80 acres to go into food production on San Juan
The recent approval of two long-term farming leases on San Juan Island is one more effort toward sustaining agriculture opportunities on the islands, an industry overshadowed by residential development and tourism since the 1960s.
Farming peaked in the San Juan Islands during the 1890s through the 1930s. Since the 1960s, number of acres farmed in the islands decreased by more than half, according to the Community Food Assessment.
The San Juan County council approved the farmland on Feb. 11: 80 acres sitting on two preserves owned by the San Juan County County Conservation Land Bank.
The decision followed a trend in recent years to reinvigorate the agriculture industry in the San Juans, alongside local farmer’s markets, the San Juan Islands Food Hub, the Agricultural Resource Committee and the San Juan Islands Conservation District.
It was the ultimate step in implementing two 20-year leases between the Land Bank and farmers who were selected via a process beginning in 2023.
A local take on leased farms
The Land Bank owns 500 acres of prime farmland — out of its 5,000 total acres — and an additional 1,300 acres of private farmland are protected by conservation easements managed by the Land Bank. A total of 29 farms throughout the county are under Land Bank management.
Nearly 39% of farmland in America is on leased land, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The federal government leases large grazing tracts on Bureau of Land Management lands, and in Washington state the Department of Natural Resources leases 1.1 million acres for agriculture and grazing, mostly in eastern Washington.
There are just a few locally run government programs in Washington that lease agriculture land, including the City of Bainbridge Island, which owns 60 acres of farmland with much of it leased out. King County also has a program for leasing land to farmers.
Reducing the loss of farmland was also one of the primary goals for the state’s Growth Management Act, first passed in 1990, which prioritized the protection of resource lands including agriculture, and directed future development into urban growth areas.
Frazer Homestead Preserve
Frazer Homestead Preserve, one of the two leases, has 53 acres of pasture, with a pond and two access points. A fence encloses a public walking trail alongside Cattle Point Road enroute to the American Camp, part of the San Juan Island National Historic Park.
The Land Bank bought it in 2006 with the goal of conserving views, creating an opportunity for continued agriculture and creating a roadside trail along Cattle Point Road connected to American Camp.
The Shepard family, selected to work this parcel, received a long-term grazing lease. The Shepards intend to have a sustainable livestock operation raising lamb and beef, and to build soil and ecosystem health.
The National Park Service (NPS) now wishes to purchase the southern portion for inclusion into the San Juan Islands National Historical Park. NPS believes this portion of the property is the location of the homestead of Lyman Cutler, the American settler who shot the Hudson Bay Company’s pig in 1859, instigating the famous Pig War.
Lincoln Bormann, director of the Land Bank, said federal funding is approved. The San Juan County Council has scheduled a public hearing for March 18 to consider authorizing the sale.
Beaverton Valley Preserve
Approximately 40 acres of the 477-acre Beaverton Valley Preserve — on the north side of the parcel along Roche Harbor Road — is being leased to the San Juan Island Grange.
This partnership gives opportunities to San Juan islanders to grow food for their families or for market. An interim lease agreement allowed the Grange to begin work last year.
“Starting from a dream and a desire to improve our island’s food resilience, our farm team wrote a winning proposal to the Land Bank to lease 40 acres,” wrote Grange President Roger Ellison in the Grange newsletter. “We’ve converted a quarter acre of pasture to vegetable beds, produced a first crop of potatoes for a celebratory dinner at the [Grange] Hall, put up deer fence, converted more pasture to vegetables, installed an irrigation system and planted a cover crop and several rows of winter vegetables.”
Plans include irrigation of around eight acres, and the remainder will be for grazing and tree crops.
The Grange offered a range of parcel sizes for community use, known as the Overmarsh Farm Commons, from a patch as small as 100 square feet up to commercial operations of up to half an acre, along with a variety of other options.
According to the Grange website, commons parcels are competitive, but a few remain available.
With the lease, the community is guaranteed 20 years of farming this land. And it’s just the beginning.
Twenty years is “fairly standard for us,” Bormann said, “but we’re really looking to go with longer lease periods to give farmers more stability and encourage them to invest more in the property.”
— By Nancy DeVaux
Also read in Salish Current:
“Food resiliency and climate change in the San Juan Islands,” Sept. 20, 2024
“Island food hub links farms to customers,” July 1, 2024
“Wireworms pester new farmers, puzzle the seasoned,” June 16, 2023
“Back to the land in the islands: Women who farm,” March 31, 2023
“Back to the land in the islands: Locally growing,” March 24, 2023