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Gaston County staff propose conservation easement fund to preserve farmland
Summary
Natural Resources Director Will Weir presented a proposal to create a permanent conservation easement fund to help farmers sell development rights and keep working farmland. The plan would seed an endowment from existing county revenues and leverage state and federal matching programs; the board asked questions but took no formal vote.
Natural Resources Director Will Weir told the Gaston County Board of Commissioners on Oct. 28 that the county faces rapid loss of farmland and proposed creating a permanent conservation easement fund to buy development rights from willing landowners.
Weir said conservation easements are voluntary legal agreements that let landowners retain ownership while restricting development that would harm conservation values. He told commissioners North Carolina could lose nearly 1.2 million acres of farmland by 2040, and Gaston County might lose more than 11,000 acres — more than 30 percent of the county’s remaining farmland, according to a study he cited.
The proposed fund would operate as an endowment (either at the Gaston Community Foundation or as…
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