TY - JOUR T1 - PDR programs take root in the Northeast JF - Journal of Soil and Water Conservation SP - 329 LP - 331 VL - 46 IS - 5 AU - Julia Freedgood Y1 - 1991/09/01 UR - http://www.jswconline.org/content/46/5/329.abstract N2 - FARMLAND protection programs usually fall into one of three categories. One category includes incentive programs, such as tax relief, right-to-farm laws, or agricultural districting. Another consists of land use controls based on involuntary programs, agricultural zoning, for example. The third category involves land use controls using voluntary programs. These can include direct acquisitions of farmland, either in fee simple or, more often, by purchasing development rights. Private initiatives, such as the transfer of development rights (TDR), fall into this category as well. Farmland protection programs sometimes combine techniques to integrate incentives and controls as well as public and private relationships (3, 5). Purchase of development rights (PDR) is one of the most widely used farmland protection techniques in the Northeast. Established to protect high quality farmland from conversion to nonagricultural uses, PDR programs buy easements, or deed restrictions, on qualified farmland. So far, nine state-level programs in the Northeast and local programs in towns and counties nationwide have protected farmland using PDR. In 1974, Suffolk County, New York, established the first PDR program, with the intention of buying easements on optimum farmland. Development rights were actually purchased in 1977 (3, 10). Maryland and Massachusetts initiated state programs … ER -