VOLUME 11, NO. 1
SUMMER 2012
NEWS
Ten New Farmland Protection Projects Over 4,000 acres of farmland saved since December
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Shaw Farm (top) and Varnum Farm (below) are two recent farmland protection projects. See pages 4-5 for more recent projects.
aine Farmland Trust continues to make major strides in protecting high quality farmland. Several of the most recent projects fall under MFT’s “Buy/Protect/Sell” program, which not only permanently protects vulnerable farms with agricultural conservation easements, but then makes that land available to incoming farmers at more affordable prices. “We sell our protected farms at their ‘farmland value,’ and this makes all the difference for many farmers,” explained John Piotti, MFT’s executive director. Many other projects involve donated easements, which landowners grant voluntarily, usually because they care deeply that their land will continue as a farm. Since last December, MFT has closed on ten projects that involve over 4,000 acres of farmland. Many more projects remain in the pipeline, and are expected to come to fruition later this year. A summary of these projects is provided in the centerfold of this newsletter.
Campaign News: $500,000 Challenge Grant Demands Your Action
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n the heels of a $250,000 grant in 2011, the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation recently awarded MFT a $500,000 “challenge grant” to help close out the first phase of MFT’s current fundraising campaign. “This is great news,” said Taylor Mudge of Camden, who still farms family land in Lincolnville and who chairs MFT’s Campaign Committee. “But it means that we need people to be as generous as they can as soon as they can.” With this challenge grant, MFT now needs to raise less than $1.2 million to complete its current
$10 million fundraising goal. While Mudge is extremely pleased by this gift, and by others totaling almost a million dollars that have come in since January, he is concerned about the next few months. “MFT must raise over a million dollars by October 1,” expressed Mudge. “It’s clearly doable, but only if people step up and make a gift.” MFT’s $10 million first phase of its broader $50 million fundraising campaign is bringing in cash from private parties. In the second phase of the campaign, MFT will use the first $10 million to leverage considerable government funding. It
will also then take account of donations of farmland and farmland easements. The full $50 million will translate into the protection of 100,000 acres of farmland. By any reckoning, $50 million is a lot of money; but it’s useful to point out that the 100,000 acres of farmland that MFT hopes to protect within a few years will yield economic value well in excess of $50 million each and every year. “Pay for it once, and you’ll receive a greater benefit each and every year forever,” said Mudge. “Now that’s what I call a great investment.”