The Farm Bill: Celebrating Passage of a Key Land Conservation Resource
iWhen Dave Sands, executive director of the accredited Nebraska Land Trust, sat down with the owners of a 3,000-acre ranch near the Wyoming border, the landowners seemed enthusiastic about conserving their unique property, with its grasslands, its forest of ponderosa pines (a species rarely found in Nebraska) and its historical sites.
It seemed like the perfect use for federal conservation easement funding made possible through the Farm Bill. Sands walked the owners through the special requirements for the funding, one of which was that a land management plan be written into the easement, required by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Sands knew that the reasonable NRCS staff in Nebraska would accept a plan that made suggestions based on solid ranch stewardship, not demands. But all the ranchers could hear that day was that someone else was going to say how their ranch was to be managed.
“You could see the excitement go out of their faces,” Sands says. “They didn’t say no that day, but once I mentioned those management requirements, I knew the deal didn’t have a chance.”
Farm Bill programs, such as the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) — which includes Agricultural Land Easements (ALE) — are a vital resource for land trusts in conserving America’s farms and ranches. But as Sands’ story makes clear, they were flawed. So when it came time to develop and lobby for improvements to the largest federal funding source for private land conservation in the country, the Land Trust Alliance relied on the practical knowledge and voices of its land trust members who have worked with NRCS on these Farm Bill programs.
That collaboration and coordination paid off: On December 20, 2018, the Alliance and its powerful coalition celebrated the 2018 Farm Bill being signed into law. “We commend Congress for passing a Farm Bill that reflects so many of our community’s highest priorities,” said Alliance President Andrew Bowman. “We’re grateful for the vigorous efforts of countless individuals, including our member land trusts and Farm Bill conferees, who together achieved increased funding as well as provisions to streamline implementation of the program that will result in conserving more farms and ranches.”
“If you look at our portfolio, our finest easements have been done with ALE funding,” Sands says. “Now that the land management plan requirement has been removed, I’m optimistic there will be many more.”
Setting the Course
The Farm Bill includes programs to help farmers and ranchers protect working lands, wetlands and forests, and provide food assistance. Since 1965, it has been renewed roughly every five years.
Lori Faeth joined the Land Trust Alliance as government relations director in July 2017, and reauthorization of the Farm Bill was a top priority. Prior to her arrival, Alliance staff had reached out to Alliance land trust members to determine what was working for them and what was not. Soon after she arrived, Faeth established a coalition made up of land trust members to discuss provisions and legislative strategies.
Overwhelmingly, the Alliance members identified restoring funding for ACEP as the highest priority for the community. Some members had already given other concerns a lot of thought. The Partnership of Rangeland Trusts, for example, responded with a list of priorities that included allowing landowner donations and expenses to satisfy ALE match requirements and eliminating the cumbersome requirement for an ALE Plan.
Scenic Hudson’s biggest issue was the level of funding. But Andy Bicking, director of public policy for the accredited land trust in New York, was willing to work on additional issues that were important to other land trusts because he believes that a strong land trust community benefits his organization.“
Focusing on the bigger-picture issues helped us get past some of the details that might have been sticking points,” Bicking says. “It was important that we focused on principles, rather than specific policies at an early stage.”
Mike Beam, former executive director of the accredited Ranchland Trust of Kansas (now Secretary of the Kansas Department of Agriculture) has advocated for land trusts during several past Farm Bills: “We unified around some key changes early on and were able to provide those to the congressional staff at least a year before the Farm Bill was passed.”
“When you do that many projects with that many landowners and you work with NRCS at that level,” says Glenn Marx, executive director of the Montana Association of Land Trusts, “you do come across some things that you think will make the program more effective and make it work better for both NRCS and landowners.”
Taking Action
Once the Alliance recommendations were mapped out, the Alliance and its members turned to lobbying on Capitol Hill. But during initial meetings with Congress, the proposals were met with doubt.
When Blair Fitzsimons, chief executive officer of the accredited Texas Agricultural Land Trust (TALT), met with House Agriculture Committee Chair K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) about conservation funding in the Farm Bill, she was met with skepticism. “At first he said, ‘Look, Blair, nobody is asking for this,’ ” she says. That began a long discussion over a number of visits.
In September 2017, her colleague, TALT’s chief operating officer, James Oliver, spoke to legislators about the need to make the program work for states like Texas, which has a very small statewide conservation funding source. He also noted that other states, such as Alabama, have none. Oliver mentioned how this could be resolved by allowing land-owner donations and expenses to satisfy the match requirement for ALE. The example he used was a project from Conaway’s district, showing how Conaway’s own constituents were being affected by the law.
