HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania’s Agricultural Land Preservation Board permanently preserved 3,620 acres on 44 farms for agricultural production.
The board preserved farms in 20 counties: Adams, Berks, Bucks, Butler, Chester, Cumberland, Dauphin, Erie, Franklin, Greene, Lancaster, Lawrence, Lehigh, Lycoming, Mercer, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton, Washington and Westmoreland. This year’s preservation is the greatest number of farms and acres being preserved in the past three years.
Western Pennsylvania farms preserved:
- Butler. The Ryan W. Graham farm, a 51.6-acre crop and livestock operation
- Erie. The Earl J. and Patricia R. Brown farm #1, a 147.1-acre crop farm; The Terril J. and Bridget M. Hinkler farm #1, a 51.1-acre crop and livestock operation; The Michael W. Mongera farm #1, a 60.4-acre crop farm
- Greene. The Bell Farm #1, an 89.4-acre crop/livestock operation
- Lawrence. The Leonard and Patricia Stewart farm #2, a 48.4-acre crop farm
- Mercer. The Todd Steele farm, a 72.7-acre crop farm; The Mark Walker farm, an 89.3-acre crop and livestock operation
- Washington. The Paul Family farm, a 154.8-acre crop and livestock operation
- Westmoreland. The Helen M. Clevenger farm, a 91.5-acre crop and livestock operation.
About the program
The Pennsylvania Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program, as it is formally known, identifies properties and slows the loss of prime farmland to non-agricultural 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 542,800 acres on 5,213 farms in 59 counties for future agricultural production.
The state continues to lead the nation in the amount of farms and farmland preserved for use in production agriculture. In some cases, federal funding helps to preserve these lands.
In 2016, the department signed a cooperative agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service that allows Pennsylvania’s program to submit farms for consideration by the federal Agricultural Conservation Easement Program.
The department secured $1,725,650 in funds under its most recent cooperative agreement to preserve eight farms totaling 1,652 acres, with the potential for additional funding in 2018.
To learn more about Pennsylvania’s Farmland Preservation Program, visit agriculture.pa.gov.
