As the Marin Agricultural Land Trust’s stewardship program manager, I’ve spent a lot of time over the past six years traveling throughout the county, talking with people around the tailgate of a truck or while walking their grazing lands. In my non-work hours, I spend time mountain biking, hiking and exploring most corners of Marin. I’ve seen and heard a great deal about the land from many perspectives, and I’ve come across a lot of misconceptions about agricultural land and the value it provides us all.
Those misconceptions are becoming louder in the leadup to renewing Measure A, which Marin County Parks describes as protecting “the parks, open spaces and farmland that make Marin an extraordinary place to live, work and play.” The county has proposed shifting the allocation from 80 percent to parks and 20 percent to farmland to a new scenario of 90 percent for parks and 10 percent for farmland. The 10 percent allocated to agricultural land would no longer fund protection through conservation easements, but would be focused entirely on stewardship activities.
We at MALT agree with expanding the agriculture-related Measure A funds to stewardship work. But we urge the county to restore the agricultural allocation to 20 percent and to include easements, which have proven to be an effective tool in addressing the county’s broader land-use management goals.
One misconception I’ve encountered is that Measure A funds allocated to protecting farmland go to MALT. But that’s not how it works. As a land trust, we can apply for Measure A funding toward the purchase of conservation easements from local agriculturalists. In this process, MALT acts as a conduit for the funds, not a recipient. In addition, MALT must match all Measure A funds with other private and public sources. The funds are used to help purchase development rights from ranchers and farmers who inquired and applied, not to landowners from whom we solicited applications. And the funds come with enforceable conditions for easements that include specific environmental and land protection measures.
The county has said that the proposed reallocation of funds reflects increased demand for wildfire risk reduction, yet well-stewarded agricultural land is crucial for regional fire protection. Well-managed rangelands reduce fire risk by diminishing fuel loads through livestock grazing and by promoting wet, green, healthy riparian zones that can slow a wildfire’s progress.
The spending proposal also ignores other benefits of well-tended agricultural land, and of the investments provided by Measure A funds. These benefits might not feel as tangible as being able to hike across rolling hills to the sea, but they’re at least as important. Here are a few.
Marin’s agricultural lands contribute to the local economy by providing employment, producing valuable food, fiber and other products, and generating tax revenues.
Agricultural land preservation and stewardship help promote a healthy environment by increasing biodiversity, sequestering carbon, protecting and improving streams and waterways, and preventing wildfires.
Farming and ranching are difficult, skilled activities with uncertain economic rewards even in the best of times, and the drought and climate change are only making matters worse. Given the high price of land in Marin, it’s increasingly difficult to prevent agricultural land from being sold to developers.
Once active agricultural land is developed, it never comes back, and its loss creates a host of environmental problems, from increased pollution, traffic and fire risk to diminished natural and scenic values that are so important to the character and value of Marin.
The 100,000-plus acres of agricultural land in our county dwarfs the 17,000 acres devoted to parkland. What happens on agricultural lands has an outsized influence on the region.
The benefits are many. Yet the expenditure plan presents a binary decision: either prevent wildfires or protect agricultural land, create open spaces or protect agricultural land, value environmental concerns or protect agricultural land. Marin is a complex landscape in which agricultural land, the people working the land, wildfire prevention and the long list of ecosystem services are all important.
In my work doing site evaluation assessments for our easement projects, I collect comprehensive data on the natural resource value of agricultural land in four main categories: ecological health, thriving community, climate resilience and prospering agriculture. We score each property on its protection value, the risk of not protecting it and the potential for enhancing all these conservation targets.
Ultimately, we all want the same thing for Marin: a healthy ecosystem that we can enjoy and appreciate without the rampant development that has overtaken some other beautiful coastal regions. Measure A is one way Marin residents can contribute directly to this shared vision. Let’s make sure we retain our investment in lands that play such a crucial role by restoring Measure A’s farmland preservation allocation to 20 percent.
Eric Rubenstahl monitors existing conservation easements, evaluates future conservation easements, and facilitates best management practices on MALT’s working landscapes. He lives in Petaluma.