Owners of the Tuckahoe Turf Farm, in Richmond’s southwest section, have sold their development rights to the state for $4.25 million, in a land deal that will safeguard some 486 acres for open space.

The state Department of Environmental Management will be at the lush farm at 11 a.m. today to announce the acquisition. The property straddles the east and west sides of Switch Road, and fronts on the Wood River, the Meadow Brook and the Meadowbrook Pond.

The DEM acquired the development rights using $1.29 million from the Rhode Island Agriculture Land Preservation Commission; $600,000 from the state open-space program; $1.86 million from the federal Highway Enhancement Program and $500,000 from the private, nonprofit Nature Conservancy.

Also on hand today to discuss the acquisition will be Governor Carcieri; DEM Director Michael Sullivan; Nature Conservancy Executive Director Janet Coit and Tuckahoe majority owner George Bates, among others.

“We are doing it, primarily, to get back the real estate investment of our land portion that we made, so we can continue to farm the land and not have to pay up a mortgage,” said Stephen Donahue, vice president of operations at Tuckahoe.

When he came on board in 1983, Donahue said, most of the land was still wooded and the company had cleared some 250-acres over the past three decades. Today the company, which operates several farms in New England, produces a variety of loam, turf and other sod products.

The property features a public fishing area and connects to the state’s Carolina Management Area and other protected farmland. The preservation of this property creates a conservation area of 3,000 contiguous acres, according to DEM officials. The farm is just north of the conservancy’s Carter Preserve, representing another 850 acres of protected land.

DEM officials said the state’s 858 farms generate more than $100 million annually, which helps to bolster the state’s economy. Farms, from which the state acquires development rights, are working farms still run by their original owners. The acquisitions provide a valuable contribution to Rhode Island’s open space that are akin to a security investment said, Ken Ayars, chief of the DEM’s agricultural division.

“There is a lot of development pressure in Rhode Island. You can receive some benefit without having to sell out and still keep the business,” Ayars said. “Rhode Island has the highest [value] farm land real estate in the country and a very strong economic sector in agriculture. It’s an important part of the state’s economic income. The green industry, as we call it: turf, horticulture and nursery crops, are a big component.”

Today’s news conference will also mark the release of the DEM’s annual report and summary of land acquisitions this year. For 2008, some 2,314 acres of land from 28 projects were protected. Some of these include the 41-acre Rocky Point property on Narragansett Bay in Warwick, and farmland parcels, such as the historic Dutra and Neale farms in Jamestown, which total 109 acres.

The conference will also serve as a forum to discuss Question 2 on November’s statewide referendum ballot. That question asks voters to authorize spending $2.5 million on farmland, recreational development and open space acquisitions over the next few years. Governor Carcieri said the funds are needed to obtain matching federal money for additional acquisitions.

Some 29 farms are on the state’s farmland protection program waiting list for acquisition of development rights. Among the larger targeted properties are the 190-acre Adams Farm, which produces livestock, Christmas trees and hay, and the 145-acre Ferolbink Farm, a vegetable and Christmas tree farm in Tiverton.

“Preservation of open space in our small, highly developed state is critically important to preserving the natural beauty and lifestyle we treasure,” Carcieri said in a statement.

lsparks@projo.com

Correction: DEM figures were incorrect in an earlier version of this story.