{"id":6377,"date":"2024-03-04T12:20:52","date_gmt":"2024-03-04T17:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/?p=6377"},"modified":"2024-03-05T15:01:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T20:01:02","slug":"protecting-farmland-is-personal-elisabeth-moores-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/protecting-farmland-is-personal-elisabeth-moores-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Protecting Farmland is Personal – Elisabeth Moore’s story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Elisabeth Moore, Executive Director<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to your support of CFT, I devote my time to helping farmowners think through how to protect their farmland in perpetuity. Your support means more farmland protected, and more new farmers connected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to know, what is the story that\nmotiva\u00ad\u00adtes you to protect farmland through your gift to CFT? It is a deeply\npersonal question, so I want to share with you my own answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My passion comes directly from my childhood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I grew up in a small town in Northwest Ohio surrounded by thousands of acres of rich, fertile fields of corn, soybeans, and alfalfa. My bus to school passed mile-square blocks of this flat, immensely productive \u2013 and developable — land and I watched it converted to housing subdivisions, then shopping plazas, and then \u201cbig box\u201d stores. While I didn\u2019t grow up in a farming family, I knew as a kid that the loss of this land \u2013 with some of the best, most productive soils in the country — was significant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My\nlove of land is also influenced by where my mother grew up — I have many fond\nmemories of spending time there with my grandparents. My mother\u2019s family has\nlived on and loved that land for more than 120 years and that love was\ninstilled in me at an early age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The property is now three acres, a fraction of its original size because significant acreage unfortunately was sold to settle a family dispute many years ago. I feared the remainder of the property would likely be sold for development because my brothers, cousins, and I didn\u2019t agree on what we should do with the land when my mother died. I made a commitment to her that I would make sure that didn\u2019t happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thirteen\nyears ago, I worked with her to permanently protect the property with a\nconservation easement. When the final documents were signed, I felt tremendous\nrelief that I no longer had to worry about the property\u2019s future. I had to\novercome challenging family dynamics and other hurdles, but I would definitely\ndo it again. Definitely. There is truly no greater feeling than knowing that my\nfamily\u2019s land will forever be as wild as it is now. Many landowners have said\nsomething similar to me when they\u2019ve protected their farms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experience \u2013 with its ups and downs \u2013 of protecting my family\u2019s land helps me better support farm owners who are considering a similar decision. It\u2019s a weighty decision! When I share my personal story, families are comforted \u2013 and relieved \u2013 to know that it\u2019s possible to resolve the issues and obstacles they\u2019re facing, to know they too can make that decision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some\nfamilies, like mine, don\u2019t agree on what should be done with their land. Others\nneed to figure out a way to divide the land between family members but keep it\nin agriculture. Some farm owners don\u2019t have heirs and want the land to be their\nlegacy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks\nto you, I\u2019m able to devote the time needed to work with farm owners to tailor a\nconservation scenario that meets their individual, family, and financial needs.\nIt is the most challenging and fulfilling work! It is hands down the best part\nof my job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You likely made a first-time gift to CFT sometime recently. Consider inspiring me again with your story of why you became involved. Thank you again for supporting CFT\u2019s work. I look forward to staying in touch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Elisabeth in Ohio<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Elisabeth Moore, Executive Director Thanks to your support of CFT, I devote my time to helping farmowners think through how to protect their farmland in perpetuity. Your support means more farmland protected, and more new farmers connected. I want to know, what is the story that motiva\u00ad\u00adtes you to protect farmland through your gift […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6377"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6409,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6377\/revisions\/6409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}