Protecting Agricultural Working Lands Through Conservation Easements
The Ag Land Trust, based in Salinas, CA, works to protect working agricultural land in California through conservation easements, partnering with landowners who want to ensure their farms and ranches remain in production permanently.
New Leaf Climate Partners was engaged to provide transaction advisory support across two distinct program pipelines: SALC, California’s state-funded program for protecting agricultural land from development, and REPI, the Department of Defense program that funds conservation easements on lands adjacent to military installations to protect operational readiness.
Importance.
California’s agricultural land faces irreversible conversion pressure. Once farmland is developed, the productive capacity, ecological services, and community food systems it supports are gone permanently. The SALC program provides one of the most reliable state-funded pathways for protecting that land, but navigating it demands specialized expertise in baseline documentation, easement language, and grant administration.
The REPI program adds a second, often underutilized pathway. Military installations across California are surrounded by private land whose development would directly impair training operations and mission readiness. DoD has funded hundreds of conservation easements through REPI nationwide, but local land trusts frequently lack the institutional familiarity with federal procurement processes and military partnership dynamics to access this capital.
What have/will we deliver?
Proven Track Record. NLC has already helped ALT secure millions of dollars of grants to fund agricultural conservation and has helped manage and close multiple easements throughout Monterey County
SALC transaction support. Transaction support for active conservation easement deals in the SALC pipeline, including initial application preparation, easement document review, baseline documentation support, and landowner communication.
REPI program advisory. Advisory on REPI program access, including military installation partnership development, proposal structuring, and coordination with DoD contacts.
Capacity building. Institutional knowledge transfer to strengthen Ag Land Trust’s internal capacity for navigating both programs on future deals.
Why would others work with us?
Conservation easement transactions are simultaneously legal instruments, financial structures, and landowner relationships. NLC brings the multi-disciplinary depth that complex transactions require:
REPI expertise. We have direct experience with REPI program requirements and DoD partnership processes’
California program fluency. We understand California’s conservation finance landscape — including SALC program mechanics and the relationships between state agencies, land trusts, and landowners.
Field-grounded practice. Our conservation easement work is grounded in field practice. NLC has conducted baseline documentation field visits, managed landowner interview processes, and prepared baseline reports for active easement transactions.
Finance-first problem solving. We bring a finance lens that most land trust advisors lack.
