About 1,500 acres of agricultural land and natural areas have been protected from development forever through the Black Swamp Conservancy, and the agency is looking to increase that acreage through strategic planning.

“Seneca County is one of the counties in northwest Ohio where we are most active,” said Kevin Joyce, BSC’s executive director, during a recent Tiffin Rotary Club meeting. “The easements we hold in Seneca County are on agricultural land predominantly.”

Joyce, a Rotarian in a Toledo group, said he has been visiting clubs throughout the Toledo area to emphasize his message that Ohio loses 5 acres of farmland every hour.

“That obviously can’t continue if we are going to have a successful farm and agriculture industry,” he said. “I’m trying to generate more awareness about the importance of conservation by making talks like this.”

BSC’s mission is to protect farmland and natural areas from development. He showed slides of properties protected by the conservancy — from farmland to lakeshores to woodlands and wetlands.

Because of applications to the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Clean Ohio Agricultural Easement Purchase Program in the past several years, Joyce said, there is a group of farms north of Tiffin that has been accepted into the program.

The program allows landowners to apply through another agency such as BSC to sell development rights to the state. The competitive program has had more interest than funding allows, so a formula is used to determine the best land for protection.

According to BSC’s Web site, nine county farms are protected by agricultural easements and two areas by conservation easements.

“In Seneca County, we have some of the most productive farmland in the country,” he said. “Those properties will be farmed forever.”

Joyce said Seneca County has had more land accepted into the program than almost any other county.

“This has resulted in 1,100-1,200 acres in this program in Seneca County alone, which is a significant amount when you consider the program protects only about 3,000 acres a year,” he said.

This year, the conservancy is beginning to take a more proactive role to increase the pace of the conservation.

“We’re trying to become more strategic in property we identity,” he said. “Now we’re going out and making (property owners) aware of what their conservation options might be.

“We’re beginning to fill in an area and that’s the goal of the state’s Agricultural Purchase Program,” he said.

Most county landowners who have protected their property have sold rights through the purchase program, but there also has been an Ohio Agricultural Easement Donation Program since 2000. The donation program allows landowners to donate development rights to the state or local governments to protect productive farmland from conversion to non-agricultural use.

Joyce said there are federal tax advantages to donating development rights — both now and in the future.

“It reduces the value of the property when doing estate planning, so it reduces estate taxes,” he said.

For a detailed explanation, he suggested calling him or an estate tax attorney.

According to the ODA Web site, more than 600 acres from five farms were donated to the state in 2002. By November 2005, more than 20 easements were preserving more than 2,400 acres. More recent numbers were not available.

An example of the donation program is the Sisters of St. Francis donation of a 345-acre conservation easement last summer, which includes farmland and natural areas. The farm is south of St. Francis Avenue and US 224 runs through it.

“It’s under easement or will be under easement in the second year of the easement process,” he said.

In addition to the Department of Agriculture, Joyce said the conservancy works with several divisions of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Trust for Public Land, the Nature Conservancy and similar agencies to maximize the benefits of conservation.

“In areas of natural resources we look to other experts to determine which areas would be the most important to preserve,” he said.

Locally, he said BSC is working with the Seneca County Park District, ODNR and others to keep one another informed of woodlands, wetlands and other natural areas available for protection and to increase the size of areas by acquiring adjoining properties.

He said BSC has developed a strategic conservation plan for northwest Ohio. Among other areas, the list includes 12 areas listed by the Nature Conservancy as worthy of being protected.

“We’re identifying the most important areas to protect,” he said. “We’re going to try to work together to get those protected somehow.”