HUNTERTOWN, Ind. – ACRES Land Trust is looking for farmers who would like their working farmland protected forever from development or a different use.

The organization currently owns and protects 7,300 acres of land – including about 600 acres of farmland – in northeast Indiana and portions of Michigan and Ohio, according to Jason Kissel, ACRES executive director. ACRES owns 117 properties in the three states.

Created in 1960, ACRES is a membership-based nonprofit. It was the state’s first land trust.

About a third of the land controlled by ACRES is donated, he said. A third is purchased at market value and the other third is purchased at a discount. Natural land obtained by the organization will remain so, Kissel said.

“Our goal with our nature preserves is to support nature,” he explained. “If it’s a forest, we let it age as a forest. We remove invasive species. A lot of times, the land comes to us half in its natural state, half in transitional state. We let it age in place.”

Buildings on properties they acquire may be saved, but that’s not guaranteed, Kissel added. “We make sure the owners who plan to give us the land know that beforehand. We do guarantee we will own the land forever. We also guarantee we’re not going to sell it, we guarantee it will always remain natural.”

Of the properties that are donated, some are given to the organization in a will or bequest, though some people opt to give it to the organization while they’re still living.

“We have a tremendous respect for the land and for the people’s history on it,” he noted. “We try to capture anything about the property from the landowner. We also have historians who look for more information about the property.”

ACRES has controlled some working farmland since at least the 1980s, Kissel said. They currently cash rent about 600 acres, though the amount may range from 400-600. They have 15 fields that average about 40 acres each.

Farmland owners can request the land remain in farming or ACRES might eventually return the land to a more natural state, he stated.

“It depends on the owner’s intent,” he explained. “If they want it to always remain in active agriculture, it will remain that way. It could be transferred to natural land at some point if they give us that option. None of the (previous) owners of the farmland we currently have requested we keep it in agriculture.”

Most of the properties that include farmland were acquired by ACRES for their natural resources and happened to have some farmland acreage, Kissel said.

After ACRES acquires farmland, they cash rent it for a few years while studying the property to best determine its long-term future, he said. ACRES plans to keep some of the farmland it owns in agriculture for the foreseeable future, Kissel added.

When the organization decides to convert some farmland to a more natural state, the renter is given plenty of notice, he pointed out. “We want them to stop on a soybean rotation because there’s less stubble in the field. We look at the soils. We plant trees, sometimes a grassland community. It does take awhile for it to become a true natural system again.”

About 40 percent of the organization’s nature preserves are open to the public, Kissel said. “Having them open really connects the public to our mission,” he noted.

Hunting and fishing are allowed at a few of the nature preserves, and timber harvest may eventually happen at some of the properties, he said.

“People assume we’re against farming and against forestry because we don’t do those things in our nature preserves,” Kissel noted. “They might see us converting farmland so they think that means we’re opposed because we didn’t keep it in farmland. But we’re also in the farming and forestry business.”

In 2015, the Claxton family donated 93 acres of legacy timber to ACRES. The acreage, north of Spencerville, Ind., contained more than 43,000 trees. Bill Claxton began planting trees on the property about 30 years ago. Money raised from the eventual sale of some of the timber will be invested by ACRES to protect land and preserve natural areas, Kissel said.

At the time of the donation, Claxton told ACRES his dream was to have the timber harvested when it was ready. The family wanted to ensure the trees weren’t harvested too soon or cleared irresponsibly. “Trees are a natural resource we can replenish,” he said at the time. “My property is different from all the others ACRES has. It’s like a baby being born. I don’t think people realize how much work goes into getting the woods started here.”

Kissel said leaving land to ACRES isn’t for everyone.

“Sometimes we’re not a good fit,” he stated. “We don’t pressure anyone. The goal is to find a home for their property. The reasons people give their land to us varies. Some do it for the habitat, some do it out of a sense of religious obligation. Some do it for a sense of place – pieces of the way it used to be.”

For more information on ACRES, visit www.acreslandtrust.org.