Oregon Agricultural Trust (OAT) is a statewide, agricultural land trust that partners with farmers and ranchers to protect ag lands for the benefit of Oregon’s economy, communities, and landscapes. We address the interrelated challenges of the loss of ag land to fragmentation and development and the difficulty of passing land to the next generation, including new and diverse producers. We hold working land easements, help our peers protect ag land, educate farmers, ranchers, service providers about how easements can play a role in land conservation as well as succession planning, and advocate for state and federal funding to preserve ag land.
Oregon’s 16 million acres of agricultural land supports not only farms and ranches, but also rural communities, food systems, migratory corridors, fish and wildlife habitat, and soils that hold the potential to sequester carbon and mitigate climate change.
Yet the future of this land is under threat. Half a million acres of our best soils and river habitat have been developed in the past 50 years despite the creation of Oregon’s exemplary land use system. Ag land loss is expected to accelerate during a wave of intergenerational transfers; the average age of Oregon farmers and ranchers is 60, yet 81% lack a succession plan and many do not have successors. Their land is more likely to be sold, fragmented, and developed - impacting rural livelihoods and communities, the food system, and climate resilience. Meanwhile, beginning farmers and ranchers are finding it extremely difficult to access land.
