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South of the Sound Community Farm Land Trust: Creating a Sustainable Farming Future

By Nathaniel Lewis

The loss of farmland and farmers is a serious concern for the South Sound area. According to the Thurston County assessor's office, Thurston County is losing an average of more than 1,000 acres per year of farmland (about twice the size of Tenino) to other uses. Local farms depend on the local marketplace to sell their produce, and they depend on the land to grow it. Although many small organic farms have begun in recent years in the South Sound region, many of these new farmers don't own their land and farmland continues to be lost forever to development and other incompatible uses. This is coupled with the average age of farmers increasing and farm incomes overall decreasing.

Farmers are often isolated in fragmented communities, and the cost of buying or leasing farms is prohibitive to young farmers. At the same time, the demand for good locally grown food increases, and people want to re-connect with local farms and build sustainable rural communities. How can we continue to enjoy locally grown food with development threatening its very existence?

Community Land Trusts have an answer for this dilemma. The South of the Sound Community Farm Land Trust (SSCFLT) is a private 501(C)(3) non-profit corporation created to acquire and hold land for the benefit of a community and provide secure affordable access to land and housing for community residents. While the land trust holds title to the land, long-term (99 year) leases provide secure, affordable tenure for ownership of buildings and improvements and for uses of the land that the community wants to support — in our case local, sustainable agriculture and affordable housing. The Community Land Trust philosophy is to have the community, land tenants, and other organizations collaborate on working land projects. Community Land Trusts prohibit speculation and absentee ownership of land and housing, promote ecologically sound land-use practices through land leases, and preserve the long-term affordability of housing and farmland tenure.

The SSCFLT was formed in 1996 when members of several interest groups began exploring common goals. Farmers, active citizens, and agriculture-preservation and affordable-housing advocates created the organization and currently make up our board of directors. Our early work was focused on creating a common vision, mission and general strategy and establishing a democratically managed non-profit organization. The early project focus was trying to save the Evergreen Dairy farm in Littlerock, an icon dairy farm in Thurston County for over 60 years. With bank foreclosures pending, we prepared a farm plan, secured commitments from several small farm enterprises to lease land and facilities on the farm, collaborated with the Community Foundation on a major grant application to a national foundation, gained community support from dozens of local agencies and organizations, and made an offer to purchase the property prior to foreclosure. Although we were unsuccessful in preserving the dairy for permanent agriculture, the model that we developed for that project continues to be viable. SSCFLT has grown over the years and now employs a part-time staff person, and our new partnerships with local and national organizations have made projects like the Evergreen Dairy possible.

Currently, we are partnering with Thurston County, The Nature Conservancy, the Capitol Land Trust, and several other partners in an attempt to purchase another large dairy farm in the South Sound region. If this project is successful, it will not only protect a productive local food source forever, it will also serve as a demonstration site for how conservation values and agriculture values can coexist and add value to one another. The project continues to gain momentum, and we hope to close on the property by the end of the year.

Our other current project, the Eberhardt Blueberry Farm, continues to look promising, but the property's drainage issues have slowed the acquisition. This blueberry farm on Steamboat Island Rd. is a cultural landmark for the Olympia area. Its days as a profitable blueberry farm were highlighted by the development and propagation of the Olympia Blueberry. For the last few decades it has served as a productive community park, but recently pickers have had to wear chest waders to harvest berries. The property's failing drainage system threatens the blueberry plants and creates an unwelcoming environment for the community. We are working with Thurston County and the landowner to resolve the drainage issues. We plan to protect the land for the community through a conservation easement and a partnership with the Griffin Neighborhood Association.

We are excited by our new partnerships and our progress on preserving farmland. Innovative projects that show the compatibility of native habitat restoration with sustainable agriculture will convince more land conservation organizations to preserve working lands. We hope this model can help turn the tide against disappearing farmland.

If you would like more information about our Community Farm Land Trust — or if you would like to become a member — please join us at our annual meeting on Friday, April 18, at 7 p.m. in the farmhouse at The Evergreen State College's Organic Farm. You can also visit our website or contact us by mail to show your support for the preservation of working farmland.

South of the Sound Community Farm Land Trust
PO Box 12118
Olympia, WA 98508

Nathaniel Lewis is a local livestock producer and part-time staff person for SSCFLT. For more information go to www.communityfarmlandtrust.org or email info@communityfarmlandtrust.org.


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Updated 2015/01/07 21:14:22