Working farms and forests have played a central role in founding and shaping our local communities. They have been a part of our way of life for generations, but over the last 50 years, farms and farmland have been in steady decline in Otsego County. In 1950, there were 3,261 farms covering 75 percent of the land area. As of 1998—the most recent available data—there were fewer than 1,045 farms on less than 35 percent of the land. Today, those figures are almost certainly lower.

The decline in farming not only represents the disappearance of a way of life, but it also presents serious concerns for local food production and food security and poses threats to many plants and animals that have come to depend on farms for habitat. To date, the Otsego Land Trust has helped protect nearly 3,000 acres of working land, which represents over 1 percent of existing farms and forests in the area—and we have plans and partners to protect even more.

Otsego and Herkimer Counties have recognized the importance of protecting their farms by developing farmland and agricultural plans that outline several ways to secure these working lands. Many farmers throughout the state and the country find that a tool known as Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) is the most flexible way to help them or their heirs continue farming and at the same time ensure that future owners will not be able to take the land out of production for other purposes. If you have working land that you would like to preserve through a PDR or other mechanism, please contact us and we will help guide you to the next appropriate step.