Pennsylvania’s Farmland Preservation Board prevented the development of another 5,000 acres of valuable farmland this week during its April meeting by voting to preserve it,

The board has now preserved 2,834 farms totaling 323,366 acres since the program began in 1988.

The latest preserved farms are in 18 counties: Adams, Berks, Bucks, Chester, Cambria, Cumberland, Clinton, Dauphin, Franklin, Huntingdon, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Monroe, Mercer, Northampton, Schuylkill, and York. Fifty-six of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties are enrolled in the program.

The Pennsylvania Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program was developed 18 years ago 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.

Pennsylvania has 7.7 million acres of farmland, representing 27 percent of the state's land base.

For more information, visit the Farmland Preservation Program webpage.

4/14/2006