03/24/2026
Owners of farmland permanently protected with a perpetual conservation easement (CE) now have explicit statutory access to State of Michigan tax credits by virtue of a set of six bills recently signed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Previously, when a landowner was conveying a CE and had a State Farmland Development Rights Agreement (FDRA) that limited non-agricultural use for a fixed number of years, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) provided a consent agreement to the CE so the tax credits could be claimed. Several years ago MDARD unilaterally decided CEs and FDRAs were no longer compatible and stopped paying the credits without notice to the landowners. In some cases the credits amounted to $10,000-20,000 a year, real money for farmers.
When efforts to protest MDARD's action proved fruitless, land conservation program managers (including Northfield Township's consultant Barry Lonik) pursued changes to the governing statute. The bill package was introduced with bipartisan support and ushered through the Senate by our State Senator (and Northfield resident) Sue Shink. With the governor's signature, any landowner whose property meets the State definition of farmland (40 acres or greater with 51% in ag use, and smaller properties that generate at least $200/year in gross annual income from farming) who conveys a CE has access to the State tax credits. We hope this will provide an additional incentive for permanent land conservation in Northfield Township and beyond.
