Agricultural regulators in Oregon are thinking of using conservation easements to steer urban development away from valuable farmland.

The Oregon Board of Agriculture recently discussed the possibility of strategically placing easements instead of the current “scattershot” approach.

Easements let organizations like land trusts pay growers to give up the rights to build housing on their land while still allowing them to farm.

Land trusts have an uncoordinated “wild, wild West” way of buying easements, which is why a broader view is needed, said Tom Salzer, general manager of the Clackamas County Soil and Water Conservation District.

“What we lack is statewide policy and direction,” Salzer testified at the board’s Dec. 3 meeting.

Compared to other states, conservation easements are relatively rare in Oregon, said Jim Johnson, land use specialist for the Oregon Department of Agriculture, an agency that’s advised by the board.

Easements protect 156,500 acres in Oregon, compared to 322,800 acres in Washington and 1.3 million acres in California, he said. Maryland, which is much smaller than Oregon, has 400,000 acres in easements.

The discrepancy is due to Oregon’s statewide land use planning system, which has prevented farmland prices from rising as much, Johnson said.

In other words, there’s a smaller difference between a property’s fair market price and its value as farmland, so farmers have less incentive to sell easements.

The prospect has to be financially worthwhile to gain farmers’ interest, said Mary Wahl, whose family has sold easements on its ranch in Curry County. “To bring in the owners, you have to be competitive.”

Also, Oregon’s land use system has caused people to think that easements aren’t as necessary in the state, Johnson said.

However, that system doesn’t permanently halt development as cities can periodically expand their “urban growth boundaries,” he said. “There’s no real ultimate stop to that.”

If several easements were bought in a block, that could effectively cause urban growth to spread in another direction, he said.

An effective strategy for protecting farmland must take many factors into account, like whether preserving the best soils should be a priority even if the property is in a limited water area, said Salzer.

“There are tons of questions like this we are wrestling with,” he said.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture needs to explore whether it has a role in guiding easement strategies, or if the shift toward coordination already has enough momentum at the level of county soil and water conservation districts, said Katy Coba, the agency’s director.

It’s uncertain that any strategy devised by ODA would actually be followed by land trusts or other groups, since they’re private entities free to buy easements where they want, said Doug Krahmer, a blueberry farmer and board member.

A source of state money for buying easements could help set a direction, said Don Stuart, former director of the American Farmland Trust’s Pacific Northwest office.

The federal government also has matching funds available for buying easements, he said.

Coba said the topic of state funding for easements is likely to come up during next year’s legislative session.

“Ultimately, the people who will have control over that is the people who have the money,” said Johnson.