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The Skagit County Farmland Legacy Program is sharing their accomplishments with county residents in their 2023 annual report. It is inserted in this week’s Weekly News. The report provides insight into the role of agriculture in Skagit County and how protecting farmland helps us preserve agricultural viability.
After protecting 425 acres of farmland in 2023, Skagit County farmland under conservation easement protection totals 14,700 acres. This includes row crops, seed crops, dairy and cattle operations, as well as silage, hay pasture, bulbs, flowers, and berries.
More than 200 conservation easements on Skagit farmland place permanent restrictions on future use and development of the land. This is 17% of the 89,000 acres designated Agricultural-Natural Resource in the county.
The 2023 properties stretch from Bow to Fir Island through La Conner.
The 300 acres Alex Ball is stewarding reaches back five generations to the late 1800s. The Ring and Lillquist families manage their 60 acres of La Conner farmland together.
Colleen Fisher’s newly protected 40 acres of farmland on Fir Island has been in her family for several decades.
The 25 acres protected by Edison Fields is adjacent to 156 acres they preserved in 2020.
The Skagit County Farmland Legacy Program is one of the most active and successful farmland preservation programs in Washington state, due to the number of protected acres and the ongoing community and county government support.
For 26 years the Farmland Legacy Program has been a county-funded initiative that compensates landowners for placing a perpetual conservation easement on their land. Landowners retain ownership of their land and continue their farming operations. The conservation easement runs with the land, no matter who owns it. The program’s primary goal is to protect Skagit County’s vital agricultural productivity.
For information: Program Coordinator Sarah Stoner, [email protected]; 360 416-1417; skagitcounty.net/farmland.
Source: Skagit County government
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