Working Lands Enterprise Initiative funded 38 projects in FY2025 as demand far outpaced $1 million appropriation

The Working Lands Enterprise Initiative, a state program created in 2012 to support farm, forest and food businesses, funded 38 projects in fiscal year 2025 with $1,064,208 in grants, program staff said.

Program manager Elizabeth Sippel told the committee the initiative received $5,372,191 in requests for FY2025, meaning roughly one in five requests were funded under the $1,000,000 base appropriation included in the governor’s budget for FY2025 and FY2026. That $1,000,000 base appropriation has been the program’s operating level for those two fiscal years, Sippel said.

Ellen Koehler, an ex officio board member who has served on the board since its 2012 founding, said cumulative state grants to the Working Lands Enterprise Fund have totaled about $19,500,000 since creation, and grantees have leveraged about $31,900,000 in matching funds. Koehler said the program has supported hundreds of businesses and more than 25,000 acres through targeted grants and contracts.

Staff described a multi-layered review process: each of about 150 applications in FY2025 was read by three reviewers and then discussed in sector-specific review committees (dairy, produce, forestry, value‑added products and maple). Sippel said the process is designed to balance impact across business scale and landscape-level needs while giving applicants feedback and technical support.

Committee members and staff emphasized the program’s limited capacity to meet demand. Sippel noted the board has used special appropriations in past years to fund larger supply‑chain projects (awards up to $250,000) but that those larger awards were not made in FY2025 because the program operated on the $1,000,000 base appropriation.

Next steps: staff said they will return with additional grantee testimony and recommended the committee consider the program’s constrained budget relative to the level of applicant demand.