Clark County announces first farm conservation easement to protect April Joy Farms

Clark County's Legacy Lands program closed its first farm conservation easement this month, protecting April Joy Farms, a roughly 22'24-acre certified-organic operation in Richfield at the headwaters of Whipple Creek, Legacy Lands coordinator Danielle Cowley said. Cowley said the easement preserves working farmland, conserves salmon-bearing tributary habitat and helps maintain local food-production capacity.

"We just this last month, closed on our 1st farm conservation easement in Clark County," Cowley said, describing the milestone as a key step for the county's farm preservation work. She told the commission the program operates through the conservation futures tax levy and uses a watershed-based scoring approach, stewardship plans and limited impervious-surface rules to evaluate candidate parcels. Cowley said the county partnered with Washington Farmland Trust on the transaction and that the trust holds the easement for the first deal while the county retains certain rights as a third-party beneficiary.

County staff described program features that distinguish farmland easements from park purchases: easements buy only future development rights rather than fee ownership, they typically include a stewardship plan and annual inspections, and they do not require the landowner to allow general public access unless the owner chooses to. "We don't really want to have the general public just come to your farm unless you want them there," Cowley said of the no-public-access default for these easements. The presentation prompted questions from commissioners about parcel size, appraisal practice and program eligibility; staff said watershed funding and a formal rubric derived from the Natural Areas Acquisition Plan will guide future acquisitions.