By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

SOUTH CHARLESTON, Ohio — In the seventh and final round of funding from the Clean Ohio Agricultural Easement Purchase Program (AEPP), the Ohio Department of Agriculture received applications from 198 families requesting funds to help keep their land forever in agricultural use.

Brian and Jennifer Harbage of South Charleston may seem like throwbacks from another era, when the countryside was greener than concrete and farmers preserved the land to pass down to their own. Brian, a seventh-generation farmer who has no intention of giving up his legacy, made the move to preserve the 62-acre, corn, soybean and cattle-producing farm for their two sons.

The couple secured a place in the state’s AEPP through Tecumseh Land Trust. Their land is now included in the 43 farms and 7,790 acres of permanently protected land in Clark County.

“When you see houses going up on every corner ... I just don’t like it,” Brian said. “I don’t want my farm to be houses. This is one way to keep it from growing houses.”

Through the statewide program, farmers are either paid or can donate the development rights for their land in return for an agreement to preserve the land as farmland, giving it significant protection from eminent domain and ensuring its agricultural use.
Clark County leads the state in the amount of acres of farmland protected in the program, with more than $6.7 million paid to landowners since 1999, said Krista Magaw, Tecumseh Land Trust executive director. This year there were 14 applications from this county.

Ashland County led the way with 26 applications, followed by Knox County (18), Preble County (16), Fairfield County (13) and Miami County (13). Thirty counties in Ohio represented a total of 198 families. Butler County saw eight applications.

“The real reason these farmers do this is because they love the land,” said Larry Frimerman, executive director of the Three-Valley Conservation Trust, from Butler County. “Butler County is losing 2,000 acres of land a year to development, and many farmers see development rights as lucrative. A lot of money can be made this way and some land can be worth $100,000 an acre.

“The state provides $2,000 per acre; that’s not much. Anyone giving up these rights is truly sacrificing a great deal. Landowners are making heroic choices because they’re passionate and can’t bear to see subdivisions and shopping malls go up.”

In Warren County there were just two families requesting these funds. The county lost 8,000 acres of farmland (or 5.7 percent) from 1995-2000. It is the second-fastest growing county in the state. In 2000, the county had 133,000 acres in farmland. That is fewer than Butler’s 146,000 acres, according to the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA).

The United States is losing 1.2 million acres of farmland a year, according to the Farmland Preservation Trust.

The AEPP applications are currently undergoing the first of a two-step scoring process. The first step uses a formula that takes into account soil quality, proximity to other protected areas, proximity to intermediate development pressure, the use of best management practices and local support and planning for agriculture. The second step includes a review by the ODA’s 12-member Farmland Preservation Advisory Board.

This board evaluates questions designed to provide further insight into the farm’s operations, estate, business and conservation plans, local agriculture infrastructure and local farmland protection efforts. Scores from both rounds are combined and the advisory board presents its recommendations to ODA Director Robert Boggs.