California Land Protection
For more than 40 years, AFT has worked in partnership with interested landowners in California and across the country to develop innovative agricultural easement projects.
In California, one regional area of focus is the San Joaquin Valley farmland protection.
AFT is currently seeking agricultural landowners in the San Joaquin Valley interested in permanently protecting their productive farmland from development.
Agricultural easements are a well-established tool that enable landowners to protect their property in perpetuity. Easements are flexible instruments that are designed to align with the landowner’s individual conservation goals. Agricultural easements limit non-agricultural development on valuable farmland while allowing the continued productive agricultural use of the land. 
Across the Nation
As an early leader in the agricultural land protection movement, AFT began accepting easements when few land trusts existed. In many of the regions where we’ve worked across the nation, AFT has helped create regional, state, and local land trusts. We have increasingly passed along this critical work to these qualified local entities. AFT has permanently protected more than 200 properties in 25 states (totaling over 73,000 acres) using agricultural conservation easements. More about AFT’s Farmland Protection project.
Learn more about how AFT is protecting farmland nationally.
Read about agricultural easements at Farmland Information Center.