House committee advances bill to let farmers donate conservation easements without state purchase

At a House Agriculture Committee hearing, members voted to pass as amended House Bill 1234, a bill that would create a statewide framework allowing willing farmland owners to donate or bequeath agricultural conservation easements to preserve land for farming.

The bill’s author, Representative Randy Culp, told the committee, “This bill creates a framework for willing farmland owners to donate their conservation easements, if they choose to protect their farms for future generations to utilize to grow food.” He said the proposal responds to a recent state inventory documenting acres of farmland loss.

The measure would establish an agricultural land protection program and an Ag Conservation Easement Fund. It does not appropriate state dollars to buy easements; instead, it would let the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) accept or hold donated easements and would permit counties to create their own local programs…