Agriculture Land Preservation (ALP) Support Team

The Agriculture Land Preservation (ALP) Support Team is a group of land conservation professionals and other food system organizations working together to re-launch and provide continued support for the NH Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food's Agriculture Land Preservation (ALP) program, a program that funds the conservation of agricultural land across New Hampshire.

The program is a legislatively funded statewide conservation program, in which the NH Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food and land trusts in New Hampshire can purchase conservation easements on agricultural lands to protect them from development.
 

• Assisting New Hampshire legislators and the Commissioner of the NH Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food in writing the rules that will legislate the program.
• Creating a communications and outreach plan to inform the state's land trusts of the available funds and provide assistance in preservation projects.
   

In the summer of 2022, the NH Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food enlisted the NH Food Alliance to help relaunch the Agricultural Land Preservation (ALP) program. NHFA quickly convened a team of farmland preservation experts, including staff from Southeast Land Trust (SELT) and American Farmland Trust, to advise the adjustment of the statutory language that governs the program. The adjustments were submitted to the New Hampshire legislature in House Bill 221, which was passed in the spring of 2023.

With the new statutory language in place, the funds allocated to the program are now eligible for matching funds through the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and other funding sources, doubling the amount of agricultural lands that can be conserved in New Hampshire.