Pa. adds 7 Lehigh Valley farms to preservation program
Pennsylvania has approved 27 farms, including seven in the Lehigh Valley totaling about 191 acres, for preservation. The farms, which total 2,115 acres statewide, were safeguarded from future development through the purchase of conservation easements, according to a news release.
Protected in Lehigh County were:
Eric and Kristin Boyer farm, a 14.6-acre crop farm
Garry and Sharon Boyer farm, a 57.9-acre crop farm
David Keiser farm, a 42.7-acre crop farm
Roy and Ruthanne Kunkel farm, a 14.8-acre crop farm
Kenneth and Leslie Mattos farm No. 1, a 27.9-acre crop farm
Charles Jr. and Jennifer Peters farm, a 21.9-acre crop farm
Claire Ricci farm, an 11.25acre equine operation
The seven farms were preserved using funds solely sourced from the county. Counties have contributed more than $500 million to the state’s preservation efforts since the program’s inception 31 years ago.
Since then, federal, state, county and local governments have bought permanent easements on 5,607 farms comprising nearly 575,000 acres in 59 counties for agricultural production.
The farms protected at Thursday’s meeting of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Land Preservation Board represent targeted investments in the future of farming, Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said.
“Pennsylvanians share a connection to our farmland — we reaffirmed that commitment 30 years ago with the creation of a state farmland preservation program, and through state funding initiatives, county-level programs, nonprofits and farmers themselves, we continue to live that commitment to food production in the Keystone State,” Redding said. “Safeguarding our land is the first step to securing our best agricultural land for generations to come.”
Other farms in the region being preserved include:
Bucks County
Randy Labs farm No. 2, a 62.4-acre crop farm
Randy Labs, Richard Labs, and Patti Lea Keeler farm No. 1, a 77.4-acre crop farm
Sandra Opitz farm, a 119.8acre crop farm
Montgomery County
Scott and Sharon Melanson farm No. 1, a 35.2-acre crop farm
Schuylkill County
James and Margie Wolfgang farm, a 26.5-acre crop farm
To read the entire list, got to media.pa.gov/Pages/Agriculture.aspx. You can learn more about the farmland preservation program at agriculture.pa.gov.