)
State/County Program: More than 530,000 acres, greater than any other state program in the nation.
Land Trusts: Land trusts have conserved more than 230,000 acres with conservation easements. (No data exists regarding what portion of that acreage is farmland compared to forest and other conservation lands.)
State/County Program: The state program was created in 1989. Lancaster County pioneered county purchases in 1983.
Land Trusts: Land trusts first used conservation easements in southeastern Pennsylvania in the 1960s. The 1980s saw expanded use across the Commonwealth.
State/County Program: 57 counties participate in the program.
Land Trusts: Sixty-five land trusts hold easements, some organizations focused on a single municipality, county, or watershed, some with much larger service areas.
State/County Program: The Pennsylvania Bureau of Farmland Preservation (717.783.3167) and their website http://www.agriculture.pa.gov/Encourage/farmland/Pages/default.aspx. Also, many counties have websites describing their programs. Links to them can be found at http://conservationtools.org/organizations/farmland.
Land Trusts: ConservationTools.org. Land trusts working in your area can be identified at http://conservationtools.org/organizations.
Andrew M. Loza authored this guide.
Nothing contained in this or any other document available at ConservationTools.org is intended to be relied upon as legal advice. The authors disclaim any attorney-client relationship with anyone to whom this document is furnished.
© 2017 Pennsylvania Land Trust Association
Text may be excerpted and reproduced with acknowledgement of ConservationTools.org and the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association.
