Kaine salutes farm conservation
Source: newsleader.com, by Joel Banner Baird
March 01, 2007
LEXINGTON — The ample crop of cow-pies attested to the vitality of the pasture on Ham Hill Farm. Gov. Tim Kaine sidestepped the evidence but walked the walk Tuesday afternoon with three generations of farmers who recently pledged 340 acres immune from development, forever.
"A farm can be a homeplace and a source of income," Kaine said. "Putting farms into voluntary, permanent easements can slow down the pace of development and create a legacy for tomorrow."
Kaine said accelerated growth in rural areas threatened air, soil and water quality — and the health of his fellow Virginians.
"About 25 percent of the development since Jamestown's founding (in 1607) has come about in the last 15 years," he said.
Maurice Smith, the farm's patriarch, pointed out the evidence: a crop of starter mansions that deck the summits of many of the surrounding hills.
"That's a big reason we put this land into an easement," he said. "They told us we could sell our hilltops for whatever we asked for them; I'm saying they're not for sale."
Maurice and his wife, Aline Smith, are the fourth generation to work the farm just south of Lexington. It's been in the family for more than 100 years. Two subsequent generations are picking up the reins.
The vast majority of conservation easements are placed on working farms — and are intended to keep them that way, said Valley Conservation Council Director John Eckman. The VCC co-brokered the protection of Ham Hill Farm with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, a statewide conservation group.
Kaine said conservation easements were the most promising way to attain the goal because they gave farmers tax incentives to keep land in production. He gave credit to the state legislature for supporting increased staffing for the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (which manages most of Virginia's conservation easements) and other private and government easement brokers.
State Del. Ben Cline, R-Lexington, who remembered sledding on the big hills of Ham Hill Farm in his youth, echoed the governor's concerns. Conservation crosses party lines, he said — particularly here in the Shenandoah Valley. The presence of State Sen. Emmett Hanger, who represents the 24th District, drove the point home.
Last April the governor announced his goal of protecting 400,000 acres of forest and farmland from development.
Nancy Sorrells, who was instrumental in bringing a purchase-of-development-rights program to Augusta County (and who now chairs the Augusta County Board of Supervisors), said Kaine's goal was a generous impulse.
"What a gift it would be to Virginia — and it would be a gift from everybody," she said.
