Holly Farms

TALT Purchases Conservation Easement on Holly Farms in Brazoria County

San Antonio, Texas – June 13, 2016 – The Texas Agricultural Land Trust (TALT) is pleased to announce the conservation of Holly Farms in Brazoria County.  This 188 acres of lush grassland will remain in agricultural use forever!   Funding for the purchase of the conservation easement was provided through the Texas Farm and Ranch Lands Conservation Program with qualified outer continental shelf oil and gas revenues by the Coastal Impact Assistance Program, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Property owner Mary Ruth Rhodenbaugh chose to utilize a conversation easement to permanently conserve her family’s century old legacy of land stewardship because she wanted her grandchildren to have strong ties to the land.  She said, “As you get older, you realize it’s important to accomplish the things that create the legacy you want to leave behind.”

This area of Brazoria County offers significant historical, agricultural and ecological resources.  Once the seasonal home of the nomadic Karankawa Indians, Brazoria County was later colonized by Stephen F. Austin in 1824.  In 1908, Ms. Rhodenbaugh’s grandfather William Brigance, a prominent local farmer and politician, and his bride Juliet, settled in Wild Peach and developed what is now Holly Farms.  The Brigance family briefly operated it as a dairy but quickly moved to row-crop production and cattle.  It is now a cow/calf and hay operation.

TALT’s chief executive officer Blair Fitzsimons says, “Without a conservation easement, this property would likely eventually be developed.” According to the Texas A&M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources Land Trends data (www.texaslandtrends.org), the Greater Houston/Coastal Bend area has seen some of the state’s highest rates of fragmentation over the past 10-20 years. Of that region, Brazoria County, with its flat, open farmland and proximity to Houston, has experienced significant development.

The placement of a conservation easement on Holly Farms, ensures that this property will remain intact and in agricultural use forever.  For Ms. Rhodenbaugh, it comforts her to know her grandchildren will have the chance to farm and ranch, and to enjoy the property as she and her children have.  Rhodenbaugh is also proud of the fact that the conservation of this property will help protect the local ground water and wildlife habitat, while providing scenic enjoyment for an area that is being increasingly developed. Fitzsimons points out, “The conservation of working agricultural properties like Holly Farms is one of the most cost-effective ways to ensure abundant water for all Texans – especially in times of drought.”

Tailored to meet individual needs, the conservation easement is a voluntary agreement negotiated between landowner and a land trust. Future owners will be able to continue ranching, agricultural, and wildlife management activities, including commercial and recreational hunting and fishing, as long as those activities are consistent with the protection of the conservation values and the conservation purposes of the easement.

Texas is home to 30 land trusts, which are non-profit entities approved by the IRS to hold, monitor and enforce the easement.  TALT is the only statewide land trust dedicated solely to the conservation of working agricultural lands (farms, ranches, wildlife habitat, timber, fishing and recreation properties).  Created by farmers and ranchers for farmers and ranchers, TALT believes strongly that keeping productive rural lands in private hands and under private management is the best way to conserve Texas’ natural resources.

Ms. Rhodenbaugh sums up her conservation easement by saying, “While Holly Farms is not huge by Texas standards, I hope it will be example of what can be done on smaller acreages. It doesn’t have to be 10,000 acres to be important. We’re conserving land—and it all matters.”

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