PA Adds 33 Farms, Nearly 3,000 Acres To Farmland Preservation Program

Pennsylvania’s Agricultural Land Preservation Board Thursday announced it added 2,999 acres on 33 farms in 12 counties to the more than half a million acres and 5,100 Pennsylvania farms permanently preserved for agricultural production.

“Farmland is a precious natural resource that is increasingly threatened by development,” said Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding. “Farm families are the original stewards of that precious natural resource, and Pennsylvania’s farmland preservation program supports their efforts to keep their valuable land in agricultural production for future generations.”

The board announced preservation of farms in 12 counties: Berks, Blair, Bucks, Centre, Chester, Lancaster, Lehigh, Northampton, Perry, Snyder, Union and York. Click Here for a list of farms added.

The PA Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program, as it is formally known, identifies properties and slows the loss of prime farmland to nonagricultural uses. It enables state, county and local governments to purchase conservation easements, or development rights, from owners of quality farmland.

Since the program began in 1988, federal, state, county and local governments have invested nearly $1.4 billion to preserve 539,180 acres on 5,169 farms in 59 counties for future agricultural production.

For more information on the program, visit Agriculture’s Farmland Preservation webpage.
(Photo: Lancasteronline.com.)