RICHMOND, VA (Virginia Farm Bureau) — A powerful partnership among Virginia’s farm and forestry landowners is streamlining valuable land conservation programs.

Formerly known as the Office of Farmland Preservation and administered by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the Office of Working Lands Preservation is now housed within the Department of Forestry. The OWL will oversee conservation or succession programs that protect working lands in perpetuity.

“DOF’s forestland conservation easement program always included properties with agricultural operations,” said DOF Office of Working Lands Preservation program manager Amanda Scheps. “The creation of this new office highlights and expands that work. We hope to encourage farmers and forest landowners to connect with us and explore all of our conservation programs.”

This administrative shift is a recognition that the needs between agriculture and forestry often overlap.

“A lot of farmowners have forested land too,” said Rachel Henley, Virginia Farm Bureau Federation working lands and state advocacy specialist. “They fall into the middle. Their crops may be trees, and also may be agricultural. But this office has been created to keep Virginia’s working lands working!”

An ongoing loss of productive acreage is driven by competing uses for land in Virginia, including utility-scale solar, expansion of transmission lines and data centers. These land preservation challenges incited action from VFBF advocates during the 2024 General Assembly session. The office reorganization was officially codified in July 2024 and is now under the supervision of the state forester.

The shift should have a positive outcome, Henley said, as farm and forestland owners won’t be seeking siloed conservation services between two agencies.

Under the Code of Virginia, the new Office of Working Lands Preservation is integrating the following missions:

  • Work with public agencies and private groups to establish model policies and practices for local purchase of development rights programs.
  • Administer a non-reverting fund in the state treasury, known as the Virginia Farmland and Forestland Preservation Fund.
  • Provide technical assistance to farmers on farmland and forestland preservation, and assistance to local governments interested in developing related policies and programs.
  •  Create public education programs on the importance of farmland and forestland preservation to quality of life.
  •  Administer Virginia Farm Link and collaborate on Generation NEXT programs, assisting retiring farmers in the transition of farm businesses and properties to active or beginning farmers.

Farmers and forest landowners interested in permanently protecting land through a conservation easement can contact conservation@dof.virginia.gov or call 434-220-9021.