12/02/24 - 90 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/5xpcbut8
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Pennsylvania Adds 1,470 Acres Of Farmland To Preservation Program
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Pennsylvania has added 1,470 additional acres of land to its nationally recognized farmland preservation program under action by the Pennsylvania Agricultural Land Preservation Board at its meeting Thursday in Harrisburg.
The 14 newly preserved farms are located in Beaver, Berks, Bucks, Butler, Cambria, Cumberland, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Northampton and Somerset counties.
“We’ve preserved nearly 15,000 acres of farmland across the state in just the past year alone,” said Agriculture Secretary George Greig. “This speaks volumes to the value our farm families place on ensuring the future viability of Pennsylvania agriculture – our state’s number-one industry.”
Since the program started in 1988, state, county and local governments have invested more than $1.1 billion to safeguard 459,007 acres on 4,243 farms.
“Our producers know the importance of preserving farms so our next generation of agriculturalists can keep Pennsylvania growing far into the future, and I thank them for that foresight,” Greig said.
Pennsylvania’s farmland preservation efforts work through the Pennsylvania Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program. The program was developed to slow the loss of prime farmland to non-agricultural uses. It enables state, county and local governments to purchase conservation easements, also called development rights, from owners of quality farmland.
For more information, visit Agriculture's Farmland Preservation webpage.
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2/20/2012 |
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