RALEIGH, N.C. — The NC Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ farmland preservation team and the State-wide Voluntary Agricultural District Working Group have scheduled a virtual training session June 9-10.
Each day will include a general session and several (recorded) break-out sessions. The sessions will cover a range of topics on establishing (or re-establishing) a Voluntary Agricultural District and Enhanced Voluntary Agricultural District county program, including:
- County staff (e.g. Soil & Water or Cooperative Extension) role in administering a county VAD program
- Sustaining an active Agricultural Advisory Board How to submit the annual VAD survey.
- Developing a Farmland Protection Plan (and how to keep it off the shelf)
- The role and importance of a Cost of Community Services Study
- How to set up the VAD GIS layer (as proximity warning to adjoining landowners)
- Ensuring a valid a conservation agreement (and when it must be recorded)
- Enrolling and unenrolling VAD parcels
- How to conduct VAD Public Hearings on condemnation
At present, roughly half of the 90 county VAD/EVAD programs are administered by N.C. Cooperative Extension. Please register for the sessions at www.ncvad.org (registration not yet active).
Read more at: https://farmlaw.ces.ncsu.edu/2021/05/farmland-preservation-vad-virtual-training-scheduled-for-june-9/
–Robert Branan, N.C. State Extension