State department agrees to buy land from families

The landowners have signed purchase offers by the state.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture's Office of Farmland Preservation has agreed to buy 5,412 acres from 23 families in 14 counties.
Included in this fifth funding round of Gov. Bob Taft's Clean Ohio Agricultural Easement Purchase Program are 460.76 acres in Fowler Township, Trumbull County, owned by Nancy Kepner.
This year, $3.1 million has been allotted for Clean Ohio funds, and $2.4 million in grant funds has been allocated from USDA's Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program to fund the program.
An agricultural easement is an agreement between the landowner, the state and the local community to keep a piece of property in agricultural production in perpetuity.
Landowners may undertake any agricultural activity permitted under Ohio law, and can sell their farm or pass it along as a gift to others. The restriction prohibiting nonfarm development, however, travels with the land, and future owners cannot convert the land to nonfarm uses.
The landowners have signed offers by the department to buy an agriculture easement on their farm, pending completion of a legal review, title search, boundary review and any necessary review of third-party interests.
Donations
For the 2006 funding, 16 of the 23 farmland owners donated at least 60 percent of the value of their agricultural easement. The federal government considers such a donation a gift, and the landowner may be eligible for federal tax benefits. The department received applications from 188 farm families in 29 counties offering 30,798 acres for protection.
Since the inception of the program in 2002, the department has received 1,368 applications from landowners in more than 60 counties, requesting funding for the preservation of about 218,288 acres of productive agricultural land.
A total of $25 million from the $400 million Clean Ohio Fund is dedicated to preserving farmland by buying agricultural easements on farms. To date, $15.6 million in Clean Ohio Funds, as well as $7.9 million in federal grant funds, has been allocated to buy agricultural easements on 97 farms in 22 counties, totaling 20,087 acres.