Category Overview
Farmland Preservation protects valuable farmland and habitat for recreationally important animals, like salmon, birds, deer, and elk. These projects allow families to continue farming the land they have worked on for generations, and provide Washingtonians with healthy local food and a diverse economy. WWRP is the only source of farmland preservation funding in the state budget.
Project Highlights
Columbia Land Trust’s Trout Lake – Phase 5 agricultural conservation easement project will conserve 256 acres of prime farmland in the productive and scenic Trout Lake Valley in northwest Klickitat County. Located at the base of Mt. Adams, the project is two conservation easements with a total of 11 development rights and one building envelope. The easement area includes the primary dairy farm facilities for one of the largest organic cow dairies in the State. Ninety four percent of the site is on NRCS prime farmland soils. It is used as summer dairy cow pasture as well as winter feed growing ground–hay and alfalfa that is converted to silage. The farmland and its protection are core to the dairy’s ability to provide organic milk throughout the Pacific Northwest through the Darigold cooperative. Without protection, the farmland is at risk of conversion to developed uses due to very high land costs. The property has sufficient irrigation water rights to ensure a long growing season and 4-5 cuttings of hay and alfalfa. In the winter and early spring, the farm’s fields are used by a subset of the state’s largest elk herd for snow-free grass, and in the spring its wet pastures are visited by state endangered sandhill cranes. The conservation easement will protect this regionally important farm and prevent additional development along the Wild and Scenic White Salmon River which runs through larger property.