Working farms

Columbia Land Conservancy knows it’s not just about open space, but what one does with that open space. In this beautiful county of ours, they have been really wonderful supporters of the agricultural community.

Martin Ping, Hawthorne Valley Farm
CLC works to ensure that agriculture remains a dynamic part of Columbia County’s identity and economy. As of 2007, there were 554 farms in Columbia County which generated $66,000,000 in annual revenue. Farming has shaped our landscape. It maintains open spaces, provides wildlife habitat, and helps protect vital natural resources.

For many years farmland, an irreplaceable resource, has been important to our region. In New York State, we lose a farm every 3 days. From 2002 to 2007, Columbia County lost over 13,000 acres in working farmland.

Founded in 1986, CLC has served as a primary resource for towns and individual farmers interested in exploring farmland protection options.

The Farmer-Landowner Match Program connects landowners looking to have their land farmed with farmers seeking land, utilizing CLC’s history of working with farmers and landowers to that farming remains a central part of Columbia County.

CLC works with landowners who wish to voluntarily protect their farms with conservation easements in an effort to ensure that important agricultural soils remain intact.  Approximately one-third of the 20,000 acres CLC has protected with conservation easements is working farmland.

The Farming Evaluation and Mentorship program is a service for landowners that would allow them to meet with volunteer farmers to help them better understand their land’s agricultural potential, and possibly assist with potential lease discussions.

Through work with the NY State Farmland Protection Program and conservation easements, CLC has secured more than $5 million in state and private funding on behalf of towns and local farmers, ensuring the protection of approximately 5,280 acres of working farmland.

A coalition made up of the Hudson Valley AgriBusiness Development Corporation (HVADC) and Columbia Land Conservancy is now working with the County Agriculture and Farmland Protection Board to craft a plan to support and promote local agriculture.

CLC partnered with Scenic Hudson to purchase development rights on the Monkshood Nursery land, an 82-acre farm in the Town of Stuyvesant, guaranteeing that it will continue contributing to the community’s agriculture-based economy and rural charm. By protecting the farm, which contains 57 acres of USDA Prime Soils and Soils of Statewide Significance, we have made it economically feasible for Monkshood Nursery, previously leasing the land, to purchase the property.  In a related transaction, the owner of 84 adjacent agricultural acres donated a conservation easement to CLC and entered into a long-term lease with Monkshood, increasing the permanently preserved land available to the farm operation for its continued growth.

CLC serves as a resource to farmers by organizing and hosting events, creating and collecting resource information, and collecting relevant facts about why farming is important to Columbia County.