The Jefferson County Farmland Protection Board (JCFPB) is pleased to announce the purchase of the conservation easement rights of 100 acres of working farmland owned by Adam Link, III of Shenandoah Junction. He received $600,000 for the sale of the easement, donating $107,700 of conservation value to JCFPB.
Mr. Link and and his wife Diane Link live on the property located on French Road. The Link family has been farming in that area for nearly 250 years.
Mr. Link noted the importance of including his son in the decision to protect the family property, “as he would eventually inherit and reap the future benefits of the land. We both share a vision and desire to keep this land in agriculture and preserve the beauty of the fields of green and gold… We encourage other farmers to consider Farmland Preservation to sustain the agricultural heritage of our county.”
With the addition of the Link Farm, JCFPB has now protected 59 farms and 6,946 acres of farmland preserving prime agricultural soils, wildlife habitat, streams, springs, wetlands, and historic properties in Jefferson County, WV. Currently the Board is working to add five more conservation easements totaling 814 acres to the Farmland Protection Program.
A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a conservation organization which landowners can use to retire development rights permanently on all or part of their land to protect its natural, agricultural, scenic and historic values. Landowners in turn receive funds for the development value of their land and retain full use and ownership of the land. Because an easement is perpetual, it is transferred with the property when it is sold or inherited, thereby protecting it forever.
The JCFPB was established in 2000 to use a portion of the transfer tax on real estate to purchase development rights from landowners who wish to protect their land for agricultural purposes in perpetuity.
The Board partners with the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service, the American Battlefield Protection Program, the West Virginia Agricultural Land Protection Authority and other organizations that provide matching funds.
For more information about the Jefferson County Farmland Protection Board, contact the Board at: 304-724-1414 or jefferson@wvfp.org.