Free Republic

Comprehensive Agricultural Land Conservation Conference to Be Held April 16 in TempeMedia and Public Invited Phoenix, Arizona — Agricultural land conservation funding, laws and strategies will be the topic of the "Farm and Ranchland Protection Conference," to be held on April 16 from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. at Harkins Theatres at Arizona Mills Shopping Center in Tempe. The conference is designed to inform landowners, government officials and other interested citizens about laws governing agricultural land conservation, how to create a conservation easement, how to pay for the purchase of agricultural land for conservation, the relationship between agricultural land conservation...

<p>In the high country of northern Greenville County, near the North Carolina line, a fight is being waged that some legal experts say could be precedent-setting.</p> <p>At the heart of the issue is a legal document called a conservation easement, which protects the mountainous 26,000-acre Greenville watershed to ensure the city's water remains pure. At issue is the Greenville Water Commission's change of the easement to allow a 12-mile hiking trail through the watershed.</p>