The Kentucky Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easements (PACE) program was established by state legislation in 1994. Since the beginning of the program, over 15.5 million dollars have been spent to purchase the agricultural conservation easements of 78 farms totaling over 17,000 acres. An additional 19 agricultural conservation easements with over 3,000 acres have been donated to the PACE program.

In the fall of 2004, a survey of all PACE participants was conducted to determine how funds from the PACE program have been spent by the landowners in the program. There were a total of 90 different landowners who had participated in the PACE program. A mail questionnaire was sent to each of the 90 participating landowners. A total of 82 questionnaires were returned, for a response rate of 91 percent.