“Some people are cynical,” Edgar Miller, formerly the director of government relations for the accredited Conservation Trust for North Carolina, says, “and don’t think one voice can make a difference.” But, he says, sometimes your voice, as the constituent of a key member of Congress, is just the voice needed to make a big difference to land trusts nationwide.
Chairman Conaway and his staff listened, Fitzsimons says.
Building a Strong Case
“Early discussions with Congress and partner organizations made it clear that we had a lot of education ahead of us to successfully advocate in support of our recommendations,” says Faeth, adding, “We were able to reach out across our membership and pull together specific examples, such as the situation with the landowners in Nebraska.”
Mike Beam reflected on the efforts of a retired couple in the northeastern part of the state who devoted their retirement savings and considerable sweat equity to purchase and grow their 600-acre ranch. Despite their vision and passion for permanently conserving their property, a donated conservation easement was not a financially viable option. The Ranchland Trust of Kansas would have liked to help the couple with a purchased conservation easement with ACEP-ALE funding but was unable to secure a cash match in a timely manner. Kansas is one of a handful of states where there is no state funding to help meet the ALE cash match requirement.
Erik Glenn, executive director of the accredited Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust (CCALT), went to Washington, D.C., at least seven times to advocate for land trusts on the 2018 Farm Bill. “We’ve been working on the Farm Bill as an organization since 2008,” he says. With each Farm Bill, CCALT becomes more involved and more effective.
The organization has been able to apply what it has learned at the state level to its federal efforts and vice versa. “For example, in Colorado we used an economic analysis to avoid bad legislation and then used a similar analysis to support the easement programs in the Farm Bill,” Glenn says. After an “Easements 101” presentation given to congressional staffers was warmly received in Washington, CCALT made plans to give a similar presentation to state legislators in Denver.
Advocating Makes a Difference
One entry into policy and advocacy is the Land Trust Alliance’s Ambassador program. Ambassadors pledge to meet with members of Congress and receive advocacy training, and they play an integral role in reaching out to members of Congress on urgent issues.
“Getting involved with policy development has benefits for our own organizations,” says Bicking, who received the Ambassador of the Year Award at Rally 2018. “It broadens our perspectives, making us more relevant to more people. That can transform our own programs and membership. The key thing is to get involved.”
There are now close to 300 Ambassadors, says Robert Schwartz, the Alliance’s Ambassador Program manager. In December, on the eve of the House’s Farm Bill vote, Ambassadors were asked to reach out to their congressional delegation and ask them to vote in support of H.R. 2, the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, the Farm Bill.
The Alliance also sponsors Advocacy Days on Capitol Hill for three days each spring. One of those days is a first-timers training, Schwartz says. This ensures that everyone is confident visiting with their members of Congress. In 2018 nearly 120 land trust leaders, representing over35 states, held more than 200 meetings with members of Congress or their staffs.
Celebrating a Victory
When Congress passed the Farm Bill, it included $450 million a year for ACEP-ALE funding and the vast majority of the Alliance coalition’s recommendations.
“It’s rare when you get almost everything you want in a bill,” Fitzsimons says, “but we pretty much got everything we wanted, start-ng with the elimination of the cash match requirement. Thanks to the Alliance and the great work that Lori Faeth and [Alliance Executive Vice President] Wendy Jackson did throughout the land trust community, we spoke with one voice because the Alliance listened to us. What we got reflected the needs of the land trust community.”
“I’m ecstatic,” says Glenn.“
The process of advocacy itself has done a good bit to educate more folks about the Farm Bill programs,” says Elizabeth Rooks-Barber, coordinator for the Partnership for Gulf Coast Land Conservation. She explains that because of the match requirement, many land trusts in the Gulf region could not use ACEP-ALE. The attention to the Farm Bill programs means more land trusts know how these funds can be used. And with the change in the match requirement, more land trusts in the Gulf region will be able to tap the program to protect working farms and ranches.
“No bill this complicated can be perfect,” Bicking says, “but it feels like we accomplished 90% of what we were working toward.” Land trusts from across the country credit Faeth for pulling everyone together, coordinating a diversity of needs and keeping everyone on script.
“We are really happy with the outcome,” Faeth says. “The vast majority of the Alliance’s recommendations are in the Farm Bill. We are really pleased with the understanding of our issues that members of Congress and their staff displayed.”
While the Alliance is celebrating this victory, its work on the Farm Bill continues. “One part of the 2018 Farm Bill process ends when the President signs the bill,” says Faeth. “Then the next process — rulemaking — begins.”
Once the rules are set, the work begins for the next Farm Bill. There is every reason to believe that five years from now the Alliance and its members will be successful again.
Says Beam, “When there is a strong coalition with common goals, there is almost no limit on what you can accomplish.”
Madeline Bodin is a frequent contributor to Saving Land.