Farmland protection in Washington State : An analysis

A survey of all county planning departments in Washington State indicated that protecting agricultural land is a major concern at the county level. Maintenance of the agribusiness sector is the main reason for protecting agricultural land, while the preservation of open space and rural lifestyles was of secondary importance. As a result, most Washington counties have implemented a broad range of farmland protection strategies. However, county governments generally have found these measures only moderately effective in keeping farmland from being converted to nonagricultural uses. As a result, there is support for an integrated, statewide program that includes farmland protection measures. consideration "to deal with land use on a statewide policy basis by initially focusing on the prevention of urban sprawl and preservation of agricultural lands, forest lands, and mineral resource lands" (23). Agricultural land losses have been significant in Washington State, especially in western areas. Two independent sources report state agricultural land losses of 23,800 acres/ year between 1970 and 1980 (15) and 26,800 acres/year between 1967 and 1982 (19, 20). Washington's metropolitan counties are most challenged with retaining productive farmland as their communities expand into the surrounding, fertile agricultural valleys. For example, Northwest Economic Associates estimated that the Puget Sound area in western Washington may lose between 20 % and 27% of its agricultural land to nonagricultural uses between 1980 and 2000 (17). While prime farmland has been converted at a rapid rate in the metropolitan Puget Sound area, land of less intrinsic value September-October 1988 411 creased 21% -from about 3.4 million to slightly more than 4.1 million people (5). During the 1970s, metropolitan areas grew 20 % while nonmetropolitan areas grew 22%. Although this may not appear as a difference, during the 1960s metropolitan areas grew by 19 % and nonmetropolitan areas grew by .01%' In the metropolitan areas of Washington, county planners reported that they experienced either moderate or high development pressures to convert agricultural land to urban or built-up uses during the past decade. The metropolitan areas accounted for 25% (4.2 million acres) of Washington's agricultural land base (16.5 million acres) (6). In addition, the 11 counties defined as metropolitan areas accounted for 47 % of Washington's $1.1 billion farm net income in 1982. 2 County planners reported that another 15 nonmetropolitan counties received either moderate or high development pressures to convert farmland to nonagricultural uses during the past decade. Because a significant amount of agricultural land is perceived to be threatened and the relative value of that agricultural land is high, a majority of Washington county planning departments (84 % ) expressed con. cerned about protecting agricultural land. Of the 26 counties that reported moderate or high urban development pressures during the past decade, all but 2 indicated concern about retaining farmland for agricultural production. In addition to concerns about the conversion of agricultural land to nonagricultural uses, particularly irreversible uses, county planners reported several reasons why protecting farmland was important. The primary reason for protecting agricultural land was to maintain the agribusiness sector of the local economy (Table 1). Twenty-seven counties (71% ) indicated that agriculture is important to their local economies. Sixteen county planning departments reported that agriculture was the most important sector of their economy. Of the 27 counties reporting that agriculture was important to their local economies, 15 (56 % ) indicated that during the past decade they experienced moderate or high development pressures to convert agricultural land to urban or built-up uses. 'Cook, A. K. (no date). -Demographic and Agricultural Trends in Washington." Paper presented at the Future Spokane Leadership Forum on Megatrends in Business and Agriculture in Spokane, Washington. 2Bureau of Economic Analysis. 1982. U.S. Department of Commerce. Unpublished farm income computer tapes compiled by Gary Smith, Cooperative Extrension, Washington State University, Pullman. sponses. This analysis provides direction for possible new county and state efforts, both in Washington State and elsewhere.