Protecting and Preserving the “Salad Bowl of the World” Since 1984
The necessary protection and preservation of our farmlands is the foundation of our society. The availability of healthy and nutritious foods guarantees the strength and success of all of our children and all of our future generations. The Ag Land Trust (ALT) is a non-profit farmland conservation organization headquartered in Monterey County which is committed to these principles..
The Ag Land Trust was created to assist landowners and farmers in permanently protecting their productive and important agricultural lands, our open spaces, and our historical lands in Monterey County (and adjacent areas). Since its founding in 1984 by visionary local landowners, farmers, governmental officials, and local business persons, ALT has saved over 50,000 acres of farmlands and open space from urban sprawl. ALT has succeeded in this tremendous achievement by working cooperatively with landowners who are committed to protecting our farmlands and our irreplaceable open spaces for future generations. The Ag Land Trust was one of the first farmland conservation trusts in the State of California. We were founded to exclusively serve the needs of the agricultural community of the Central Coast. ALT partners with willing landowners to permanently protect productive agricultural acreage from development and subdivisions, primarily in Monterey County, but in neighboring counties as well. ALT gives landowners an option to receive substantial financial benefits when those farmers commit to keeping their lands in agricultural production. The Ag Land Trust was created with the interests of landowners, farmers, and farmworkers in mind. Our primary goal is to increase public awareness about the effective use of farmland conservation easements and other conservation tools.
Over the past four decades, the Ag Land Trust has had the honor of partnering with dozens of farming and ranching families to protect California’s
precious agricultural heritage. To date, those landowners have partnered with Ag Land Trust to permanently protect over 50,000 acres of productive agricultural land.
Services Offered by Ag Land Trust
The Ag Land Trust serves as a conduit for farmland protection grant funds from both the federal government and from the State of California. Every year, ALT receives millions of dollars from those sources, which ALT uses to purchase farmland conservation easements, as well as farms, from willing landowners here on the Central
Coast. The Ag Land Trust leases all of its properties to local farmers for the benefit of our residents and communities. Moreover, because ALT is an IRS Section 501(c)
(3) non-profit entity, landowners can donate full or partial conservation easements on their farms to the Trust, and those landowners can realize huge tax benefits for their conservation donations.
Additionally, “mitigation” is a term used to describe conservation projects or programs that offset the adverse or detrimental impacts of urban sprawl to a natural resource. Although California’s farmland is precious and the loss of it can never be fully compensated for, adverse impacts to farmland due to urban sprawl can be partially mitigated by permanently protecting similar lands.
The State of California and Monterey County, have recognized the importance of addressing the massive adverse impacts on agricultural land conversion from development. State law and local governments now require developers to provide mitigation for the loss of farmlands that the developer causes via “in-lieu fees” or direct purchases of conservation easements on similar farmlands.
Where mitigation is required, Ag Land Trust can help identify, select, and accept conservation easements or fee-title ownership of appropriate farmland. ALT then holds ownership and protects those mitigation farmlands. ALT also monitors or manages those conserved lands in perpetuity.
Ag Land Trust prides itself in its ability to provide customized mitigation solutions by working with local entities and willing sellers to secure easements to meet the agricultural mitigation requirements established in a project’s environmental documents.
The Ag Land Trust has had the honor of partnering with dozens of farming and ranching families to protect California’s precious agricultural heritage. These families have collaborated with Ag Land Trust to protect thousands of acres of productive agricultural land and realized millions of dollars of benefits through that process.
The Ag Land Trust holds over 114 projects in Monterey, San Mateo, San Luis Obispo, and San Benito Counties. Although its focus is preserving prime agricultural land in the Salinas and Pajaro Valleys, it will also consider easement projects located outside of Monterey County. In addition to working with individual property owners, the Ag Land Trust has partnered with other non-profit organizations, corporate agribusinesses, cities, counties, and the federal government on farmland conservation projects. Protected properties range in size from a few acres to thousands of acres. While the majority of properties are irrigated row-crop land, we also protect a significant amount of rangeland, dry-land farmland, natural habitat, and parklands.
Property owners who put their lands under permanent conservation easements are interested in protecting the land for future generations, protecting habitat, and protecting their families’ agricultural heritages and businesses. They want to rest assured that someone will make sure their properties are used according to their wishes in the future. ALT offers those guarantees.
To learn more about the goals and projects of Ag Land Trust, please visit www.AgLandTrust.org.