Pasley Farm Conservation Easement

The Pasley Farm Conservation Easement covers approximately 156 acres of mostly pastureland in Callaway County, Missouri. About 85 percent of the property is devoted to agricultural use, consisting of the low-impact raising of an intentionally minimal number of cattle utilizing rotational grazing practices, the planting of native grasses for forage, and little to no usage of artificial fertilizers or herbicides. The remaining roughly 15 percent of the land consists of well-protected woodlands which buffer Leeper Branch and one of its tributary streams. The easement was donated to Greenbelt in 2025 by Lynn and Sharon Pasley.

The protection of the Pasley Farm is important to Greenbelt for several reasons. For one thing, the property represents a substantial amount of undeveloped natural landscape that contributes to a larger network of open space in Callaway County, offers significant habitat value for aquatic and grasslands wildlife, and possesses scenic value to the community. Second, more than 80 percent of the soils on the property are classified by the US Department of Agriculture as soils of statewide importance. Third, the placement of a conservation easement on this well-managed agricultural landscape protects the land from potential threats such as conversion to significantly more intensive agricultural usage of the sort that is typical of surrounding farm operations, or subdivision for large-lot residential development due to the property’s relative proximity to the rapidly growing city of Columbia. And fourth, the protection of this farmland by means of an agricultural conservation easement is consistent with the goals and methods of Greenbelt’s Working Lands Initiative.