A Cache County legislator looks to boost chronically underfunded programs to preserve Utah's vanishing farmlands.

Rep. Jack Draxler, R-North Logan, said no new taxes would be required to pay landowners who are willing to sell development rights so their lands can be kept in production. Under the voluntary program, money to buy these conservation easements would be paid through existing "rollback" taxes, which are collected when farmland is taken out of production for development.

Draxler made the announcement Monday in Salt Lake City during a conference that drew nearly 100 farmers, elected officials and agricultural support groups.

"Preserving agricultural lands has taken a backseat to development for as long as anyone can remember," said Leonard Blackham, Commissioner of the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food. "This bill is about protecting our food supply. We've lost so much farmland that this is a luxury we can no longer afford."

Utah has lost 500,000 acres of productive agricultural lands this decade alone, Blackham said. The loss represents acreage on which farmers could have grown "wheat for several hundred million loaves of bread or several billion apples," he said.

During the past 40 years, Utah has lost farmlands that equal the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one of the conference sponsors.

For too long, agricultural lands have been considered "the lowest common denominator" in local economies, Lt. Gov. Greg Bell told the gathering. Perhaps Americans could import all their food if the world "were free of political turmoil and war, but sadly this is not so," he said. "We've got to keep a handle on our own food supply."

Draxler said his bill to preserve Utah farmland would be paid for from taxes counties already collect. When agriculture property in a so-called greenbelt is sold to developers, the farmer or developer must pay several years of back taxes at the higher residential rate. Money from these rollback taxes, in turn, typically goes into a county's general fund, to the tune of $8 to $10 million annually statewide.

Under Draxler's bill, which has yet to be numbered for consideration, rollback taxes instead would accrue within each county. As the fund grows, he said, the county would adopt a plan to use rollback taxes to buy conservation easements. Although only lands in production would be eligible, a local elected board would select parcels to be added to the preservation program.

Board members would come from Conservation Districts, which grew out of the 1930s Dust Bowl when soil erosion created an ecological disaster. Today, districts provide technical assistance to protect land and water resources.

Jon White, who sold development rights on 1,600 acres in Cache County, said Draxler's bill is critical. Many farmers are in their 60s, he said, and often their land is their only retirement fund or inheritance they can pass along to their children. For his part, White used money from selling development rights to pay off debts he incurred in buying out his father and brother, and to provide himself with a retirement nest egg.

But money to buy easements is scare.

The LeRay McAllister Fund, a statewide source for financing farmland preservation and open space, has an up-and-down history of funding. In 2006, lawmakers were able to cobble together $1 million for the fund, despite a record $1 billion budget surplus. Officials with the fund said for every $4 in land farmers ask to be placed under an easement, only $1 is available to purchase it.

dawn@sltrib.com