A new report from the American Farmland Trust estimates Idaho will convert tens of thousands of acres of agricultural land to urban and rural development in the coming decades—though planners and landowners have the chance to reduce that number.

Rising land prices have put the cost of farming outside the reach of many young farmers, but a program taking root in Idaho is helping.

Idaho farms—including Peaceful Belly Farm in Canyon County and Full Circle Farm and Nedrow Farm in Teton County—are using conservation land easements that can reduce the cost of permanently preserving farmland by up to half. Here’s how an easement works.

The scent of summer in Idaho’s Treasure Valley is undeniably one of the land.

Drive down Ustick or Highway 20/26 on a balmy July night with the windows down, and the cool, grassy smells of spearmint and alfalfa fields surround you. If you’re out particularly late, and the dewpoint is just right, the mechanical whir of harvesters and farm trucks provide an ambient soundtrack to the evening, their headlights illuminating their own dust clouds.