"With development pressures increasingly encroaching on farmland – particularly in southern Maine – farmland protection funding can provide the margin of difference for family farmers. I worked to preserve the funding for this essential program in the Farm Bill signed into law last month, and encourage farmers in Maine who are facing these pressures to apply for available funding," said Senator Snowe, who has been a stalwart supporter of the Farmland Protection Program (FPP), and voted in favor of the farm legislation.

The new Farm Bill contains $50 million in funding during the current fiscal year for FPP, Snowe said, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will be taking proposals through July 15^th for funding distribution. Interested farmland owners may contact the state USDA NRCS office in Bangor at (207) 990-9100, or one of Senator Snowe’s office in Maine or toll-free at (800) 432-1599. Additional information on the Internet is available at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/farmbill/2002/products.html .

"Even though there is a growing recognition of the threats to our nation’s prime agricultural land, we continue to lose farm and forest land at an alarming rate. This funding gives landowners support in voluntarily conveying development rights of their land to the state or county, while retaining the right to use the property for agriculture," Senator Snowe said. "This program offers states and landowners a way to support the decisions of thousands of farmers who have chosen to protect their farms from development and preserve their way of life for generations to come while also preserving their property rights."

Recently released Natural Resources Inventory data shows that this farmland – comprised of growing areas, large tracts of open space, wildlife habitat, and groundwater recharge areas – is being converted to non-agricultural uses at a rate of 3.2 million acres a year. Escalating land prices, lack of labor, and transportation barriers have led many farmers to sell their operations. The FPP enables these businessmen to reach their bottom line through the sale of a conservation easement that keeps the land in the owner’s hands, on the local tax roll and contributing to the local economy. The FPP has prevented approximately 127,000 acres of farmland in 28 states from conversion, and spurred about $190 million in state and local contributions to protect these lands.

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