REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio — Logan County residents Weldon and Barbara Stoll and Robert and Lois Stoll protected three farms in Jefferson Township totaling 345.71 acres by donating agricultural easements to the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
This assures the land will forever be used for agricultural purposes.
Conservation practices
Robert and Lois Stoll’s 28.37-acre farm includes a number of conservation practices, including a man-made wetland, heavy-use pad for livestock feeding and numerous grassed waterways.
Weldon and Barbara Stoll’s 282.41-acre farm is maintained under a managed intensive grazing system while the cropland is farmed in corn and soybean rotations using 100 percent no-till farming, performed since 1983.
The third lot, Weldon and Barbara Stoll’s 34.93-acre farm, is composed of farmstead, pasture, Christmas trees, woods, a small cabin and a livestock pond.
A “cut your own” Christmas tree operation is also located on the farm.
The Logan County Land Trust will monitor the Stolls’ farms annually to assure the easements are followed.
Five Logan County farms are now preserved through donation easements held by the state of Ohio. Along with Clean Ohio Agricultural Easement Purchase Program easements, the Ohio Department of Agriculture currently holds easements on more than 1,400 acres in the county, which includes pending offers.
Land donation
Under the department’s Ohio Agricultural Easement Donation Program, landowners can donate a permanent agricultural easement on their farm to the state.
Agricultural easements are voluntary legal agreements restricting non-agricultural development on farmland, with the land itself remaining on the tax rolls and under private ownership and management.
Landowners may undertake any agricultural activity permitted under Ohio law, and they can sell their farm or pass it along as a gift to others. However, the easement remains with the land, prohibiting any future non-farm development to ensure it remains in agricultural use.
Totals
To date, Ohio landowners have donated agricultural easements on 47 farms totaling over 5,879 acres statewide.
For more information on the department’s Agricultural Easement Donation Program, visit www.agri.ohio.gov.
