Teton Regional Land Trust Launches New Farm Succession Program
Teton Regional Land Trust (TRLT) is located in Driggs, Idaho and works across eastern Idaho to help protect natural spaces, agricultural lands, and wildlife habitat through voluntary conservation easements on private land. As part of this mission, TRLT is launching a new program to assist landowners of working agricultural lands with succession planning. The goal is to keep working lands in working hands.
In the next 20 years, close to 1/3 of agricultural lands in the United States will be transferred from the current owner and producer. This transfer of land is directly related to the rising average age of farmers and ranchers. As they retire and land ownership changes, the land previously stewarded by the producer is vulnerable to conversion away from agricultural use. The rural communities of eastern Idaho depend on the viability of agricultural lands, and in the last few years, we have witnessed great changes to our landscape that are very concerning. Farmers and ranchers are feeling more and more pressure to sell their land to development, and low-density housing developments are replacing agricultural lands.
In the fall of 2023, TRLT received a four-year grant from the American Farmland Trust to support our involvement in this work. The grant is developed in conjunction with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and is to assist farmers and ranchers in succession planning in order to dramatically increase the transfer of working agricultural lands to a new generation of producers. The program catalyzes practitioners from across the country to support equitable farm and ranch transfers that work for both entering and exiting generations. “We are new to this area of work, but we strongly believe that protection of the natural values and resources of eastern Idaho depends on the viability of farming and ranching here. We are hoping to present ourselves as a resource to the community to help answer questions and guide landowners towards their own succession plans. Critically, we do not want to tell anyone what to do with their land or business, we simply want to assist in making connections with professionals in the relevant areas and create paths forward for those looking at the futures of their farms and ranches,” said Lydia Hanson, TRLT staff member who oversees the farm succession program.
If you are interested in learning more about farm succession, please visit the Farm Succession Page or reach out to Lydia Hanson at lydia@tetonlandtrust.org.
