In 1972, Chris and David Lang bought a two-bedroom house with 60 acres of land in Licking County’s Franklin Township.
The couple transformed the land, converting pastures and woods into the Lang Family Farm. They built a barn, raised three kids, grew hay and tended to a flock of sheep. With two purchases of nearby land, their farm grew to just under 70 acres.
And 52 years later, the Lang family has permanently protected their farmland from development, ensuring the barn, the pastures and the flocks of sheep will remain for decades to come.
This October, the Lang family became the 14th this year to protect their Ohio farmland under the Local Agricultural Easement Purchase Program (LAEPP). The added protection blanket over their beloved farm protects the land from development. No matter who lives there next, it will continue to exist as farmland.
LAEPP, with easements in 62 counties in Ohio, is funded through the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA). Licking County Soil and Water is the local sponsor for the program, overseeing Licking County farmland.
According to Briana Hodgson, program coordinator at Licking County Soil and Water, 26 farms in Licking County have taken advantage of the program. Plus there are an additional six farms which were added as donations, creating a cumulative 32 farms in Licking County protected under this easement.
Hodgson describes the easement as an additional deed on the property.
“It’s a blanket on the property. It goes with whoever owns it,” Hodgson said.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture does not own the property. If the owners decide to sell their property, the easement will remain.
When Chris and David Lang first heard about LAEPP nearly a decade ago, they knew immediately they wanted to preserve their farmland and wooded area. They applied each year until they were accepted in 2022. But it was another two years before they officially closed.
“We’ve done a lot of work in the woods and tried to make the place better and we didn’t want to see it made into a subdivision,” David Lang said. “We finally succeeded about two years ago. We were accepted and it took about two years before it finally closed on it.”
Since they were accepted to the program, Licking County Soil and Water did extensive research on the property. The Langs also had to have their property surveyed. ODA, however, does pay the property owners for the ability to buy the development rights.
“That wasn’t our impetus for getting into the program, But who’s going to turn down that money?” David Lang said.
David Lang emphasized the need to preserve farmland.
“If we don’t have enough farms, people in this country won’t have enough to eat. It can be hard to see that, it’s hard for me to see that but it’s true,” David Lang said. “Eventually if we keep developing, it won’t be enough.”
Chris also emphasizes that two-thirds of their property is wooded, which benefits wildlife.
Ohio currently uses a Current Agricultural Use Value (CAUV) program which is a way of providing taxes on farmland reflecting its agricultural use, instead of its development value to add protections to farmland. As Hodgson explained, the county monitors CAUV and properties that qualify, as they also qualify for LAEPP. And, she noted, wooded areas are still considered agricultural land.
“They may have to plan to have timber done at some point. Even though technically their crop is a hundred years old, they’re still maintaining that crop. That’s still agriculture,” Hodgson said.
Chris and David Lang, originally from Maryland, moved to Licking County for David’s career at Nationwide Insurance. Chris found the property in an ad in the newspaper.
They expanded their house three times to make room for their three kids and built a barn for their sheep and a horse.
At one point, they had close to 80 sheep, grazing outside or hanging out in the barn. They owned 25 ewe — female sheep — and often when they had babies, they had twins.
They also raised steer, two llamas, a horse and for a while, a peacock.
With the wool from the sheep, Chris took up felting. She experimented and taught herself how to spin the wool. Once the wool is washed, carded and spun into felt, she dyes it and uses it for her fiber arts projects.
For about 25 years she designed and created wool teddy bears which she sold at various craft fairs.
Their house is filled with wool creations. The walls of her house display her felted wall art. A shelf in her art space spanning about 15 feet from one end of the wall to the other is filled with small felt animals, all created by Chris.
They bred and sold their sheep. They sold, grew and made hay for nearly 30 years. But farming was never their sole source of income.
“We could have never made a living on it, but it was a good supplement,” David said.
For 30 years, the Lang Family Farm grew and sold hay. Along with the plot where they grow the hay, they have another four-acre plot where they make hay.
To make hay, the plants need three hot days to dry. Afterwards, David will rake it into windrows with his tractor. Then Chris drives the wagon while the baler forms the hay into bales. David stacks them on the wagon as they go.
They stopped growing and selling hay for profit years ago, but they still make hay for their personal use. David also helps his son John grow and make hay, who lives at a farm just down the road. John Lang’s farm is also protected, but through the Licking County Land Trust.
They still have four sheep, a dog and a cat. Chris also enjoys tending to the garden. They mainly grow tomatoes, green beans, peppers, squash and cucumbers.
“It makes me feel good when I can just go out in the garden and plan what we’re going to have for dinner because of what’s in the garden,” Chris said.
The Langs are unsure who will live on the Lang Family Farm property next, but they do know LAEPP will stay with the property.
“Our hope is that another family in the future buys it and they enjoy it as much as we have,” Chris Lang said.
As David describes, the kids would spend hours playing in the woods. The Langs have noticed the difference in the area since they first moved in, in part due to Licking County’s rapid development.The farmland around them getting developed prompted them to protect theirs.
“We’ve seen what’s happened along this road too. When we moved here, there were about five houses on the road. Now there’s close to a hundred,” Chris said.
The two get calls often from buyers interested in 4-acres in the corner of their property facing the road on two sides.
“We were getting calls, and still do, two or three a month probably. They want to buy this piece of property. It’s got road frontage. They don’t realize that it’s in a program now that it can’t be subdivided,” David Lang said.
Now that the Lang Family Farm is protected through LAEPP, they can no longer expand their current houses, subdivide the property, or build any additional structures.
“We didn’t have a second thought about the restrictions, it didn’t bother us. Now, my family and probably Chris’s to some extent, they can’t understand why we do this. They say – look how many houses you could build on,” David said.
But for the Langs, preserving the farmland was more important.
As Hodgson said, it’s important to think about how the county should be developed.
“If we’re allowing development anywhere and everywhere, we’re not really preserving what we’re going to need for the future,” Hodgson said. “It’s a good thing to work with the county officials and township officials and let them know that people care, to make sure that these preserved farms have the ability to stay farming in the future.”
Ella Diehl writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.