Project Overview: It is our dream that one farm per year be saved from becoming an industrial zone, gravel pit, box store, subdivision, or parking lot. Our farms need to continue sprouting crops, not houses. Our work centers around three core ideas: land acquisition, education and outreach. By raising matching donations to buy development rights on prime agricultural parcels, this project protects prime agricultural lands in the valley. Education and outreach occurs on two levels: in the community and with landowners. The goal of education and outreach is to increase awareness in the community and among landowners about the need to protect agricultural land in the valley. Along with raising awareness, this project intends to educate valley land owners about how to participate in the program. This is a wonderful step to protecting farms that are not designated agricultural parcels and are therefore at risk of development.
Partnerships: Friends of Mat-Su have been working with the Alaska Farmland Trust, the Palmer Soil and Water Conservation District, and the Mat-Su Borough to secure funding for protection of valuable agricultural resources in the Mat-Su Valley. 
Outcomes: So far, one-40 acre farm near Wasilla has been protected under a program in which the NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service) puts up 50% of the money to purchase development rights and the rest of the money comes from the landowner and though grants.
More Information: Contact Alaska Farmland Trust Corp. at 907-745-3390
40 acres of prime agricultural land were saved in the Mat-Su Valley. This farm, called Heaven's Farm, was dedicated in August 2008.
