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Ag Land Trust Makes “Unprecedented” Purchase of Easement

Ag Land Trust, headquartered in Salinas and one of the first land trusts in the state of California, completed a purchase last week of a permanent agricultural conservation easement on 112 acres of prime farmlands owned by the nonprofit Agriculture and Land-based Training Association.

The farmlands are the site of the Agriculture and Land-based Training Association’s Farmer Education and Enterprise Development project which develops the knowledge and organic farming skills of Latino and immigrant farmworkers in order to create opportunity and work toward a more environmentally sustainable future in agriculture, according to a press release from Ag Land Trust. The Agriculture and Land-based Training Association’s experienced bilingual staff trains farmworkers to become the next generation of farmers in Monterey County and the state.

The Ag Land Trust described the acquisition of the agricultural conservation easement on a farm with this unique organizational mission as “an unprecedented purchase” as the first of its kind in Monterey County. The Agriculture and Land-based Training Association organic farm is located south of Salinas on Old Stage Road.

The Ag Land Trust was awarded $750,000 in funds for the Agriculture and Land-based Training Association agricultural conservation easement purchase which were made available through the California Strategic Growth Council’s Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program in collaboration with the Department of Conservation.

According to the California Department of Conservation, an agricultural conservation easement is a voluntary, legally recorded deed restriction that is placed on a specific property used for agricultural production. The goal of an agricultural conservation easement is to maintain agricultural land in active production by removing the development pressures from the land. Such an easement prohibits practices which would damage or interfere with the agricultural use of the land. Because the easement is a restriction on the deed of the property, the easement remains in effect even when the land changes ownership.

The Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment – particularly in disadvantaged communities, according to the release. The California Strategic Growth Council has approved millions of dollars of grant funding for the Ag Land Trust to secure permanent conservation easements that will reduce urban sprawl from paving over the irreplaceable prime farmlands of Monterey County. (James Herrera/Monterey Herald)

Read the Original Article at:

https://www.montereyherald.com/2023/06/26/ag-land-trust-in-salinas-makes-unprecedented-purchase-of-easement