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ARROYO GRANDE, Calif.
-- Citing the commitment of local
government and the Dixson family to
preserving agricultural land, California
Department of Conservation Director
Darryl Young today announced a grant
that will help purchase a permanent
agricultural conservation easement on
the Dixson Ranch.
"The city's
overwhelming support of agricultural
preservation makes this an especially
worthwhile project," Young said. "The
project dovetails with the city's desire
to protect prime farmland from urban
encroachment. And the role played by Jim
Dickens and his family, which has owned
the property for almost 100 years,
cannot be overstated. The property would
have been developed many years ago were
it not for the family's commitment to
agricultural preservation."
Jim Dickens is the
son of Sara Dixson Dickens, who, along
with her sister Molly Dixson McClanahan,
owns the property. The family's staunch
support for farmland protection began
with Jim's grandmother, Wilma Dixson,
who developed a long-term plan for
keeping their ranch in production.
The Dixsons received
a $172,000 grant from the federal
Farmland Protection Program and a
$378,000 state grant from the California
Farmland Conservancy Program,
administered by DOC's Division of Land
Resource Protection. The CFCP is
designed to ensure that the state's most
valuable farmland will not be developed.
Through the program, local governments
and non-profit organizations -- in this
case, the American Farmland Trust and
Coastal San Luis Resource Conservation
District -- can receive grants to
purchase development rights from willing
landowners, thus creating permanent
conservation.
"We hope other
landowners around the county and the
state will follow the Dixson family's
lead," said Erik Vink, who heads DOC's
Division of Land Resource Protection.
"We have worked with the American
Farmland Trust on several projects in
the past and congratulate AFT on its
efforts to protect threatened
agricultural land. We also applaud the
Coastal San Luis Resource Conservation
District for its long-term commitment to
steward this easement."
Vink noted that this
is the first time a CFCP grant has been
issued for a project within a city.
However, the City of Arroyo Grande is
unusual in that it has agricultural
zoning and preserves within its
incorporated boundary. The Dixson Ranch
has also been under a Williamson Act
contract since 1977.
California's
agricultural production totaled more
than $29 billion in 2000; San Luis
Obispo County ranked 17th in the state
at nearly $488 million. But California's
population of more than 33 million is
expected to grow to 50 million by 2025
-- San Luis Obispo County's population
is projected to increase by about 90,000
-- and many acres of farmland are being
developed to accommodate that growth.
According to DOC's Farmland Mapping and
Monitoring Program, nearly 43,000 acres
of agricultural land throughout the
state -- an area about the size of the
city of Modesto -- was urbanized between
1996 and 1998.
"The need for
programs designed to protect
agricultural land, such as the
California Farmland Conservancy Program,
as well as for cooperation among
landowners, land trusts and government
agencies, is evident," Vink said.
CFCP funds remain for
new grant proposals. Landowners and land
trusts are encouraged to contact the
Department of Conservation/Division of
Land Resource Protection for information
about the program and potential grant
funding. The division's Web address is
www.conservation.ca.gov/dlrp.
In addition to
administering agricultural and
open-space land conservation programs,
the Department of Conservation ensures
the reclamation of land used for mining;
promotes beverage container recycling;
regulates oil, gas and geothermal wells;
and studies and maps earthquakes and
other geologic phenomena.
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