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  • From: "Margaret L. Wilson" <booldawgs AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] farmland/ranchland preservation
  • Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2012 06:45:38 -0700

I will be interested in how this turns out.  I too, am from Colorado and still have some family property there.  Nothing like 20,000 acres though, WOW. I have mine up for sale so I know that large tracts are being bought for beef production.  We have the lowest number of cattle in this country since the 60s so pasture land is very valuable.  Hopefully this will preserve land instead of turning it into acres and acres of houses.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, April 06, 2012 9:22 PM
Subject: [Market-farming] farmland/ranchland preservation

Good evening everyone.  I had something pretty exciting sort of fall into my lap this week.  I grew up in Colorado, and my folks still own some commercial property there.  My dad was recently approached by a representative of a nearby landowner, an elderly widow.  That landowner is selling her large parcel, and wanted to know if she could buy one of Dad's commercial properties with the proceeds from the sale of her parcel, so that she wouldn't have to pay taxes on the sale of her real estate.  To make a long story short, as I asked Dad more about this transaction, it turns out this gal owns 20,000 acres of yet-undeveloped ag land, in a part of the state that has seen extreme urbanization and subdivision over the last 30 years.  In fact she may own one of the last remaining such parcels in the area.
 
As soon as I got wind of this, I asked Dad if she would be interested in talking to any of the various farmland/ranchland preservation groups.  He hasn't spoken to her directly, but he said he would present that possibility when they all meet to discuss terms.  Apparently her "financial advisor" is advising that she just sell out to a developer to turn that land into one more subdivision (with a golf course, no doubt). But such a developer has yet to come forward and make an offer.  So there's a window of opportunity here.  I'm hoping that by getting a regional/national preservation group involved, perhaps at least some of it can be set aside as working land, conservation area or possibly simply open space.
 
I already know about American Farmland Trust, and I will be contacting them to see if they might have interest in this transaction.  But if any of you know of other organizations I should talk to, particularly local, state or regional groups that I may not have heard of, please let me know.  I'm going to try to compile a list this weekend so that I can present Dad with the contact information in time for his first meeting next week.
 
I'll keep you all posted.  Fingers crossed we can keep at least some of this land open and even possibly keep it in agriculture........
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA
Ruminations - essays on the farming life at frogchorusfarm.com/weblog.html


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