Auditor, SWCD partner for mapping

CELINA - Two Mercer County agencies are joining forces to streamline the electronic mapping of agricultural lands enrolled in federal conservation programs that also now qualify for a tax cut.

County commissioners Rick Muhlenkamp and Jerry Laffin on Thursday morning approved a memorandum of understanding between the offices of the county auditor and soil and water conservation district.

The auditor's office will transfer $10,000 from its real estate fund to the county commissioners, who, in turn, will appropriate the sum to SWCD to electronically map properties in conservation programs and practices.

The MOU is for one year and will automatically renew for successive one-year terms unless either party decides to terminate it. Cognizant of concerns about the release of sensitive information, county officials spelled out that under no circumstances shall SWCD, in the performance of its duties specified under this MOU, transfer or release the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Common Land Unit map layer.

"We have gone through the prosecutor. They have reviewed all of this, and we were very clear on that language so that we will not be doing that in any way, shape or form," SWCD district administrator Nicole Hawk said at the SWCD's regular meeting this week.

Rather than contract with an outside firm, county auditor Randy Grapner opted to work in-house through SWCD, knowing it has the necessary computer software and expertise. It would be tedious and time-consuming for tax map coordinator Janell Weiss to develop GIS maps for the roughly 800 land contracts on file, officials said.   

"The benefit that (SWCD) offers is that their technical staff has mapping ability and mapping software and time to assist with the project," Weiss told the newspaper. "So we're taking those maps that the producers bring us and (SWCD staff) are digitally mapping the boundaries of the conservation programs."

Hawk told the newspaper that her staff will work on the mapping project intermittently among other duties. Also, the state will match commissioners' $10,000 allocation with between $6,500 and $7,000, Hawk said.

Grapner said state legislation a few years back allowed for the reduction of Current Agricultural Use Value for lands in conservation programs. CAUV allows farmers to have their croplands and woodlands taxed according to ag value rather than full-market value.

In addition to being eligible for annual rental payments and cost-share assistance for voluntarily removing sensitive lands from production and planting certain grasses, shrubs and trees that improve water quality, prevent soil erosion and increase wildlife habitat, under the Conservation Reserve Program and other programs, farmers can also qualify to have their CAUV reduced to the lowest amount available.

"The vast majority that we're seeing is going to be CRP," Weiss said about lands in conservation programs and practices eligible for CAUV reductions. "It's a lot of grass waterways, windbreaks, filter strips, but they can also be wetlands in the Wetland Reserve Program."

The state CAUV formula is based on factors such as yields, crop prices and soil types. Mercer County has 65 different types of soil and its CAUV rate per acre ranges from $350 to $3,940 per acre, Grapner said.

"The idea behind the legislation was that in the event that the farmer was in a (conservation) program or a practice, that land and the acreage that was in there would be reduced to the lowest value … soil-type acre in Mercer County," Grapner said. "If your acre's worth $3,940 and now it's worth $350, that's quite a significant savings."

Now that those programs and practices can allow for a reduction in CAUV, property owners must provide a program contract and basic map to the county auditor's office, which then produces a GIS map.

The Farm Service Agency "provides a map to our farming community, which the farmer then was supposed to bring the map into our office so that we could prepare this tax shelter," Grapner said. "We handle the assessment."

Grapner said he needed better, more precise maps, "to tell us exactly what kind of dirt was in the box that's now involved in the (conservation) program or the practice."

That's when he decided to bring in SWCD.

"We're trying to implement these practices and programs as exactly as possible and it's the way that we've found that we could get this done," he said. "Janell has been extremely busy fixing and repairing and putting together our GIS mapping system."