Last week in Bartow I sat through an entire day of presentations by Florida farmers and ranchers looking to sell a conservation easement (essentially, the development rights) to the state through the Rural and Family Lands Program, one of the primary land conservation programs in our state. Speaker after speaker — several moved to tears — spoke of their desire to keep their land in agriculture for the rest of time. By selling the development rights, these property owners wouldn’t have to sell their land to developers in lieu of going out of business or when the price got too high to be ignored.
Original article by Rick Dantzler, read more at SunSentinel
