The Pennsylvania Agricultural Lands Preservation Board has preserved an additional 1,788 acres on 19 farms in 12 counties for future generations through the state's nationally recognized farmland preservation program.
During the program's 23-year history, 455,208 acres on 4,208 farms have been safeguarded for future agricultural production. The preserved farms are located in Berks, Blair, Cambria, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Monroe, Somerset, Sullivan, Union, Washington, Westmoreland and York counties.
“To ensure the future success of the agriculture industry in Pennsylvania, the first step is to preserve our farmland,” said Agriculture Secretary George Greig. “Agriculture isn't just our number-one industry, the cornerstone of our economy, it's a way of life for our farm families.” Greig added, “I thank these producers who set their land aside for agricultural production. They're enabling a new generation of agriculturalists to keep Pennsylvania growing far into the future.”
The list of farms preserved at the October 13 meeting are as follows:
Berks
- The Robert French farm #1, a 135-acre crop and livestock operation
- The Norman Martin farm #1, a 27-acre crop farm
- The Paul and Anne Mae Martin farm #4, a 47-acre crop farm
- The Levi and Doris Zimmerman farm #1, a 75-acre crop farm
Blair
- The K. Wayne and Bonnie Burket farm, a 93-acre crop and livestock operation
Cambria
- The James and Mary Karlheim farm, an 80-acre crop farm
Lackawanna
- The John Sarnoski Jr. farm, a 17-acre crop and beef operation
Lancaster
- The David Smucker farm, a 79-acre crop farm
- The Union School Road LP, a 53-acre crop farm
Monroe
- The Raymond Gumm Jr. farm #1, a 70-acre crop and pasture operation
Somerset
- The Robert and Janet Miller farm #2, a 57-acre dairy farm
Sullivan
The William and Tammy Bahl farm, a 124-acre crop and livestock operation
Union
- The Curtus and Jerrel Brubaker farm #5, a 114-acre crop farm
- The Nancy Miller Boyer farm #1, a 96-acre crop farm
- The Ivan and Jane Nolt farm #1, a 147-acre crop and livestock operation
Washington
- The Robert and Florence Lowry farm, a 200-acre crop farm
Westmoreland
- The Virgil Walters farm #1, a 135-acre crop and livestock operation
York
- The Edna Amspacker farm, an 85-acre crop farm
- The Harold Jr. and Nancy Miller farm #3, a 153-acre crop farm
Following the board's October 13 meeting, representatives from the Attorney General's office led a roundtable discussion about Act 38 of 2005, known as ACRE (Agriculture, Communities and Rural Environment). The law allows farmers to operate with fewer limitations from local ordinances.
The state's farmland preservation efforts work 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 began, state, county and local governments have invested more than $1 billion to preserve farms across Pennsylvania.
For more information about Pennsylvania's nation-leading farmland preservation program, visit www.agriculture.state.pa.us and search "farmland preservation."
Source: Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and Google +! Click Subscribe to receive notifications when new articles are published! Questions about this article or simply want to contact this writer? Send an email to ypmexaminer@gmail.com.
Join Y. P. Mazzulo, On The Grid each Saturday at 10:00AM ET and don’t miss The Blitz with Danny Cox for the latest NFL news, previews and recaps. Tune in and join the conversation On The Grid…it’s where Real Life Happens!
***Free human trafficking victim, Sara Kruzan! www.freesarakruzan.org.***
©2011 Yvonne P. Mazzulo, All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced without prior permissions from the author or Clarity Digital Group LLC d/b/a Examiner.com.
Comments