GISas a Tool for Preserving Land

for Agriculture

and Developing our

Local Food SystemLocal Food SystemLocal Food SystemLocal Food System

Kara AlderisioGIS Consultantkara@GISforLandTrusts.com

Eileen HochbergExecutive Director, CT NOFA

eileen@ctnofa.org

Nick PouderOwner, Mayapple Hill Farm

mayapplehillfarm@pouder.com

Connecticut's Agricultural Economy

• Connecticut agriculture contributes significantly 

• Between $2.72 and $4.6 BILLION each year 

• Production includes grain; vegetables; tobacco; livestock;

• greenhouse, nursery, floriculture, sod; logging; commercial fishing;

• aquaculture, Christmas trees, maple syrup, horses and MORE 

• Processing includes: canning, pickling, drying, milk and butter, cheese, ice cream, wineries and MORE

• Employs about 28,000 people

• On farm - almost 21,000 involved in primary agricultural, fishing or forestry production

• Off farm - Farm support services, agricultural processing, forest processing, wholesale distribution

Where are the agricultural jobs?

• Over 1,000 new farms in 2012 vs. 2007

• 30,000 more acres

• Increase was in farms under 49 acres, less than $50,000 revenue

• Farmers 34 and under, 55 and over

• Over 50% have primary income off farm

Agriculture's economic impact is growing!

• Benefits of land preservation overall, i.e. cost of community services

• Agriculture's contribution to economic activity

• Economic benefits of local food systems

Economic impact of preserving landfor agriculture

An American Farmland Trust survey showed that farmlands represent an average of 63 cent net gain of revenue per dollar for the tax base.

In contrast, residential developments cost governments 19 cents per dollar.

It is an economic benefit for any state to preserve working lands.

-North Carolina Dept. of Agriculture

Economic impact of preserving landfor agriculture

• Farm-to-table restaurants, Caterers, Retail stores

• Agritourism

• Publications, Radio, TV

• Food critics and photographers, Cookbook writers

• Test cooks

• Marketing

• AND MORE

Farming and supporting businesses are only part of local food system

• No Farms, No Food Systems

• Protecting Land for Agriculture

• Determining the best land

• Considering zoning

• Conservation easement language

• Considering food system overall - markets, etc.

Coming Full Circle

What Is GIS?• GIS (Geographic Information System)is a powerful mapping

and analysis tool for land trusts seeking to conserve nature, enhance communities and support rural economies and culture.

• GIS integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, analyzing, manipulating and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information

• GIS allows us to view, question, interpret, and visualize data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, reports, and charts

• the industry standard is ESRI’s ArcGIS

Evaluating agricultural suitability

Weantinoge Heritage Land Trust StudySpring, 2010Rhode Island School of DesignMaster of Landscape Architecture Program

Process:Identify potential conservation parcels using an impartial ranking system by mapping:•Soils•Slope•Aspect•Drainage•Forest Cover•Proximity to markets/processing•Water Supply•Hydrology/Wetlands•Parcel size•Land use adjacencies

“Sieve Mapping” process - select for positiveattributes (e.g. prime soils) and avoidnegative attributes (e.g. wetlands)

• Seven teams given different conservation objectives (wildlife habitat, cultural resources, agricultural lands, recreational resources, old growth forest)

• Each determines WHAT to map

• Ranks relative importance of each attribute

• Divides selected parcels into “Most Important to Conserve”, “Moderately Important to Conserve”, “Should Conserve”

Attributes and Ranking

Slope +Aspect + Soils =

CompositeAll Maps and charts prepared by Ashley Davenport and Lu Gao

Limitations

• Weighting criteria is not truly impartial• Requires ground-truthing to verify – one

site selected was an industrial facility; another was a recreational field

• Not a reliable degree of accuracy for site-scale analysis

• Not useful as a design tool

Agrihood Design

Program Requirements:

•Retain and support an active 30-acre organic farm•Establish siting criteria for new homes•Provide communal agricultural resources•Avoid sensitive ecological features•Fit as-of-right number of units •Conform with as-of-right zoning

• Land Trust Standards and Practices

• Standard 9: Ensuring Sound Transactions – The land trust works diligently to see that every land and easement transaction is legally, ethically and technically sound.

