Without the sale of tax credits from a conservation easement on his 180-acre farm in Augusta County, Wes Kent would never have been able to purchase an adjoining 118-acre farm.

"The conservation easement provided me a valuable tool to expand my farm," Kent said during a Nov. 29 panel discussion on "Conservation Easements: The Right Fit for Your Farm?" at the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation 2011 Annual Convention in Norfolk.

Kent, a full-time beef, dairy and poultry farmer, bought his farm in 2004 after leasing it for several years. This year he was able to put that farm under a conservation easement with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, a state agency that is Virginia’s largest holder of conservation easements.

With the sale of tax credits from that easement, he had enough collateral to secure financing to purchase his neighbor’s property.

"This easement was a good fit for my farm," Kent said.

Conservation easements are voluntary legal agreements designed to restrict intensive land uses like residential and commercial development. Localities have used such agreements to preserve open and agricultural land and promote responsible growth.

Easements can be donated for federal and state tax benefits or sold under purchase of development rights or transfer of development rights programs. Farmers who place conservation easements on their land continue to own, live on and farm it and can sell the land or pass it on to their heirs.

There has been a perception that conservation easements aren’t a viable option for working farms, said panel moderator Matt Lohr, Virginia’s commissioner of agriculture and consumer services.

Lohr has spent the past year working with farmers, agribusinesses, conservation groups and others to come up with a working lands variance to conservation easements. The variance allows farmers to continue farming land that is under easement.

Historically, easements focused on open space preservation, "but farmland is worthy of preservation as farmland," said panelist Lisa Anne Hawkins, a founding partner of the law firm Lenhart Obenshain PC who specializes in land conservation. "Conservation easements recognize and honor that so you can operate a viable business into the future," and landowners can get some tax benefits as well, she added.

Conservation easements may not work for every farmer, but panelists encouraged farmers to at least consider whether the agreements might help them preserve their farms.

For more information, farmers are urged to call the office of farmland preservation within the Virginia Department of Agriculture at 804-786-1346.

With more than 150,000 members in 88 county Farm Bureaus, VFBF is Virginia’s largest farmers’ advocacy group. Farm Bureau is a non- governmental, nonpartisan, voluntary organization committed to protecting Virginia’s farms and ensuring a safe, fresh and locally grown food supply.