Agricultural Stewardship Assn Inc

“It is the policy of the organization that representatives of the board of directors annually review the completed form 990 and that copies of the form are distributed to all board members before it is filed with the internal revenue service.”

“The organization has a conflict of interest policy that is documented and followed. It is the responsibility of members of the board and staff to disclose any potential conflict of interest involving themselves, a family member, a substantial contributor or member of a substantial contributor's family, or other insider as defined by the current board policy.”

“The executive committee conducts an annual performance review of the executive director and is authorized to make recommendations to the full board regarding executive compensation. The executive committee reviews comparable compensation data of similarly qualified persons at similar organizations, such as salary information gathered by the land trust alliance and other sources. If the executive committee does not have data as to comparability, it documents any other basis for believing the proposed compensation is reasonable.”

“The organization will provide to any individual who asks, copies of its governing documents, conflict of interest policy, financial statements, irs form 990 and annual report to the new york state charities bureau. Copies of the organization's annual tax filing can also be found on the charities bureau's website.”

“Asa is dedicated to promoting farming for the future through land protection, stewardship, agricultural viability, and outreach activities. The organization's mission is to protect our community's working farms and forests, connect people to the land, and promote a vibrant future for agriculture and forestry in the region. The organization's service area covers new york's rensselaer and washington counties, with around 1,300 farms contributing approximately 200 million in product sales annually to the local economy.”

“Land protection and acquisition - the organization operates a conservation easement program with a primary focus of conserving farmland and forestland. In addition to donated easements, the organization purchases easements from willing landowners and operates purchase of development rights (pdr) programs for rensselaer and washington counties. During this fiscal year, the organization assisted landowners with the conservation of approximately 1,508 acres on 7 farms. All of these projects were farms that were awarded state farmland protection funding. Baseline documentation reports were completed for all of the properties that were conserved. The organization also advanced another 17 easements totaling 3,927 acres, the majority of which have been awarded state funding. In addition, the organization owns a 140-acre forested property managed as a community forest for recreational and educational purposes and recently purchased a 78-acre property to become their second community forest.”

“Education and outreach - educating people about conservation tools and the importance of local farms and the need to protect farmland and forestland is an integral part of the organization's mission. The organization holds outreach sessions and regularly talks with service and business associations, schools, municipalities and private landowners about the importance of land conservation and ways to keep farmers on the land. Many public educational opportunities are offered throughout the year to connect people to the importance of working lands and benefits they provide. The organization also continued to develop new partnerships and programs with community organizations in urban areas of the capital district. Recognizing that protecting farmland and fostering farming goes hand in hand, the organization continued to partner with others to provide support to farmers. This included training for farmers, farm match services, peer to peer mentoring and continued implementation of county agricultural and farmland protection plans.”

“Easement stewardship and management - the organization successfully completed stewardship visits to all 172 existing easements in order to fulfill its ongoing responsibility to uphold the terms of its easements and protect the conservation values of the conserved land. The organization has undertaken a series of initiatives to improve its stewardship program, including purchasing collective easement defense insurance (terrafirma rrg) to protect its organizational assets in case of litigation, hiring additional stewardship staff for added capacity, and incorporating more technology for improved efficiency and effectiveness with stewardship tasks. The organization responded to many landowner questions and permission requests regarding their easements. The organization continues to communicate with landowners of easement protected land and actively meets with new owners to establish a relationship and discuss the easements. As part of its continuing efforts to strengthen relationships with owners of conserved lands, it sponsored several landowner workshops this year on topics such as soil health, regenerative agriculture, and chain saw safety. The organization received land trust accreditation in 2013, received accreditation renewal in 2019 and 2024. The organization continues to improve its stewardship program by participating in meetings with land trusts in the region and attends training sessions on stewardship and easement management issues.”