Kittitas County seeks farmland preservation grant

Ellensburg Record reports on program with the Cascade Land Conservancy to seek state matching funds to preserve farmlands.

ELLENSBURG — Kittitas County, in cooperation with the Cascade Land Conservancy, is seeking a state matching grant that, if approved, would allow the county to purchase farmers’ development rights in the form of conservation easements that, in turn, will preserve farmland.

Jill Arango, conservation director for the nonprofit conservancy group in Kittitas County, is working with the county and researched, wrote and submitted the grant for free with county commissioner approval.

Arango said she submitted the grant to the state Recreation & Conservation Funding Board last week. The state funding is part of the board’s Farmland Preservation Grant Program. She said there are several grant review steps and requirements in the program that culminates in final decisions by the state board in November 2007.

Arango earlier worked with the county to develop a grant request that would help fund planning costs to establish farmland preservation efforts within the county, including assisting the newly formed Agricultural Lands Advisory Committee.

The committee is charged with studying the current status of agriculture in the county in light of changing markets and land-use patterns and make recommendations on county land-use rules or ways of helping farmers keep farming.

Arango was poised to submit the grant application for state planning funds when state officials said funding for that purpose would not be a priority this year for the state funding board.

The new application would give the county funds to, essentially, purchase development rights from working farmers that would allow them to keep farming on their lands.

In the case of both grant applications, the county would provide matching funds in the form of in-kind services. The CLC is taking on the grant effort without any charge to the county.

Arango earlier indicated it would be beneficial for the county to submit an application to the state, even if it doesn’t get seected, in an effort to acquaint the funding agency with efforts being made in Kittitas County. It also is a “placeholder” of sorts for further consideration by the state in awarding grants.