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Community Rallies to Protect Farm (with help from Upper Altamaha Practicum Students) "It can't just be about the money," says Dale Wiley, who is selling the development rights to protect his 160 acre cattle farm in Walton County, GA. "You've got developers out here who would sell the lawn chair out from under their mama's butt to make an extra buck, and they'd be glad to make you rich by turning your farm into a row of houses." The protection of the farm is the culmination of the efforts of a broad range of partners working in this rapidly growing north Georgia county, located within an hour of Atlanta. Jose Pagan, Walton County District Conservationist and a veteran participant in the Oconee Partnership for Farmland Protection, helped orchestrate the many moving pieces in the project and make connections between the landowner and those with expertise and interest in the area. Last spring, funding was secured from the USDA Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP), with the assistance of University of Georgia students Justin Ellis and Barrett Malone. As students in Professor Laurie Fowler's Upper Altamaha Initiative service learning course, Ellis and Malone talked with Wiley about the history and productive aspects of the farm and his wishes for the future, and they completed the application and required paperwork for FRPP. The Athens Land Trust (ALT), with lengthy experience protecting working farms in Northeast Georgia, stepped up to become the easement holder on the Wiley Farm. As they looked at potential funding availability, they could see that, even under a best case scenario, there could only be enough funding available to compensate the landowner for the development rights on 50 of his 166 acres. Mr. Wiley generously offered to donate a conservation easement on an additional 110 acres, utilizing the federal income tax deduction and Georgia's new conservation tax credit to obtain additional financial benefits from the protection of his farm. One final piece of the puzzle remained. A requirement of FRPP is to provide a source of local matching funding, and here Pagan, ALT, and Wiley turned to Walton County. The back side of the Wiley Farm drains to Lake Varner, which provides drinking water for the citizens of Newton and Walton Counties. With an interest in the protection of this water supply, the Walton County Commissioners joined in the partnership by applying for funding from the Georgia Land Conservation Program , the statewide fund providing grants and loans to local governments and the Department of Natural Resources for the permanent protection of the state's cultural, natural, and historic resources. When the GLCP approved the project in September, all of this work came together to create the first farm protected by conservation easement in Walton County. "My grandparents bought this place as sharecroppers in 1919," says Wiley "and I can't place a value on honoring the legacy of my family. It's hard to explain unless you've been here, but I've never been more certain about anything I've done." For more information, contact Jose Pagan of the Natural Resources Conservation Service. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- American Farmland Trust Georgia E-News, October 2007 |
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