: Efforts to protect farm and forestland statewide continues with the awarding of $18.2 million in farmland preservation grants.

• It has been a busy month for grant announcements. Last week we talked about the $12.4 million in NCAMPI grants that were awarded to food manufacturers and processors.

• This week I want to share about the $18.2 million in farmland preservation grants that were recently announced.

• We talk a lot about the topic of farmland preservation on this show. As your listeners know, it is one of my top priorities as Commissioner.

• These grants were awarded in four different areas of focus.

• Agricultural conservation easement projects
  • Agricultural plans
  • Agricultural Development projects
  • And, Agricultural Growth Zones.

• Over $8.8 million was awarded for 20 agricultural conservation easements on nearly 1,400 acres of farm and forestland.
  
  
• Permanent conservation easements were created on farmland in Alamance, Haywood, Cherokee, Surry, Cabarrus, Rowan, Lee, Wake, Lenoir, Moore and Rockingham counties.

• Over $5.6 million was awarded to five counties for Agricultural Growth Zones. Those include Buncombe, Chatham, Lee, Orange and Wake counties. We were able to work with the county Soil and Water Conservation Districts in each of those counties on these Agricultural Growth Zones.

• This is a new initiative to combine state and local funding on agricultural conservation easements in areas of strategic importance to local ag communities.

• And, over $1 million was awarded to agricultural development projects. Some of these include a livestock arena and ag center, a vocational-agricultural project and a WNC Farm to Table project. These projects are designed to help keep farmers on their land and conserve farmland, too.

• The need for farmland preservation is at an all-time high as we continue to attract new businesses and new residents.

• But the timing of this grant funding is good, too, because we have seen even greater interest by farmers wanting to preserve their farmland.

• This year we received 124 grant applications requesting $47 million in funding. That is a record for our preservation program.

• It tells me we need to keep up our efforts to protect these valuable working lands. I will continue to call for legislative support for funding for land preservation.

• Since we started this program, we have conserved over 36,000 acres, which is great, but as we have seen in the past few years, some of these megasite projects that are coming to North Carolina can quickly eat into that number, claiming about a third of the amount of land we have worked 17 years to conserve.

• We are fighting an uphill battle, but we will continue on with the fight because the inroads we are making today are critical to ensuring we have access to the natural resources for future generations to sustain themselves.