John Boyer spent his childhood on his family’s 131 acres of corn, oats, and wheat in East Jordan, Michigan. But over decades, the farm slipped away from family control. It changed hands three times. Each time, the land moved further from farming.
Boyer’s story is increasingly common in Michigan and across the Midwest. Family farms continue to decline as consolidation and development pressure mount, forcing many rural landowners to choose between selling to developers, speculators, or absentee investors, or making a structured effort to keep land in production.
A growing number of Michigan farmers and conservationists are turning to land trusts as a solution. These nonprofit organizations work with landowners to place conservation easements on property, restricting development while keeping the land affordable for farming. The model has gained momentum as farmland prices climb and off-farm pressures mount.
“Land trusts can be a bridge when families are stuck between keeping a farm or cashing out to developers,” said one Michigan conservation professional, as documented by Investigate Midwest in partnership with Grist. These easements typically lock in agricultural use for 30 years or more, cutting the land’s development value but allowing farmers to stay competitive on price.
The challenge is scale. Michigan has thousands of vulnerable family farms, but relatively limited conservation funding. Land trusts operate on donations, grants, and the occasional farmer willing to donate conservation rights. Meanwhile, developers and farmland speculators have deeper pockets and can move faster.
The urgency is real. Once a farm is subdivided or paved over, it rarely comes back. Studies show that Michigan is losing farmland faster than the national average, a pattern driven by sprawl, consolidation, and younger farmers’ inability to afford entry.
Some states and counties have started to step up. Tax incentives for conservation easements and public funding for land trusts can accelerate these protections, though Michigan’s resources remain thin. Without stronger intervention, experts warn that the next decade will see even steeper losses.
For farmers like Boyer, the land trust model offers at least one path forward: a way to pass land to the next generation without forcing a fire sale to outsiders.
