On Saturday, June 18th, Governor Perry signed Senate Bill 1273 establishing the Texas Farm & Ranch Lands Conservation Program! Please
accept our heartfelt gratitude for supporting this effort. Thanks to
the perseverance of many, many people, most notably Senator Mike Jackson
and Representative Charlie Geren, the Texas Farm & Ranch Lands
Conservation Program will help stem the fragmentation and loss of
agricultural lands and natural resources in Texas. By awarding grants
for the sale of agricultural conservation easements, TFRLCP provides
landowners with a voluntary, free-market alternative to sub-dividing or
selling for development. Thank you!
Texas leads the Nation in the amount of farmland converted to development on an annual basis. According to Texas A&M, more than 2.2 million acres of rural land were converted to urban uses between 1982 and 1997, and the annual rate of conversion was nearly 30 percent higher than in the previous 10 years. Right now we have a great opportunity before us to reverse this trend and to help protect Texas’ valuable and celebrated agricultural landscapes!
Working with Texas farm, ranch and conservation organizations, American Farmland Trust has launched a campaign to conserve our most productive and important ranch and farm lands, and to preserve Texas’ unique heritage. With the help of Representative Charlie Geren and Senator Mike Jackson, legislation has been filed that will establish a statewide purchase of development rights program, which 24 other states already have. Under this program, landowners voluntarily sell conservation easements, or the rights to develop the land – land which then stays in open space for the benefit of water, wildlife, native habitat and agriculture!
We need your help to turn this good idea into good public policy. We will only be successful if we can show the broad support of Texans throughout the state. Without this valuable land protection option, Texas will continue to see its precious rural lands fragmented and developed.
Act Now. Use the links to the left to find out more. |
