State and Local Levels

State and local governments use a variety of tools to protect farm land and forestlands as productive resource bases. These tools include agricultural zoning, differential farm tax assessments, right to farm laws, agricultural districts, purchase of development rights, transfer of development rights, comprehensive land use planning, and urban growth boundaries.

At a State level, Oregon has a statewide land use policy involving urban growth boundaries, (e.g., Kline and Alig 1999). For example, Portland, Oregon, in the 1990s had 30 percent of new housing as infill and redevelopment. Boulder, Colorado, has an urban containment policy. The city restricts new development, and the majority of the workforce lives outside city limits.

Two USDA programs, the Farmland Protection Program for agricultural lands and the Forest Legacy Program for forestlands, complement State and local government programs that purchase development rights. The purchase of development rights gives government agencies the option of conserving open space for future use in farm or forest production without government acquisition. The land will not necessarily be required to stay in a current farm or forestry use, but under a program that purchases development rights, a landowner will not be allowed to develop the parcel. Because the cost of cultivating undeveloped land is considerably less than the expense associated with reversing development, purchasing development rights is viewed as an investment in food and forestry security for future generations. Conservation easements and other partial interests in land have also been increasingly used to accomplish particular natural resource protection goals such as maintaining open space that provides scenic beauty and wildlife habitat.

Most land use protection programs are designed to conserve urban open space. Few are focused directly on working forests. Managed by the USDA Forest Service in partnership with State governments, the Forest Legacy Program is designed to encourage the protection of privately owned forestland and promote sustainable forestry practices by purchasing development rights, including conservation easements. Legacy parcels continue to produce forest commodities and noncommodity ecological values such as healthy riparian areas and fish and wildlife, as well as scenic, aesthetic, cultural, and recreational resources, on landscapes otherwise likely to be shifted to nonforest use. As of 2006, the program has protected 1.15 million acres in 33 States. Interest in the program has grown, with 46 States and Territories now enrolled in the program, up from 24, 5 years ago, and with over $200 million in requests each year. In 2006, Federal appropriations for the program were $56 million, with 91 percent of this money directed to conservation projects. Conservation easements in general have been increasing in popularity as a tool for encouraging the protection of forests and other lands, and are also used by NGO’s such as the Pacific Forest Trust. Landowners receive tax benefits or are paid a lump sum in exchange for signing a legal document that restricts the use of their land. These restrictions might include development as well as certain other forms of land use.