Iowa ag land to be protected
with USDA farmland protection easement

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This article was written and posted on INHF's website in June 2001.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources
Conservation Service is allocating $278,000 to protect unique farmland in the Loess Hills in western Iowa.

The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and the Nature Conservancy will match those federal dollars; the combined funding will be used to purchase perpetual conservation easements on 920 acres in Plymouth, Monona, and Woodbury Counties. The sites contain native grasslands and scenic views. They are at risk for inappropriate land uses if not protected by a conservation easement.

The easements are a first for Iowa through USDA's Farmland Protection Program (FPP). Through the FPP, NRCS enters into agreements with states, tribes, local governments, or non-governmental organizations to protect farmland by purchasing conservation easements.

Conservation easements have been negotiated on five agricultural properties in the Loess Hills with landowners who were concerned about their land being threatened by development. Three of the parcels are in Plymouth County near Broken Kettle Grasslands. One parcel is in Woodbury County along the Loess Hills Scenic Byway and another is in Monona County near Sylvan Runkel State
Preserve.

"The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and the Iowa Chapter of the Nature Conservancy took the leadership in bringing the Farmland Protection Program to Iowa for the first time," said Mark Ackelson, INHF president. "I'd like to see such farmland protection programs become a model for future land protection not only in the Loess Hills but elsewhere in the state. Eventually, state and local government may use these kinds of programs to guide their growth, protect natural resources and work in partnership with private landowners."

Leroy Brown, State Conservationist for NRCS, says the general goal of the program is to prevent urban development on unique and prime agricultural lands, to allow continued agricultural uses and promote managed urban growth. Iowa was one of 28 states approved earlier this week by USDA to receive FPP funds; the total for all states was $17.5 million.

For more information on this story, contact Marcia Roll, NRCS, at (515) 284-4769 or Cathy Engstrom, INHF, at (515) 288-1846.

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