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NYALT Conservation Policy Work

cowsFarmland Protection Funding: Making  Long-Term Investments in Our Communities
The staff and board of NYALT work in partnership with other land trusts across New York State to ensure there is strong, and continuing, funding for farmland protection.  We could not do this work without our legislators, and we greatly appreciate their support.

Key points to keep in mind are:

  • Farms are Important. They are critical to New York’s economy, particularly the upstate region.  Farms, agricultural service providers and food processors contribute more than $23 billion annually to the state’s economy.  Protecting farmland secures a critical resource for the agricultural industry and participating farmers use these funds to build new barns, buy new equipment and strengthen their businesses.
  • Farm Families will Suffer. Cuts to the Farmland Protection Program will have impacts on real people.  If these cuts are implemented, roughly 170 farm families that want to protect their farms this year will be turned away.  Some of these families will give up the hope of protecting their land and may decide to sell their farms.
  • Cuts will Hurt Local Government. Cuts to the EPF and the Farmland Protection Program will hurt local governments and their ability to stretch local dollars and advance environmental and economic development priorities..
  • The Downside. In 2008, there were 190 farm families across New York interested in participating in the Farmland Protection Program.  They applied to protect 49,400 acres, which would have cost $156.5 million, while the enacted 2008-09 state budget allocated just $30 million from the EPF to the Farmland Protection Program.  This means that each year, we are falling farther and farther behind in our farmland protection efforts and farmers are caught in the middle,  waiting for their turn to conserve their land.


There is Hope. There are reasonable alternatives to the drastic cuts proposed for the Farmland Protection Program and EPF.  The Real Estate Transfer Tax (the EPF’s traditional funding source) will generate over $600 million this year – more than enough to fully fund the EPF this year.  In addition, an expansion of the Bottle Bill could provide more than $200 million in revenue to the state, while encouraging recycling and reducing litter

Please refer to the American Farmland Trust website for additional information, along with sample local government resolutions, sample letters to legislators and other advocacy materials. 

Working to help create solutions for the Dairy Crisis:
NYALT and a group of land trusts throughout the Northeast sent a letter to our representatives in the United States Congress to urge them to address the Dairy Crisis, and come up with solutions with the Dairy Industry and regional partners to avoid the situation again. Click here to read the press release about this effort, and click here to read the letter NYALT sent to Northeast legislators.

Reducing Estate Taxes for Farmland and Forest Land:
NYALT, along with hundreds of other land trusts, is working to reduce the estate taxes for landowners who are conserving their land. There is an opportunity to help landowners who conserve their land avoid high estate taxes.  Click here for more information from the Land Trust Alliance.