By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH
Indiana Correspondent ANGOLA, Ind. — Thanks to the generosity of a White County woman, more than 7,600 acres of Indiana farmland will be preserved forever.
The establishment of a conservation easement for the 7,634 acres of land in White County means it will be permanently protected from development and will be maintained as a working farm. The donation, to Wood-Land-Lakes (WLL) Resource Conservation and Development, Inc., based in Angola, is the largest in the organization’s history.
Before she died earlier this year, Juanita Kious Waugh had begun the process of finding a nonprofit entity to preserve her family farm. She died Feb. 6, a day before her 88th birthday. The final contracts were signed by her estate trustees at the end of June.
“Juanita wanted to protect what she saw as her family’s legacy,” said Dave Bechman, farm manager for the property. “She didn’t have any heirs, and was trying to preserve the family farms and make sure they stayed as farms forever.”
Parts of the farm had been in her family more than 100 years. The land had passed from her maternal grandfather to her father. He managed the farms before he died in 1949, and after that, several different tenants farmed the property.
“She was tired of seeing homes pop up on what had been farmland,” Bechman explained. “She had a strong objective to keep her family’s farms as farmland.”
The land, valued at more than $40 million, has been gifted to Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind. In addition to farm and wooded acreage, the property includes 19 operational wind turbines, with 13 more to be constructed.
The income generated from the farm will be used for scholarships in Waugh’s memory, according to a statement from the college. Bechman, who owns FarmFirst LLC, will continue to manage the farm for the college.
WLL was first contacted earlier this year about the property, said Kathy Latz, the organization’s coordinator. Because the farmland is outside of the WLL geographic area, the land committee was consulted, she said.
“We were thrilled they chose us to protect that land. In addition to the land, the committee also looked at the benefits of the wind turbines as alternative energy sources,” she said.
WLL’s primary counties are DeKalb, Elkhart, LaGrange, Noble, Steuben and Whitley, but will also consider easements in any counties contiguous to those – for a total of 18 – she said. Before the Waugh donation, WLL had 17 easements, including one that was transferred to another organization, for a total of about 1,900 acres, she said.
The organization began in the mid-1990s, and completed its first easement in 2000. A conservation easement through WLL protects not only farmland but any structures on the property.
“There are so many options and opportunities out there, that are all a little bit different, for people looking to protect their land,” Latz noted. “Some organizations will just target water areas, or endangered species, or natural areas. We target all agricultural land, whether it’s the farmstead, wetlands or woods.”
When the easement contract is written, landowners decide how and what they want maintained on their property, she explained. WLL works with them to be sure their ideas are correctly conveyed in the contract.
“We help them with the thought process so they can maintain the land’s integrity and keep it as a working farm. But you also don’t want to restrict future landowners. Sometimes less is more, and you don’t want to specify too much,” Latz said.
The donation will benefit not only WLL but farmland, Mike Yoder, chair of the WLL land committee, said in a statement: “WLL is excited and honored to be asked to hold this easement. As the only land trust in Indiana dedicated solely to the protection of productive farms and farmland, this request, and acceptance, affirms our organization’s important role in helping Indiana protect our most important foundational asset in the production of food, fiber, fuel and energy – our farmland.”
A seminar on conservation easements, sponsored by the Indiana Farm Bureau, is Sept. 10 at the Farm Bureau office in Indianapolis. During the daylong event, information will be presented on easements and estate planning.
For more information or to register, contact 317-692-7840 or click on “Events” at www.infarmbureau.org |
