State, County stepping up preservation as farmland shrinks

Amid rapid residential growth, Johnston County leaders are moving to preserve farmland.

The numbers are sobering.

From 2001 to 2016, North Carolina lost 732,000 acres of farmland to development, second most among the 50 states, according to the American Farmland Trust, a nonprofit combating farm loss.

“They determined that 78% of that conversion was to low-density residential development,” noted Evan Davis, director of farmland preservation for the N.C. Department of Agriculture.

Notably, 387,000 of those acres were what the Farmland Trust deemed “nationally significant land.”

Davis explained that this way: “It takes two to three times the amount of other types of land to make up for the productivity of the nationally significant land.”

“So, we’re not only losing farmland, but losing some of our most productive land as well,” he told Johnston County Commissioners at their recent planning retreat.

Another Farmland Trust study, this one in 2022, projected future land loss through 2040.

“Once again, North Carolina was No. 2,” Davis said.

That study actually made three forecasts — one based on current development trends, what Davis called “business as usual”; another based on runaway sprawl, in which low-density residential development increased by 50%; and a third that reflected loss in light of “better built cities,” in which low-density fell by half.

Under current development trends, North Carolina will lose another 1.197 million acres of farmland by 2040. Runaway sprawl would claim 1.678 million.

“Sometimes, it’s a little bit hard to wrap our heads around what we’re talking about in terms of acreage to be lost,” Davis said.

He described North Carolina’s potential loss this way: “The entire land mass of the state of Delaware is 1.5 million acres. And in that runaway sprawl mode, we could lose 1.6 million acres of farmland — more farmland than the entire state of Delaware.”

That second Farmland Trust study bore down to the county level, and Johnston fared poorly there. “They determined that the top county for farmland loss in North Carolina was Johnston County, which ranked 19th in the entire nation,” Davis said. “So out of the 3,100 counties across the United States, Johnston County ranked 19th for potential farmland loss.”

Three other counties in North Carolina ranked in the Top 40 nationwide.

Conservation easements

That’s where Davis’ office comes in.

“There are many factors that influence farmland preservation,” he told Commissioners. “But we’re looking at the conservation of land, making sure we have the natural resources for the production of food and fiber into the future.”

The primary tool in Davis’ office is the Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund, one of three state-funded trusts dedicated to conservation.

“There are several categories that we provide grants for,” Davis said. “And historically, about 90% of the grant funding has gone toward agricultural conservation easements.”

Johnston County and its Soil and Water Conservation District are well versed in those, having used them to preserve hundreds of acres of farmland.

In short, an agricultural conservation easement pays a farmer to keep his land in farming. The one-time payment is equal to the difference between a farm’s fair-market value and its present-use value as a farm. For example, if a property’s fair-market value was $1 million and its farm value $600,000, the payment would be $400,000.

“An important point we always emphasize is that we are not buying the land,” Davis said. “It stays in private ownership.”

But in exchange for that one-time payment, the property owner forfeits his development rights. He can use the land only for farming — horticulture, row crops, pasture and forestry.

That means no:

• Residential development.
  
  
• Industrial and commercial uses other than “customary rural enterprises” such as produce stands.
  
  
• Subdivision of the property.

“Once the easement is recorded, that is the boundary of the easement, so you cannot subdivide the property once it is recorded,” Davis said. “Fragmentation of the landscape is one of the biggest threats to agricultural viability, so we want to maintain these types of large blocks of land in order for operations to remain profitable.”

“Another very important consideration for landowners is that the agricultural easement runs with the land,” Davis said. “So when the easement’s recorded, no matter who owns the land, the easement runs with it.” 

That means if the property is sold or inherited, the terms and conditions of the conservation easement move with the land to the new owner. He too must keep the land in farming.

“So those conversations that these farm families have, the perpetual nature of the agricultural conservation easement is a very important discussion,” Davis said. 

A voluntary program

Davis emphasized that no one will force a conservation easement on a farmer. “Farmland preservation starts with a willing landowner,” he said. “This is a voluntary program. Farmers and foresters come to us. They come to counties. They come to land trusts wanting to participate.”

In North Carolina, those willing landowners have placed roughly 42,000 acres in conservation easements, including 592 in Johnston County.

What the state program could use is more money from the N.C. General Assembly, Davis said.

“Demand for this program has grown significantly,” he said. “The past three grant application cycles have seen grant application records. “

But since 2023 especially, the gap between applications and available dollars has widened significantly. 

“With the last application cycle, we had $60 million in grant requests,” Davis noted. “And with recurring funding and unused and canceled projects, we were only able to fund about $6 million of that $60 million.”

For Johnston, money is the hurdle to securing more conservation easements, said Commissioner Butch Lawter. “We can’t purchase them all on our own,” he said. “So we need to talk to our folks in Raleigh and to our folks in D.C. to make sure that they’re funding these programs.”