Farmers in Island and Skagit counties and throughout the state will have help preserving their land if a bill introduced Tuesday by Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen becomes law.

The Democrat from Camano Island stuffed Senate Bill 5108 into the legislative hopper. If it comes out the other end as submitted, there will be a new Office of Farmland Preservation within the existing State Conservation Commission.

Haugen said the bill was inspired largely by Skagit Valley farmers who requested “expertise” in the complex subject of how to preserve farmlands and pass them down intact to the next generation, despite the relentless pressure to convert the land to other uses.

If her bill becomes law, the Office of Farmland Preservation would assist in implementing the current Conservation Easement Account; analyze the major factors that have led to the decline in farmland; develop a model program and tools for retaining farmland; develop a grant process for local efforts to preserve farmland; and develop a “farm transition program” to help one generation of farmers transition to the next.

Haugen said she would like to see better use of transferable development rights, which are utilized more in Skagit County than elsewhere. She’s also open to having the state provide some money to purchase development rights if that proposal comes out of the process her bill sets up.

SB 5108 would also create a Farmland Preservation Task Force made up of farmers and other experts in agriculture, including elected officials from the county and state levels.

Haugen said her bill has the support of Gov. Chris Gregoire who included $500,000 in her proposed budget to support the new Office of Farmland Preservation.

“We’re real excited about it, we’ve got lots of support for it,” Haugen said Tuesday afternoon from Olympia.