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SACRAMENTO -- In the
late 1970s, Ton and Margaret Lum gave
their sons Paul and Thomas the kind of
gift that keeps on giving: 66 acres of
high-quality farmland near Vacaville.
Paul Lum has taken
steps to ensure that the fertile soil
will continue to provide yearly gifts of
wine grapes and row crops, working with
the Solano Land Trust to create a
permanent agricultural easement on the
property. While the Dixon native still
owns and controls the property, he has
retired the possibility of ever
developing the parcel beyond its
agricultural uses.
The Solano Land Trust
obtained funding for the project from
the California Farmland Conservancy
Program, which is administered by the
California Department of Conservation's
Division of Land Resource Protection.
"My dad was able to
identify the richest soil in that area,"
Lum said. "A lot of the soil is Class 1.
It's a gem in an area where a lot of the
soil is Class 2 or Class 3. It's
extremely productive soil, very deep,
and I've invested a lot of time and
money in putting in permanent crops.
We're very near town, certainly in the
path of development, and it's very
meaningful to me to have this land
protected for agriculture. It's hard to
know what the future will look like, but
one constant will be this 66-acre farm."
The Lum property is
one mile east of the City of Vacaville,
just outside the city's sphere of
influence. While agriculture takes place
on 65 percent of the land in Solano
County, 20,000 acres of farmland were
converted to other uses in the county
from 1986-96. The Association of Bay
Area Governments projects that the
county's population will increase by 36
percent, to nearly half a million, by
2040, and Vacaville's population is
expected to grow by 30,000.
This is the first
agricultural easement in the vicinity of
Vacaville, other than the
Vacaville-Dixon Greenbelt, nearly 10
miles away. The Lum property will help
provide a buffer area between urban
Vacaville and the farms and ranches of
eastern Solano County.
"Paul Lum and his
family are recognized as excellent
stewards of the land, and it's a
privilege to work with them," said Pam
Muick, executive director of the
Fairfield-based Solano Land Trust. "Our
organization's goal is to preserve and
protect farmland throughout Solano
County, and we're very excited to have
our first parcel in the north-central
portion of the county."
The Solano Land Trust
owns five properties totaling 4,800
acres and holds conservation easements
on five properties totaling 292 acres.
This spring, the land trust will release
a countywide agricultural conservation
easement plan identifying its long-term
goals. The trust’s Web address is
www.solanolandtrust.org.
California Department
of Conservation Director Darryl Young
commended the Lum family for taking
steps to keep their land in agricultural
production.
"We hope other
landowners around the county and the
state will follow their lead," he said,
adding: "We congratulate the Solano Land
Trust on its efforts to protect
irreplaceable agricultural land."
Paul Lum's parents
moved their farming operation from Davis
to Vacaville in 1962. Ton Lum and his
partner, Del Young, farmed several
locations in Solano County until 1985,
when Young retired.
Once Paul graduated
from UC Davis in 1981, he joined his
late father in farming. In 1986, he
started his own operation and today
farms about 300 acres. He is president
of the Solano County Farm Bureau and a
director of the Ulatis Resource
Conservation District.
Lum and his wife
Shawn have three children -- Neil (15),
Russell (12) and Lauren (9) -- so it's
entirely possible that another
generation of the family will continue
to farm in Solano County.
"They're completely
undecided about what they want to do
right now, but they've all worked on the
farm, driven equipment, pruned the
grapes and done chores," Lum said. "They
all enjoy being outdoors and helping
out. I'm not sure whether they want to
be farmers, but it's nice to know
they'll have the option of doing that if
they want to."
California's
agricultural production totaled nearly
$29.3 billion in 2000; Solano County's
total was more than $185 million. But
farmland is a limited resource that is
slowly becoming scarcer. According to
DOC's Farmland Mapping and Monitoring
Program, nearly 43,000 acres of
agricultural land -- an area about the
size of the city of Modesto -- was
urbanized between 1996 and 1998 in the
state.
"The needs of a
growing population and the needs of
agriculture don't always dovetail," DOC
Director Young said. "But the California
Farmland Conservancy Program offers a
partnership between landowners, land
trusts and government agencies that
helps to balance the needs of both
sides."
The CFCP is designed
to ensure that the state's most valuable
farmland will not be developed. Through
the program, local governments and
non-profit organizations can receive
grants to purchase development rights
from willing landowners, thus creating
permanent conservation. CFCP funds
remain for new grant proposals.
Landowners and land trusts are
encouraged to contact the Department of
Conservation/Division of Land Resource
Protection for information on the
program and potential grant funding. The
division's Web address is
www.conservation.ca.gov/dlrp.
In addition to
administering agricultural and
open-space land conservation programs,
the Department of Conservation ensures
the reclamation of land used for mining;
promotes beverage container recycling;
regulates oil, gas and geothermal wells;
and studies and maps earthquakes and
other geologic phenomena.
LOCAL CONTACT: Pam
Muick, Solano Land Trust, (707)
432-0150.
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