Union County farm added to farmland preservation program

HARRISBURG – Pennsylvania’s Agricultural Land Preservation Board announced yesterday that it added 2,999 acres on 33 farms in 12 counties to the more than half a million acres and 5,100 Pennsylvania farms permanently preserved for agricultural production.

The board announced preservation of farms in 12 counties: Berks, Blair, Bucks, Centre, Chester, Lancaster, Lehigh, Northampton, Perry, Snyder, Union and York.

Seventy-six acres owned by Margaret Harris (Lauver) in Limestone Township, Union County, have now been added to the program.

The Pennsylvania Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program, as it is formally known, identifies properties and slows the loss of prime farmland to non-agricultural uses. It enables state, county and local governments to purchase conservation easements, or development rights, from owners of quality farmland.

Since the program began in 1988, federal, state, county and local governments have invested nearly $1.4 billion to preserve 539,180 acres on 5,169 farms in 59 counties for future agricultural production.

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