As Idaho loses farmland, a conservation easement helped this Idaho farmer keep his land

Twenty years ago, I was going broke. My family and I own and operate a medium-size farm in Fremont County, Idaho, near the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River. This farm means the world to us — our family has strong roots in the area, and we have been on this land since my parents started buying this place in 1940. Our farm is part of an area that is an important wildlife migration corridor between Island Park and Yellowstone Park and wintering grounds on the Sand Creek desert.

We have about a mile of river frontage and a combination of farmland where we raise barley, wheat and hay and occasionally rent some land to a neighbor for seed potatoes and pasture with a small seasonal wetland in the mix.

But like many other farmers, we were in debt and were caught by several years of poor yields and low crop prices. We had reached the end of the road.

That is when I heard from a neighbor about the possibility of protecting our farm from turning into a subdivision and keeping the land in agriculture by selling a conservation easement.

In fall of 2002, after many conversations with Teton Regional Land Trust, we signed the first of two easements of approximately 300 acres each. We continue to farm the land and maintain all the rights to it except the ability to turn it into a subdivision. Today, the farm is part of a larger block of a couple thousand acres of conserved land that provides critical wildlife habitat along a migration corridor.

Our story isn’t unique. And there are so many farmers and ranchers across the nation today who are waiting on funding to do the same thing. It’s a win-win for agriculture, for the environment, and for future generations.

That’s why I’m encouraged that President Biden has announced a plan to protect or restore thirty percent of America’s land and water resources by 2030. The so-called America the Beautiful Initiative specifically calls out increasing resources for farm and ranchland through conservation easements, and other support for farmers and ranchers. Conservation easements on private property through an organization such as a land trust are one tool in the box to help meet the goal.

The easement not only allowed this land to stay in farming — the money we received in return gave us a new lease on life. We paid off our debt, put some money aside to put our two sons through college and generally got back on top of the game. The conservation easement allowed us to weather that difficult period, and we were able to hang on to the farm — which we’ll pass on to our children and grandchildren.

To provide a little background, a conservation easement is a voluntary agreement between a willing landowner and a qualified organization, such as Teton Regional Land Trust, to give up certain development rights to the property for perpetuity. In exchange, the landowner can get a cash payment or tax benefits or some combination of the two.

The organization then agrees to hold the easement and defend the terms of the agreement forever. The money comes from private individual sources and some federal programs like the Land and Water Conservation Fund, North American Wetlands Conservation Act and various programs from the Natural Resource Conservation Service.

Importantly, it is a totally voluntary exercise of private property rights. Conservation easements are a great way to keep farms and ranches working and to keep farm families on the land.