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50th farm donated to Michigan’s farmland preservation program

Fifty farms have now been donated to Michigan’s agricultural conservation easement program.

George Cullers of Barry County donated the development rights of his 137-acre farm in honor of his late wife. He says the land has been farmed for almost 160 years and he wanted to preserve it as farmland forever.

A conservation easement is designed to permanently protect land as an open space or for ag use. Donated easements can have financial benefits like tax deductions and make it easier to pass the land to the owner’s heirs without paying large estate taxes.  The land can be bought and sold. However, the easement applies to all future landowners.

Donated easements make up 40 percent of permanently protected farmland and open space in Michigan. Michigan’s Development Rights Program holds 136 easements, 50 of which are donated ag easements covering 8,000 acres. A total of 25,000 acres are preserved in the program.