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12/29/2007

John Piotti, executive director for Maine Farmland Trust, said the organization recently sold its first farm, a 200-acre property in Auburn under the Trust's buy/protect/sell program. The farm, off the Quail Run Road not far from Lake Auburn, was purchased by Ray Nichols and Tina Brooks and will be known as the Oakwood Equestrian Center.

"Maine Farmland Trust created this new program because we realized we needed to be in the business of buying land ourselves," Piotti said. "Otherwise, we knew that an ever-increasing number of good farms would be converted into development."

Maine Farmland Trust, which has protected more than 10,000 acres of farmland for the past eight years, has typically accepted easement rights as donations or purchased them from the property owners, Piotti said.

Landowners are willing donate development rights for a variety of reasons, from tax considerations to ensuring the property will remain untouched, Piotti said. And the money generated from selling development rights can be enough for a farm to stay afloat, he added.

While both programs are important in the Trust's preservation efforts and will continue, there are limitations. Whether the development rights are donated or sold, the property being protected is not typically in the greatest danger of development, Piotti said.

"The land is not as vulnerable because the the farmers want to keep the land or keep it farmland," Piotti said. "If there's a farm down the road that has to be sold and it's good farmland to preserve, we weren't in position to do it."

The buy/protect/sell program, however, will protect farmland facing some of the greatest development pressures.

Under the program, Maine Farmland Trust purchases the farm, puts it under permanent protection, then sells again to another farmer who is comfortable buying land that is permanently preserved.

"Buy/protect/sell provides us with an important new tool, one that allows us to be more proactive with those farm properties that are often the most vulnerable, namely, those that are about to be sold," Piotti said. "The landowner gets to sell land knowing Maine Farmland Trust will permanently protect it and find a farmer to work it. The incoming farmer gets to buy protected land, which is often more affordable. And wherever possible, Maine Farmland Trust will craft the easement that protects the land in a manner that suits the incoming farmer's particular needs."

The program will only work in specific applications, Piotti acknowledged. The trust must make up the difference between the money it spends buying the land and money it takes in when the protected property is sold.

For some properties that will mean allowing a limited amount of development, going on the theory that protecting 90 percent of a piece of property is better than opening it all up to development, Piotti said. The Trust also will look at fundraising to support the program and would always prefer to purchase property directly, without a real estate agent, to avoid the commission.

Ultimately, the program will work best when the seller is committed to preserving the land.

"Perhaps the best way to make the numbers work is if the farmland owner sells the property to Maine Farmland Trust at a very good price, well below market value," Piotti said. "But we're open to any project where we can figure out some way to make the numbers work."

The Trust has purchased three properties, and is working on the fourth. In all cases the property has sold for less than market value, Piotti said.

Once the land is purchased the Trust can choose from about 130 prescreened farmers who have signed up for the trust's farm-link program, which matches potential farmers with property being sold.

Piotti predicts the buy/protect/sell program can overcome the main obstacle preventing farming from taking off in Maine: the price of land.

"The only real way to make farmland affordable is to preserve it," Piotti said.

The new program will become a cornerstone of that effort, Piotti said, and could preserve up to 3,000 acres a year within the next few years.

"I would guess it will be a third of the work we do in three years time," he said. "If you're serious about protecting farmland you need to get directly into the real estate business, and that's what we're doing. For us it's very exciting. For Maine, this really is a different way of doing it."

Craig Crosby--487-3288

ccrosby@centralmaine.com

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