 The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection administers the Connecticut Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Grants Program, established in 1998 to help towns, conservation groups and water companies protect land deemed important, including farmland.Despite those efforts, over a five-year period between 1997 and 2002, Connecticut lost 12% of its farmland to development, the highest percentage of any state in the nation.Under Connecticut Public Act 490, for the purposes of local property taxation farmland is assessed at use value rather than fair market value, with the law intended to protect farmers from higher taxes caused by escalating land values in Connecticut.