Joyce Johnson helps protect more farmland in Skagit

At 104, greater La Conner resident Joyce Johnson has taken a stand for farmland.

Last week she finalized, with Skagit County's Farmland Legacy Program, a conservation easement on her 57-acre property to permanently protect the land for agricultural use.

"My brothers and uncle were farmers, but they never owned their land," said the longtime member of the La Conner Civic Garden Club in a county press release. "They would be so happy to know that I own this land. My father would be, too. And now it's protected."

The property near the corner of Bradshaw and Calhoun Roads has been leased to the Roozen family since 1979. Before that, Johnson's late husband Stan Johnson and his family farmed the land.

"That land is the best of the best," says John Roozen, co-owner of the Washington Bulb Company along with his siblings. "I'm really excited about seeing it protected." The company will likely put in 20 acres of tulips behind Johnson's house next spring.

Bulb crops rotate on a five-year-cycle to minimize soil disease. Rotation crops are grown between bulb crop years. "We trade a lot of our ground, like the Johnsons', with farming partners and a dairy farm partner," says William Roozen.

The Johnson farm is in close proximity to a number of Skagit County Farmland Legacy conservation easements. Approximately 290 acres of protected farmland surround Mrs. Johnson's farm in a one-mile radius.

"Protecting contiguous parcels of farmland ensures Skagit farmers can continue feeding the world," says Commissioner Lisa Janicki. "The future of farming is more secure because of the Johnson family's decision to protect this agricultural land."

Johnson's 57 acres bring the total to more than 14,000 acres of Skagit County farmland now protected from the threat of incompatible residential and industrial use. The county paid $110,000 in conservation futures tax funds for the permanent protection of Johnson's farmland.

Total protected acreage represents 16% of the roughly 89,000 acres designated Agriculture-Natural Resource land in Skagit County, as of August 2022.

Source: Skagit County government