Conservation easements have checked development from gobbling up agricultural tracts for decades, but growers increasingly chafe against the policies’ size restrictions.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has blocked a drainage district from replacing a failing tidegate that keeps saltwater from flooding about 400 acres of farmland in Skagit County, Wash. NMFS West Coast administrator Jennifer Quan said in a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers repairing the gate would jeopardize the existence of Puget Sound chinook salmon and killer whales, which eat the salmon.

"There are so many different things involved in succession planning. It's not just a will and trust," said Nellie McAdams, executive director of Oregon Agricultural Trust. "It can sort of seem like unraveling a ball of yarn and not knowing where the end is."

The Washington state Farm Bureau is working with a new program call ”Coming Home to Farm”, to promote an open and honest dialog about the changing of the guard.

Lin Warfel puts farmland owners in central Illinois into two categories: Those with a deep connection and desire to preserve their land, and those obsessed with short-term money. The 80-year-old still owns the land that’s been in his family since his great-grandfather arrived in Champaign County in the 1800’s. After farming it for decades, he now rents the corn and soybean operation to his neighbors down the road.

Here in the northwest, Washington loss 100 farms last year, while Oregon and Idaho showed no change. Meanwhile, Montana gained 100 farms in 2020.

It may be a slow process, but one that has many in the farming community concerned; the loss of farmland due to urban sprawl. According to the American Farmland Trust, between 2001-2016 eleven million acres of farmland was removed from production nationwide. That comes out to roughly 2,000 acres per day.

Higher commodity prices are putting cash in farmers’ pockets and as a result, farmland values are headed upward this year