The U.S. Department of Agriculture is awarding “The Ann Arbor Greenbelt: Saving Michigan Farms Regional Conservation Partnership Program” $1 million dollars, according to a Feb. 4 press release. The project is led by the City of Ann Arbor Open Space and Parkland Preservation Program, also called the Greenbelt. It aims to protect surrounding Ann Arbor agricultural lands through conservation easements, the right to use someone else’s land for a specified purpose. Greenbelt and its local partners will match the grant, which means a total of $2 million will go toward preserving farmland in Washtenaw County. Partners in the project include Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission, Scio Township, Ann Arbor Township, Augusta Township, Legacy Land Conservancy, Southeast Michigan Land Conservancy, The Conservation Fund and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. This 2018 fiscal year, the Saving Michigan Farms program is one of 91 projects selected for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program funding by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. The USDA list of chosen projects describes ecological and local benefits of the Saving Michigan Farms program. These benefits include protecting food security and local economics, maintaining the agricultural heritage of residents and combating environmental concerns. According to Jennifer Fike, the Greenbelt Advisory Commission chair, the USDA grant will amplify the Greenbelt’s land preservation efforts. “(The grant money) is an awesome way for us to leverage federal dollars to match the amount of money that we put in to protect land in Washtenaw County in the Greenbelt area,” Fike said. “It allows our (tax) dollars to go further to protect more land.” According to the USDA website, the RCPP funds projects through four types of programs, including from the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program. Though the Greenbelt has received USDA funding directly from ACEP before, this is the first time Greenbelt has received such funding through the RCPP, Fike explained. “It could potentially allow us to go after larger parcels of land,” Fike said. “I’m not sure, as (both types of funding) are very similar. It just allows us more funding — one million dollars — whereas ACEP funding is a lot less.” The Saving Michigan Farms program will preserve agricultural lands by functioning as a Purchase of Development Rights program, a voluntary program for which landowners can apply. Owners of qualified agricultural property are compensated for accepting a permanent deed restriction through a conservation easement, which prohibits future development on that land. The land remains private property, and the landowner may receive income tax benefits for donating part or all of the value of development rights. To LSA freshman Noah Clements, who is a student in the Program in the Environment, PDR programs are especially beneficial for their long-term effects. “Conservation easements, like Greenbelt is doing, are really sustainable, and they keep that land undeveloped for decades to come,” Clements said. “It really is a future-minded project, which is what we need.” According to the Greenbelt website, PDR programs benefit farmers in a variety of ways, such as rendering farmland more affordable, which helps younger farmers; gives older farmers a way other than selling their land to fund retirement; and assists in the transfer of farmland from generation to generation. Fike echoed these points, expressing that PDR programs can help CAFE SHAPIRO ON THE DAILY: ‘U’ BAN ON FACULTY-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS IN PLACE THIS WEEK IN HISTORY: CARTER, STUDENTS DISCUSS DRAFT. MSA’S ALLAND GOES TO D.C. A new University policy took effect on Monday prohibiting sexual, romantic, amorous and dating relationships between faculty and undergraduate students in for all three University of Michigan campuses. The policy is part of significant revisions to University procedure on faculty-student relationships that came after a working group, consisting of faculty from all three campuses, made recommendations to University President Mark Schlissel. The policy, which prohibits relationships between “teachers” and “learners,” bans relationships between faculty, graduate student instructors and undergraduates responsible for the delivery of course content with students they have academic or supervisory authority over, including in class, labs, online, field or other settings. Graduate and professional students are also banned from having relationships with faculty members inside their discipline or academic program, in which the faculty member has or might reasonably be expected to have academic or supervisory authority. Supervised and non-supervised postdoctoral research fellows may not engage in relationships with faculty members in cases where they have had or might be expected to have academic or supervisory authority as well. University Provost Martin Philbert told the University Record that helping students advance as learners should be the primary mission of all educators at the University. “Maintenance of an environment of trust, openness, civility and respect that enables each person to reach their full potential is at the core of our mission as educators at the University of Michigan,” University Provost Martin Philbert said. “It is incumbent on our faculty to nurture the advancement and pursuit of knowledge, which result in lifelong professional mentorships and service to our society.” According to an email sent to the Ford School of Public Policy, the Public Policy school will consider rare exceptions. Requests for exceptions must be made in writing by the faculty member, GSI or other teachers. This policy applies to the University’s Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses. Feb. 19, 1980 President Carter and National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski met with 300 student leaders from across the country - including Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) President Jim Alland - in Washington Friday to discuss the reinstatement of draft registration. Both Carter and Brzezinski reaffirmed that the proposal now before Congress is a necessary step to protect American interests abroad, Alland said in an interview yesterday. “The overriding concern at the conference was the registration,” Alland said. “It’s hard to know what a meeting like this will do, however, it’s always to express views.” He described his own feelings on registration as “very mixed.” Campaign workers for Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) invited the visiting students to a reception at Kennedy’s Washington headquarters, but All And said he did not attend it. He added that students expressed concern that they were being used as political pawns. “To say that it was not a political move (on Carter’s part) would be nothing, less than naive,” he said. Alland, however, said he felt the president was “very sincere” in his desire to hear student response to foreign policy. “I really got the feeling that they wanted to hear what the mood was across the nation.” 2A — Wednesday, February 20, 2019 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com News ASHA LEWIS/Daily Cafe Shapiro, the annual show presented by the UM Libraries, showcased students nominated by their instructors to share their poems and short stories in the Shapiro Undergraduate Library. TUESDAY: By Design THURSDAY: Twitter Talk FRIDAY: Behind the Story WEDNESDAY: This Week in History MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers Sudoku Syndication http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ 1 of 1 10/8/08 12:37 PM SUDOKU HARD 2 7 5 1 3 6 9 4 3 1 8 3 3 2 5 8 7 6 3 2 7 1 3 7 6 5 9 7 4 PAPERS puzzle by sudokusyndication.com Read more online at michigandaily.com Ann Arbor project awarded $1 million grant from US Department of Agriculture Initiative to save Michigan farms chosen to receive funding from USDA ZAYNA SYED Daily Staff Reporter CLAIRE HAO Daily Staff Reporter landowners in their present-day business operations as well. “Land prices in Washtenaw County can be pretty high,” Fike said. “(It can be) very difficult financially to make a living at (farming). By being able to place land in a conservation easement with us as a partner, that allows (farmers) the financial capability to put the money back into their business and grow food for local markets, such as Ann Arbor Farmers Market, selling to Ann Arbor restaurants, selling directly off their farm.” The Greenbelt arose out of the 2003 Open Space and Parkland Preservation Millage, a 30-year, 0.5 mil tax levy in response to the worries of suburban sprawl in Ann Arbor in the 1990s. More commonly known as the Greenbelt Millage, the measure passed with two-thirds of the vote. Michael Garfield, director of environmental advocacy group known as the Ecology Center, spearheaded the Greenbelt ballot measure in 2003. Garfield explained the context in which the measure arose, describing rapid development in the 1980s and 1990s. “Back in the 1980s and ’90s, there was unplanned, unrestrained suburban development in all of southeast Michigan … quite a distance from the urban center of Detroit,” Garfield said. “There were ginormous (sic) developments in Washtenaw County fairly close to Ann Arbor that were being proposed that would utterly transform the landscape around here … We were concerned about the loss of natural resources, and loss of good farmland that could be used to build a sustainable food economy.” Garfield also described unrestrictive development laws, which made control of suburban sprawl difficult. 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