Community Farm Land Trust
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PRESERVING FARMLAND IS WHAT WE DO

Our application of the Community Land Trust model to farmland involves keeping access to land affordable for farmers. 

Enjoy this video about how the Community Farm Land Trust preserves local farmland. 

Learn About 
Community 
Land Trusts
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Community Farm Land
​Trust Model

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Benefits

• Permanently protects farmland so that it remains in agricultural production forever.
• Farm owners can receive the full appraised value of their farm by selling it to CFLT.
• Future farmers gain secure access to farmland through a 99-year inheritable land lease.
• Farmer lessees can build equity by acquiring the farm home & barns on leased land.
• There may be tax benefits for the farm seller if they choose to sell to CFLT below the appraised/market value.
Learn more about the 
Community Land Trust
Model

Agricultural Conservation Easements

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Benefits

• Permanently protects farmland so that it remains in agricultural production forever.
• Provides a cash incentive for farm owners who choose to sell a conservation easement.
• Enables future buyers to purchase the farmland at its agricultural value.
• May provide farmland owners with tax benefits, including income tax and estate tax reductions.

•The farm seller gains the satisfaction of knowing their farm will not be developed and be a farm forever. 


Learn more about
Agricultural Conservation
Easements
Have Land? 
Contact CFLT Today!

CFLT Farm Tour

 Take a quick tour of the CFLT Farms and the work being done on our farm in the excerpt from various Fresh from the Farm Guide's below. 
​For a deeper dive, click on the farms below!
 
Take a tour of all our farms in the aerial video below. 

CFLT Farmland Preservation in Action

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The Community Farm Land Trust recognizes that the Trust’s farmlands are the ancestral lands of the Salish Sea Tribes.  These tribes lived along the waterways in what is now known as the Puget Sound subsisting on salmon and the resources of the surrounding prairies and forests. 

More specifically, the Trust’s Rochester Farmlands belonged to the People of the Sands, also called the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation. These bands and tribes, The Upper and Lower Chehalis People, fished and hunted from the mountains, across the prairies, to Grays Harbor and in the lower Puget Sound.

The Trust acknowledges that these ancestral lands were taken by white settlers and that has left a mark. In spite of colonization and unacceptable treaty terms from the US Government, these self-governing tribes are resilient, determined, and are unified in their efforts to preserve their tribal cultures and traditions.

​The Community Farm Land Trust benefits from the legacy of tribal lands taken by settlers. This organization acknowledges the tension between working to acquire ancestral land and preserving farmland for the benefit of our community including the interests of the Salish People. We stand in that tension.

Land acknowledgements are an important but limited tool. The Community Farm Land Trust is committed to continuing to build relationships with the native people whose land the Trust occupies. The Trust looks for opportunities to support the work of the native people and we give thanks for their stewardship of their historic lands we now farm on. 

Scatter Creek Farm &  Conservancy

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This community farm is the result of a community effort. The farm serves as a demonstration project for how sustainable farming practices can thrive alongside important wildlife and salmon habitat restoration efforts.​
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GRuB

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In 2013, CFLT received Thurston County Conservation Futures Program funds for an urban agriculture project to benefit GRuB (Garden-Raised Bounty), a local nonprofit.  
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In 2015, we permanently protected 1.18 acres of the GRuB Farm ensuring that they can continue its vital programming into perpetuity.  We are proud to support the important role GRuB plays in the South Sound Community and food system. 
Learn More

Oyster Bay Farm 

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 Oyster Bay Farm was originally a homestead grant from the late 1800’s. It has been farmed continuously ever since. This is the first Agricultural Conservation Easement acquired by the CFLT. ​
Learn More

James Family
​Historic Farmland

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Our most recent purchase was 29 acre portion of the pioneer James family’s 1852 Donation Land Claim  purchased from Lori, Gayle and Cheryl James. The James sisters were conscientious stewards of the property’s historical significance and welcome its transition to the Land Trust. Common Ground CSA is current lessee of this new CFLT farmland acquisition. 
Learn More
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  • Home
    • Newsletters
    • News
  • About Us
    • Board & Staff
    • Seeking Board Members
    • Annual Reports
  • Our Work
    • Fresh from the Farm Guide
    • Farmland Preservation
    • Events
  • Get Involved
    • Become a Member
    • Our Supporters
  • Donate
  • Contact Us
  • FFTFG Payments