Agricultural Stewardship Association (ASA)

Land protection and acquisition - the organization operates a conservation easement program with a primary focus of the conservation of farmland and forestland. In addition to donated easements, the organization purchases easements from willing landowners and operates purchase of development rights (pdr) programs for rensselaer and Washington counties. During this fiscal year, the organization assisted landowners with the conservation of approximately 1,860 acres on 7 farms. Two of these projects were donated easements, and five were farms that were awarded state or federal farmland protection funding. Baseline documentation reports were completed for all of the properties that were conserved. The organization also advanced another 15 easements totaling 3,589 acres, the majority of which have been awarded state funding. In addition, the organization owns a 140-acre forested property managed as a community forest for recreational and educational purposes.

Easement Stewardship and management - the organization successfully completed Stewardship visits to all 155 existing easements in order to fulfill its ongoing responsibility to uphold the terms of tis easements and protect the conservation values of the conserved land. The organization has undertaken a series of initiatives to improve its Stewardship program, including purchasing collective easement defense insurance (terrafirma rrg) to protect its organizational assets in case of litigation. The organization responded to several landowner questions and permission requests regarding their easements. The organization continues to communicate with landowners of easement protected land and actively meets with new owners to establish a relationship and discuss the easements. As part of its continuing efforts to strengthen relationships with owners of conserved lands, it sponsored several landowner workshops this year on topics such as soil health, regenerative agriculture , and chain saw safety. The organization received land trust accreditation in 2013 and received accreditation renewal in 2019. The organization continues to improve its Stewardship program by participating in meetings with land trusts in the region and attends training sessions on Stewardship and easement management issues.

Education and outreach - educating people about conservation tools and the importance of local farms and the need to protect farmland and forestland is an integral part of the organization's mission. The organization holds outreach sessions and regularly talks with service and business associations, schools, municipalities and private landowners about the importance of land conservation and ways to keep farmers on the land. Many public educational opportunities are offered throughout the year to connect people to the importance of working lands and benefits they provide. The organization also continued to develop new partnerships and programs with community organizations in urban areas of the capital district. Recognizing that protecting farmland and fostering farming goes hand in hand, the organization continued to partner with others to provide support to farmers. This included training for farmers, farm match services, peer to peer mentoring and continued implementation of a county Agricultural and farmland protection plans.