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By Ramona Frances

Persons traveling west on Howard Road have only a short distance to go before new housing meets vineyards. Peering out the window of a newly framed home, the view opens wide to rows of lush green vines, with leaves that provide cover for the tiny developing fruit they hide. Handled with care, then left alone, the miniature clusters will develop into full sized grapes.

A cluster of houses sits where a vineyard used to be. "Farmland is being paved over at an astounding rate. California is losing about 50,000 to 100,000 acres of valuable farmland per year, said Senator Jeff Denham, R-Merced. "At that rate, we could see the end of some of America's most productive regions in my children's lifetime. Like the orange groves of Anaheim, Calif., farming could be a memory of the past, replaced by asphalt and concrete."

Denham points out that California's population is growing fast. "Every year we are fighting more traffic on the highways and seeing more new housing developments than ever before. As our population grows and we develop more land for houses and industry, we are also losing a real jewel of California -our agriculture lands. As the chair of the senate agriculture committee, a farmer, and a citizen of California, I am concerned about the loss of farmland," he said.

The growth surge has infected Madera County but there is another side of growth that also warrants attention-the increased interest in the preservation of farmland and the growth of land trusts to protect it.

Julia Berry, director of the Madera Farm Bureau, said Madera County is the site of one of the largest multi-family farmland preservation deals on the west coast (in early 2000).

"The project is called the "Madera 8" project and involved 8 landowners who formed a block of preserved agricultural land on the west side of Madera County," she said.

Some might think 400 acres is hardly enough to block a trend. Bill Martin, director of the Central Valley Farmland Trust, said the function of trusts is often misunderstood. CVFT owns 9,000 acres of farmland in Merced County. During a phone interview, Martin said CVFT is not opposed to growth.

"That's not reasonable or realistic. Hopefully, by creating a critical mass of ag conservation, growth will happen on less productive farmland," he said.

CVFT buys agricultural easements to protect prime farmland. When the Sierra Club sued California developers for building on farmland, CVFT became the third party beneficiary of the suit. Money received from developers went to buy land for the trust.

"We don't work within city limits, we look to the outskirts of the sphere of influence‚ so we don't deliberately compromise city municipality growth plans," he said.

Martin said growth should happen reasonably and pragmatically. Money offered from developers is so enticing to landowners, and cities want to increase their tax base, and environmental agencies want to stop all growth.

"We are not an environmental group but we work with them. Education is importation to us. There is lots of misunderstanding about what land trusts are and what they do. We don't set growth policy or influence politics. If the economy of farming were better, we wouldn't be needed. If the profit margin was there, if farmers made a nice living, this wouldn't happen."

When talking to former Madera resident Andy Van Hoogmoed about saving prime farmland, he said, "It's too late." Van Hoogmoed's family farmed a 20-acre vineyard near Howard Road in Madera.

Denham said we must be sure the mistakes of the past, leap-frog development and unrestrained sprawl, are not in our future. "With the use of a variety of land use tools, California can continue with its strong agriculture industry and open space while accommodating our future population demand through smarter, planned, and targeted growth of our communities."

Denham said that last fall, he organized an agricultural hearing, where programs such as the Williamson Act were discussed. The Williamson Act gives tax incentives to keep land in agriculture, and agriculture easements, which protects the Ag land in perpetuity.

"With all of our current growth," Denham said, "ag land preservation programs are, and will be put to the test to protect our green fields."

American Farmland Trusts stated that since the Gold Rush, almost 700,000 acres on the floor of the valley have been developed for urban use. Almost 100 thousand acres of this was paved over in the 1990s alone. Within just the next generation, close to a million more acres of farmland could vanish, putting additional pressure on the ability of the region's farmers to continue producing food for the state, the nation and the world.

For information see www.americanfarmlandtrust.

Ramona Frances Ramona Frances is a staff columnist, writer and photographer for the Madera Tribune. You may contact Ramona at 674.8134 ext. 222 or by e-mail ramona (at) maderatribune.net The Madera Tribune online subscription To subscribe or log on, CLICK HERE. For more information first, CLICK HERE.