Good afternoon, my name is John McCarthy and I am the Senior Adviser with the Piedmont Environmental Council based in Warrenton, VA. In my previous career, I was a local government manager, having served as County Administrator in Rappahannock County for almost three decades. It is largely from the perspective of that last role that I urge your support of this clarifying bill. Over my career, various Commissioners of the Revenue would apply different standards to lands enrolled in conservation practices. in some cases forcing the property owners to either have such land taxed at fair market value once payments ceased, or else revert to the former production agriculture activity. Nothing was more frustrating to me than to have state or federal dollars be expended for a conservation measure only to have it lost in a misguidedly narrow interpretation of the law. This measure would simply place the burden on the property owner to maintain the activity, and to certify it to local Commissioners, in order to maintain qualification for use value taxation I urge your support