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A Virginia legislative panel led by Matt Lohr, proposed to save farmland and focus urban growth with a voluntary transfer of development rights (TDR) program [PDF]. According to Jim Baird, AFT’s Mid Atlantic States Director, “TDRs have proven to be invaluable in protecting important resource lands, while directing new development to areas with existing and adequate infrastructure.” But they are not without their detractors: developers who chafe at the added cost; suburban residents resisting more density in their neighborhood; and some farmers who worry that their land will lose value when zoning changes are made. “It’s another tool in the tool kit,” says Baird, "ultimately citizens will decide what they want their community to look like and the best way to achieve that..
 Smith Creek is a tributary of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, which leads to the Potomac River and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay.
Taking up about 68,000 Acres/106 sq. miles of Virginia’s Rockingham and Shenandoah counties, more than 95 percent of the watershed is composed of forested and agricultural land. Beef, dairy and poultry operations make up the largest share of farm income.
The USDA and local partners, including American Farmland Trust, selected the Smith Creek Watershed as a target watershed for the Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Initiative, which is working to improve water quality while preserving the region’s rich farming heritage and economic prosperity.
Agricultural practices being promoted to improve the health of Smith Creek and its tributaries include increasing farmers’ use of fencing to keep cattle from getting too close to streams, and re-foresting and re-grassing riverbanks with native species of trees and grasses.
Its tributaries, many of which are spring-fed, include the Lacey Spring Branch, Mountain Run, and Fridley Run.
 Efforts to halt the extension of electricity transmission lines from the Midwest into Mid Atlantic states took another blow this month as the Virginia SCC approved a 93-mile portion that would run through Frederick, Warren and Loudoun counties on the way to Pennsylvania. While industry supporters cite the need to meet increasing power demand in the region by bringing more power from plants in Ohio and other states, citizens, legislators and environmentalists have been fighting the massive effort. According to Jim Baird, AFT’s Mid Atlantic States Director, “Bringing mega power lines through these areas without proper oversight would negatively impact a wide swath of irreplaceable farmland in a region that is home to some of the most productive urban-edge farms in the country, as well as the nation’s most successful local and state farmland protection programs.”
AFT has consistently opposed the master plan for the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor that gives greatly enhanced powers to private companies to use the powers of the federal government to take private property. According to Jim Baird, AFT’s Mid Atlantic States Director, “Bringing mega power lines through these areas without proper oversight would negatively impact a wide swath of irreplaceable farmland in a region that is home to some of the most productive urban-edge farms in the country, as well as the nation’s most successful local and state government farmland protection programs.”
In a letter to the Virginia Attorney General, U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-10th) stated that the commission itself indicated that other options might be a more efficient use of capital and much less intrusive on the landscape, and that it could “be more expensive to build transmission lines rather than exploring other options such as integrated planning that considers not only transmission, but generation and conservation.”
 In hopes of saving the state’s dwindling farmland from development, Virginia agriculture officials issued guidelines for a model purchase of development rights (PDR) program. Also known as Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easement Programs, PDR programs compensate farmers for the development value of their land in exchange for a binding agreement that their land will stay permanently available for agriculture.
Albemarle County’s Acquisition of Conservation Easements (ACE) program hosted a celebration marking the first Virginia farm preserved with a combination of local and state funds from the Office of Farmland Preservation. In acquiring the easement on the 228 acre Clayton family farm the county will have protected over 5,000 acres of working farm and forest land and 70,000 acres overall in conservation easements.
The Clayton Family Farm is in a location to have a significant environmental impact. In addition to its prime agricultural soils, the farm fronts the Beaver Creek Reservoir, protecting the headwaters of this vital water supply resource.
Resource Protection by Acquiring Easement on the Clayton Farm:
- a productive, working farm in the South Fork of the Rivanna River watershed & Beaver Creek Reservoirs
- 228 acres of farm and forestland (124 acres of “prime” soils)
- Eliminating 10 development lots
- 1,543 feet of state road frontage
- 3,000 feet of protected stream and river frontage
- 6,743 feet of common boundary with the Beaver Creek Reservoir
Sandy and Rossie Fisher of Brookview Farm in Manakin-Sabot, Virginia have received AFT’s 2007 Steward of the Land Award for their leadership in farmland protection and environmental stewardship.
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