November 18th, 2024
By Annalise Sampson
Helping Georgia Farmers Protect Their Land Through NRCS Partnership
Beneath the bright blue skies of a peaceful May morning, we head up the dirt drive of Pride Road Farm in Shady Dale, Georgia. Next to me, Sharon Swagger is filling me in on all the upgrades the owners have made since she was last here. The operation focuses on pasture-raised poultry and hibiscus grown in high tunnels. The farm will soon be permanently protected through a partnership with Athens Land Trust (ALT), the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and The Conservation Fund. As we walk, it’s easy to see why a place like this should remain a working farm forever.
Sharon Swagger is the Assistant State Conservationist for Easements and Water Resources with NRCS here in Georgia. For the last ten months or so, she has provided me with direction and mentorship. As the Georgia Farmland Protection Associate, I was specifically hired to help more farms be permanently protected in Georgia, something that Sharon has been working on nearly exclusively for the last 14 years. A big part of my role is to help private land trusts and local governments access funding to help permanently protect farmland through an NRCS program called the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program – Agricultural Land Easements (ACEP-ALE).
“The goal with ACEP ALE has always been to grow it,” Sharon says. “When I first started working on this program, NRCS Georgia was only receiving one application every few years from only one county. Now, we get several applications from a variety of counties every single year. Due to this increase in workload, we identified a need for a program lead, and thus, this relationship with AFT was born, mostly due to my positive experiences working with Mallory [Mallory O’Steen, Georgia Program Manager].”
In AFT’s Farms Under Threat: 2040 report, Georgia was identified as one of the states most at risk for the loss of farmland to real estate development. Because of the limited capacity for ACEP-ALE and the need to work diligently to conserve the state’s most important farmland, AFT entered into a partnership with NRCS to provide assistance to the state easement specialist through technical work, partner communications, and outreach.
I was hired to fill that role in August of 2023, and I hit the ground running through Sharon’s mentorship. In that time, we have worked through multiple applications to ACEP ALE and NRCS’ Regional Conservation Partnership Program, provided support to land trusts involved in these programs, conducted outreach for partners and landowners, provided training to all of the NRCS field offices in the state, and helped a local county government establish a farmland protection program.
Sharon describes American Farmland Trust as critical to the success of the ACEP ALE program over the last year.
“Even with growing pains, AFT and NRCS have been able to move the ACEP ALE program forward. This includes much better customer service since AFT and you are more available to both farmers and land trusts. It also includes helping to move the paperwork and business tool stuff forward better and faster. I also feel passionate about the outreach and mentorship this partnership is creating – outreach to new partners and mentorship to the next generation of land protection specialists.”
Building capacity for the program means looking at the big picture for the state as we move forward. Georgia is poised for growth but also poised to be a frontrunner in farmland protection in the southeast. The state has recently voted to establish and fund a Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easements (PACE) program in response to the rapid decline in Georgia farmland. While still in the planning stages, the PACE program will work in tandem with ACEP ALE to provide match funding to farmers and landowners working to permanently protect their land.
Sharon is hopeful for the future here in Georgia, and it’s hard not to be optimistic on a farm like Pride Road. Walking a property like this and learning about the owner’s goals makes permanent land protection real and impactful.
“The future of the ACEP ALE program is in much better hands now that AFT and NRCS are partnering together. While agency-to-agency cooperation is key and critical, the most important part is the relationships we are building with each other. Those relationships, built upon similar passions, respect, and trust, are what helped this partnership move forward in the first place. Having an established working relationship with Mallory was key to my trust and faith in putting together this partnership with AFT. It was our mutual respect and collaboration down here at the state/local level that leads me to have so much excitement to see what NRCS and AFT can make happen for farmland protection in Georgia.”
Learn more about AFT’s work in the Southeast here.