Additional 6,496 Acres Preserved On 69 Farms In 28 Counties

Prime farmland in 28 counties will remain available for future agriculture production after the state’s Agricultural Land Preservation Board this week voted to protect an additional 6,496 acres on 69 farms, acting Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding announced.

In the nationally recognized program’s 21-year history, 425,376 acres on 3,897 farms have been safeguarded from development

“Pennsylvania’s more than 63,000 farms produce food and fiber for our citizens, and the impact of our state’s number one industry reaches well beyond the dinner plate,” said Acting Secretary Redding. “The agriculture industry supports jobs and drives local economies. Every measure must be taken to keep Pennsylvania growing by protecting our productive farmland.”

The latest farms to be preserved are in Adams, Berks, Blair, Bucks, Cambria, Carbon, Centre, Chester, Columbia, Cumberland, Dauphin, Erie, Fayette, Indiana, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Lycoming, Mercer, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton, Perry, Potter, Schuylkill, Union, Warren and York counties.

The state’s farmland preservation program works through the Pennsylvania Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program, which was developed in 1988 to help slow the loss of prime farmland to non-agricultural uses. The program enables state, county and local governments to purchase conservation easements, also called development rights, from owners of quality farmland.

Since the program’s inception, state, county and local governments have invested more than $1 billion to preserve farms.

For more information, click on the Farmland Programs links on the Department of Agriculture website.