Ecosystem Services in Working Lands: US Northeast

• Material expenses for infrastructure or management practices: o to restore farmland (e.g. the Connecticut Farmland Restoration Program) o to protect soils (e.g. the Maryland Cover Crop Program) o to manage irrigation water (e.g. New York Implementation of High-efficiency Agricultural Irrigation Water Management Systems program) o to build the capacity of new and existing urban farms through infrastructure improvements (e.g. Washington D.C. Urban Agriculture Infrastructure grant)

State-level farmland preservation programs are prevalent in every state across the region and enacted through different strategies.

• Limits of time in which farmland protection is enforceable. The Massachusetts Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) program preserves farmland in-perpetuity, whereas a similar program in Pennsylvania (Agricultural Security Areas) protects farmland from conversion for 7 years. • The use of state bonds to fund farmland preservation. The Connecticut Farm Reinvestment Grant provides matching funds to Connecticut farms to expand, diversify, and improve existing working farms through various projects with a lifespan of 10 years or more.

24

Powered by