Applegater Fall 2017
‘We see it as a win-win-win for farmland preservation,
farm succession, and access to land.’
21
■ AGRICULTURAL HERITAGE
Continued from page 1
Luckily, there are many in the state who
recognize the urgency of these issues. Born
from a two-year collaborative effort that
brought together groups like the Oregon
Farm Bureau, the Oregon Cattlemen’s
Association, the Coalition of Oregon Land
Trusts, and others, the Oregon Agricultural
Heritage Program (HB 3249) gained
widespread bipartisan support in passing
the House and Senate and is now headed
to Governor Brown’s office for signature
in September.
The Oregon Agricultural Heritage
program creates a voluntary suite of
tools that aims to help mitigate the
stress and impact of succession planning
while addressing two key issues farmers
and ranchers face: the development
and fragmentation of farmland and the
challenge of passing farmland on to the
next generation.
To that end, this program will fund
a study of Oregon’s estate tax, offer farm
succession workshops, and provide grants
for three kinds of voluntary conservation
programs: conservation management plans,
permanent working lands easements, and
20- to 50-year working lands covenants.
Working lands easements and covenants
allow landowners to sell or lease their
development rights. This preserves the
land for agricultural use, gives the farmer
cash to help pay for succession planning,
and makes the land more affordable
to beginning farmers and ranchers by
lowering the tax burden.
“We see it as a win-win-win for farmland
preservation, farm succession, and access
to land,” said Nellie McAdams, Farm
Preservation Program director at Rogue
Farm Corps Farm, an Oregon nonprofit
that began in the Applegate Valley that
trains and prepares the next generation of
Oregon farmers and ranchers.
Rogue Farm Corps’ Internship and
Apprenticeship programs are looking at
the other side of the succession spectrum—
how do we train young farmers to begin
and take over existing farms and farmland?
Now in central Oregon, Eugene, and
Portland, as well as southern Oregon,
Rogue Farm Corps has been offering
hands-on training to the next generation
of farmers and ranchers since 2005. Local
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Rogue Farm Corps farm interns learn about fruit-tree cultivation
at Thompson Creek Organics in the Applegate Valley.
With 18-acres of certified organic produce, flowers, and seeds,
Dancing Bear Farm in Williams is host to Rogue Farm Corps farm interns.
host farms include Thompson Creek
Organics and Dancing Bear Farm.
With two-thirds of Oregon’s 16.3
million acres of agricultural land set to
change hands in the next 20 years, we have
a long road ahead to answer the question
of who the next land stewards will be.
The passing of HB 3249 and Rogue Farm
Corps’ on-farm learning experiences for
this next generation are important first
steps down that road.
Nellie McAdams
Program Director, Rogue Farm Corps
nellie@roguefarmcorps.org
Williams School
welcomes new teacher
Starting this fall, Ruth Dapkus will
teach second- and third-grade students
at Williams Elementary, replacing the
beloved Joanne Wardle, who retired.
Ruth has an interesting background,
including an international teaching
experience in Prague, capital of the Czech
Republic.
“I’m excited to be part of a community
school,” Ruth said. “I look forward
to building strong school-to-home
partnerships!”
Ruth grew up in the Grants Pass
area and attended schools in both Three
Rivers School
District
and Grants
Pass School
District. She
attended the
University of
Oregon for
her bachelor’s
degree, then
Southern
O r e g o n
University to gain her master’s degree
and teaching license.
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For rates and other information,
contact:
Ron Turpen
541-601-1867
ronaldaturpen@gmail.com
Next deadline:
November 1
