Agren Projects

Absentee Landowner Outreach

The Challenge:

Landowners who do not live on or operate their agricultural land often are unaware of the opportunities and benefits of installing conservation practices on their land. Of the 3.4 million owners of private agricultural land in the United States, 42 percent are considered absentee landowners. Reaching them with information and connecting them with appropriate technical and financial assistance pose a unique challenge requiring innovative approaches.

Agren's Solution:

We've teamed with the M&M RC&D and the Natural Resources Conservation Service through a Conservation Innovation Grant to reach out to absentee landowners through the Center for Absentee Landowners.

Our approach to the challenge began with extensive research to better define the sociological and demographic attributes of the absentee landowner population in the United States. In addition to extensive literature reviews, we organized a three-day expert panel meeting, bringing together absentee landowners, conservation agency personnel, farm managers and others.

As a direct result of the expert panel meeting, we developed The Center for Absentee Landowners website to provide "one-stop shopping" for landowners seeking to conserve their natural resources. The website guides landowners through the process of understanding and navigating conservation programs that might be available to them. Additionally, the site provides helpful resources to landowners such as tips to consider when preparing conservation-friendly lease agreements. In conjunction with the website, a toll-free Conservation Connect hotline is available to address landowners' immediate questions.

With match funding provided through the Great Lakes Protection Fund, the McKnight Foundation, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, outreach and marketing pilots have been initiated. These projects have been targeted to landowners with agricultural land in specific areas of Iowa, New York, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Pilot projects in the Great Lakes region kicked off with a written survey of 2,000 absentee landowners to better define the demographic make-up of landowners in the region, their knowledge of and interest in conservation, and how they prefer to receive information. We used this information to design and evaluate marketing campaigns in each of the pilot areas.

Marketing strategies for each pilot area have been developed with assistance from marketing consultants. Various system-based, multi-contact outreach campaigns have been designed and are being implemented in each pilot area.

Each outreach campaign is thoroughly analyzed to evaluate the most effective techniques to reach out to and educate absentee landowners. Final results will be shared nationwide through the development of a toolkit and facilitation of strategic planning workshops.