• Practice D. Determining Property Boundaries. The land trust determines the boundaries of every protected property through legal property descriptions, accurately marked boundary corners or, if appropriate, a survey. If an easement contains restrictions that are specific to certain zones or areas within the property, the locations of these areas are clearly described in the easement and supporting materials and can be identified in the field.

Conservation Easement Language, Other inclusions

• Practice E. Easement Drafting. Every easement is tailored for the property according to project planning (see 8G) and:

– identifies the important conservation values protected and public benefit served;

– allows only permitted uses and/or reserved rights that will not significantly impair the important conservation values;

– contains only restrictions that the land trust is capable of monitoring;

– and is enforceable 

Standard 9 Cont'd

• enhances property values

• safeguards a valuable way of life for future generations

• ensures an adequate, fresh food supply

• protects the quality of the environment

• protect watersheds

• recharge groundwater

• help control flooding

-Lancaster Farmland Trust

Land conservation through agricultural easement

offers many benefits to the community

• Agricultural and Forest Activities, Rural Enterprise

• Necessary Vehicles, Trails and roads

• New agricultural structures and improvements

• Existing agriculture structures and improvements

• Existing residential dwellings

• New residential dwellings

• New and existing farm support housing

• Utility services and septic systems

Some Examples of Reserved Rights

• Practice F. Documentation of Purposes and Responsibilities.

The land trust documents the intended purposes of each land and easement transaction, the intended uses of the property and the roles, rights and responsibilities of all parties involved in the acquisition and future management of the land or easement.

Standard 9 Cont'd

• Standard 11: Conservation Easement Stewardship –The land trust has a program of responsible stewardship for its easements.

• Practice B. Baseline Documentation Report, includes baseline maps prepared prior to closing and signed by the landowner at closing. The report documents the important conservation values protected by the easement and the relevant conditions of the property as necessary to monitor and enforce the easement.

• Practice C. Easement Monitoring. The land trust monitors its easement properties regularly, at least annually, in a manner appropriate to the size and restrictions of each property, and keeps documentation (such as reports, updated photographs and maps) of each monitoring activity.

Importance of Mapping

GIS Best Practices Land Trust GIS, co-sponsored by the

Land Trust Alliance and GreenInfo Network

“Whether you do mapping through staff, volunteers or consultants, GIS can help you assess your current approach in order to improve conservation outcomes as well as to better meet LTA Standards and Practices.

- http://landtrustgis.org/best-practices

Typical Baseline Report Maps

1. Aerial map showing easement boundaries• Town tax parcel data

http://www.cteco.uconn.edu/guides/Parcel.htm

• Boundaries created from mapping softwareie. Map My Land

• Smart phone apps

Boundaries created from Town Tax Parcel data

Boundaries created from Property Mapping Software:Map My Land software•entered from propertydeed description•can be exported as a .kml file, opened in Google Earth

Using Smartphone GPS Apps

2. Soils3. Site Location4. Environmental Features:

wetlands, lakes, streams, topography5. Surrounding open space and

agricultural land6. Aquifer/ Watershed Protection

Typical Baseline Report Maps cont’

Environmental FeaturesBaseline Report Map forAgricultural Easement

Documents the condition of a farm at the time of preservation. Used for annual monitoring.

Surrounding Open SpaceBaseline Report Map forAgricultural Easement

Surrounding Open SpaceBaseline Report Map forAgricultural Easement

“Farms situated in a farming community are key. If the farm is under significant threat of conversion to non-farm use, and if that conversion would be detrimental to other farms in the area, the farm will be given special consideration.”

-American Farmland Trust

Development & Open Space Aquifer

Aquifer Protection

GIS for ALL

“At the same time as GIS is allowing for more effective data analysis by specialists within an organization, new GIS tools are also increasingly effective as a means of reaching out to deliver content to non-specialists.

We want to extend the power of mapping to anyone who wants it.

USDA is increasingly porting subsets of its data to Web applications using such tools as ArcGIS Online.”

-GIS Becomes Indispensable for Managing Agriculture http://gcn.com/articles/2013/10/18/usda-gis.aspx 

Using GIS data without GIS software?

ArcGIS Explorerhttp://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/explorer

Geomatica FreeView 10.3http://www.softpedia.com/get/Science-CAD/Geomatica-FreeView.shtml

Google Earth Pro• available at a discount to non-profitshttp://www.google.com/earth/outreach/grants/software/earthpro.html

• layer structure, overlays, terrain, print, export• easy to share files