ABSTRACT
Preservation of open and green space land has become a prominent issue across the US. Over the past five years, many state and local initiatives to curb sprawling development have been put to the vote on statewide and local ballots. Programs to acquire or donate scenic easements to open and green space land are in place in all 50 states (American Farmland Trust 1997; Daniels 1999; Wiebe et al. 1996). While many of these programs are targeted at open and green space in general, farmland is an important source of open and green space. Of the nearly two billion acres of private land in the US, half is in agriculture (range, crop and pasture land) (Vesterby et al. 1994).
