<b>By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER<br>
Ohio Correspondent</b> </p><p>

OXFORD, Ohio — Gusting winds could not blow away the enthusiasm of national and state experts as they toured lands protected by the Three Valley Conservation Trust (TVCT).
Larry Frimerman, executive director of the TVCT, had gathered the group – which included Russell Shay, director of public policy at the Land Trust Alliance; Mark Forni, ODA’s executive director of farmland preservation; Brian Williams, Ohio director of the American Farmland Trust; and Eric Hollins, a founding TVCT board member.<br>

Frimerman wanted to draw attention to the importance of extending the recently-expired conservation easement tax deduction incentive. In the 16 months the tax incentive was in force, the trust helped landowners protect nearly as many properties and acres as during its first 12 years.<br>

Those on the tour discussed the success of and need for expansion of the Federal Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP), which brought in funds to purchase development rights at bargain sales for farms, Frimerman said. The FRPP made it possible to set aside large blocks of land for farmland preservation and food security.<br>

Both of these federal issues are included in the 2008 federal farm bill legislation under consideration by the Congressional Conference Committee.<br>

“The fate of a lot of land will be decided in the farm bill,” Shay said. “A lot of the legislation that gets passed in Washington, D.C., people have no idea how it is going to affect them, but this will affect a lot of people directly.”<br>

At the state level, Frimerman emphasized the benefits of the expiring Clean Ohio fund, which is up for renewal by the Ohio General Assembly and Ohio voters.<br>

“These programs have been a major stimulus for land conservation locally,” he said.<br>

The first tour stop was Thomas and Holly Wissing’s 11-acre wildflower preserve, an easement donation.<br>

“The Wissings have been passionate about their special woodland streamside property in Reily Township,” Frimerman said. “Holly has spent the last 30 years transplanting native wildflowers. The land has older mixed hardwood forest, a beautiful stream and scores of unusual bird species.”<br>

The property also protects a small agricultural field that adjoins larger farm fields. The site has an exceptionally diverse set of habitats and flora and fauna. This property has, with a relatively small setting, sufficient public benefit to provide significant conservation values permanently protected, Frimerman said.
“We didn’t ever want to see bulldozers in these woods,” said Holly. “I’ve spent too much time here, and the thought of bulldozers putting in houses is not what I would like for it.”<br>

“If you can get enough people together along these little streams, you not only can really keep your diversity up but you can protect a lot of riparian corridor, which is really important in this area,” Tom said.<br>

The next stop was the farm of Danielle Mann and Marc Tincher.
“This farm was protected through a combination of Ohio’s Agricultural Easement Purchase Program (AEPP), through the Clean Ohio Program and the FRPP, one of the programs that is up for grabs in this year’s farm bill,” Frimerman said.<br>

The property is an historic cattle and grain farm. The easement protects the land from development and safeguards a half-mile section of Indian Creek and the circa-1838 Dr. Andrew King farm, with original farmhouse and barns.<br>

“Philosophically, we believe in protecting farmland so there are not so many houses cropping up here and there,” Tincher said.
“My father owned this farm; now I own it, and I want to pass it on to my children in its existing setting.”<br>

In Ohio, AEPP has purchased 23,615.51 acres, The donation program has 4,369.95 acres.<br>

The ODA in 2002 had an AEPP for tobacco farms, and it purchased 2,922.72 acres. These acres total 30,908.18, Mark Forni said.