EDITORIAL: The green countryside is a valuable farm product

Ozaukee County has the smallest land area and one of the fastest rates of population growth of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, which makes it all the more remarkable that 40% of the county’s land is still farmland.

As just about the only land available for significant development, the agricultural share of the county’s space—78 square miles of land—will be shrinking. Development is inevitable and essential for the county’s economic vitality, but it should come at a measured pace and with limits, because farmland is a resource worthy of protection.

Farmland gives the Ozaukee County its open spaces and much of its green space. Besides more than 50,000 acres of cropland and pasture land, the farm properties include woodlands and wetlands that add up to an extensive area of natural landscape.

The evolution of the Town of Grafton illustrates the growing pressure on Ozaukee farmland. The sprawling Grafton Commons mall and adjacent shopping areas, along with residential development of the once rural countryside, have consumed thousands of acres of land that were once farmed and are now in the Village of Grafton. Working farms have all but disappeared. The remaining acres of leased cropland are in the sights of developers for upscale subdivisions. In contrast, farming thrives in the Town of

Port Washington. Most of its land, nearly 8,000 acres, is used for agriculture. That vast expanse of open land, however, makes it a target for industrial development on a massive scale.

Contracts to sell 2,000 acres at $42,000 per acre, an astonishing price unheard of until now, have been signed by landowners. The land had been earmarked for annexation to the City of Port Washington as the site for an enormous semiconductor manufacturing facility. The potential buyer chose another site, but the land is still being marketed to attract a high-tech manufacturing complex. If that comes to pass, the town could lose 25% of its farmland.

No one is offering to pay a fortune to turn farmland into industrial land in the Town of Saukville, and that suits its residents just fine. More than 150 of them attended a recent informational hearing to learn about the town’s revised land-use plan. Many voiced strong support for the enhanced protection for farmland featured in the plan.

Town Chairman Kevin Kimmes characterized the public response as a clear message from residents that the Town of Saukville is an agricultural community and should stay one.

The “working lands” designated in the plan “are not just holding areas until a better use comes along,” Kimmes said. “The town is vested in their value for the long term.”

The Town of Saukville, with its nearly 9,000 acres of farmland and large tracts of undevelopable land, including bogs, swamps and old-growth beech and maple forests, exemplifies rural character in its most appealing form.

Agriculture is key to that character, but it should not be equated with some sort of environmental movement, or thought of as a quaint throwback to simpler times. Images of red barns with black and white cows grazing nearby are mostly memories. Farming in real time is a business, and in aggregate not a small one.

Overall in Ozaukee County, farms produce more than $71 million worth of milk, cattle, grain and other products each year and employ 2,000 people, according to the UW-Madison Extension.

Like many industries, farming is not inherently kind to the environment. Animal waste handling and tilling practices that abet runoff of manure and chemical fertilizers that pollute waterways are ever-present issues in farm operations.

It is encouraging that a growing number of Ozaukee County farmers, with guidance from the Ozaukee County Department of Land and Water Management and the Clean Farm Families initiative, are adopting conservation practices intended to reduce the amount of phosphorus that enters waterways and Lake Michigan.​

This enlightened approach is a fitting sign of respect for one of the county’s most important resources—its farmland.