FARMLAND
Whether you are a first or third-generation farmer thinking about the next generation, consider the idea of putting an agricultural easement on your farm.
Who we are:
Sequoia Riverlands Trust is a regional land trust that has been working with ranchers and farmers in the counties of Kern, Kings, Tulare and Fresno for nearly ten years. We operate with a highly skilled staff, sustainable revenue streams and years of agriculture production experience. With that knowledge, capacity and expertise, our farmland conservation program offers resources and funds to farmers to support their agricultural operations and bolster their businesses while conserving their farmland.
What we do:
As a local land trust, SRT facilitates the use of voluntary farmland conservation agreements, otherwise known as agricultural easements, to safeguard farmland. These flexible agreements are negotiated between the landowner and our trust to purchase the property’s development rights. Legally, they are a limitation on a deed by the owner of a property to retain its agricultural condition. Agricultural easements are written to meet the specific needs of the farmer while ensuring that the farm stays in productive agriculture. With an agricultural easement, you will continue to own and manage your land and can pass it on to your family or sell it at a later date.
Farmland property ownership comes with many rights, including the right to farm, graze, build, sell and develop. If the landowner sells or donates the right to develop to Sequoia Riverlands Trust, the land enters into an agricultural easement.
SRT also provides mitigation services to developers and businesses who need to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Once mitigation resources are generated, our trust administers those funds and partners with a farmer interested in utilizing them to conserve their farm. We also seek funding through private, foundation, state and federal sources for agricultural easements.
How it benefits you:
In addition to protecting the agricultural value of your land for future generations, agricultural easements are an important business tool in a farm family’s financial planning. Agricultural easements offer a number of economic benefits including:
• Re-capitalizing a farm or re-investing the funds for new equipment, building a new barn or expanding operations.
• Paying down debt
• Tax benefits: An agricultural easement reduces your property taxes, and you can deduct a donated easement’s value from your income taxes.
• Like-kind property exchange (1031 Exchange): Allows a farmer to defer paying capital gains taxes by purchasing another property within a specific time frame.
• Estate planning: By lowering the value of your farm, estate taxes (which can be as high as 45%) are lowered. This can enable a “land rich but cash poor” family to pass their farm on to the next generation.
Maintain your family tradition while upholding the Central Valley’s role as the most productive agricultural region in the world.
