Carroll County, Maryland, boasts a rich agricultural heritage. Farming and agribusiness are woven into every aspect of the county – from the rural working landscape, cherished by the public, to their significant contribution to the county’s economy, jobs, and revenues. Carroll’s goal is to permanently preserve at least 100,000 acres of agricultural land.

Carroll County’s Agricultural Land Preservation effort is the most successful in the State of Maryland, preserving more farms and more acres through the purchase of land preservation easements than any other county in Maryland. Carroll County’s program also ranks among the nation’s top five similar programs administered by local governments in the United States.

Operating since 1980, the Carroll program has preserved more than 708 farms encompassing over 76,500 acres as of June 2021.

With Carroll’s long-standing goal of preserving at least 100,000 acres, the Boards of County Commissioners over those many decades have made farmland preservation a priority. Since 1980, these Boards have invested over $244 million to achieve this goal and the economic, environmental, scenic, and heritage benefits that farmland preservation brings the County, the agricultural community, the environment, and the community at large.