100+ acres of Franklin County farmland protected from development

HARRISBURG -- Another 133 acres of prime farmland has been protected from development in Franklin County.

Pennsylvania’s Agricultural Land Preservation Board recently added parcels on two farms to the state’s farmland preservation program:

• Hissong Farmstead Inc. owns a 50-acre crop farm on Bain Road in Montgomery Township. The parcel joins a 350-acre block of preserved farmland in the area.
• An 83-acre crop and livestock operation is owned by Rice Crest Farms near Duffield in Guilford Township. The parcel abuts a 500-acre block of preserved farmland.

Both blocks have highly productive limestone soils. The county strategy has been to create blocks of farmland that will not be developed.

The county program has preserved 17,609 acres of farmland on 137 farms. The county continues to have a waiting list.

The county paid $2,500 an acre for the development rights to the Rice and Hissong parcels -- for a total of more than $330,000. Settlement will be in 2019, according to Phil Tarquino, chief of the county planning department.

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The money comes from the county and the state. The $150,000 that the county commissioners budgeted for the farm preservation program in 2018 leveraged $553,052 in state money and brought the total available for local farm preservation to $703,050.

Commissioners also have set aside $150,000 for the program in 2019. The state match will be announced in February.

“There are people on both sides of the food equation: producers and consumers. They rarely interact but are deeply intertwined,” said Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding. “Without farmers, we would have no farmland, but without the millions of Pennsylvanians who have shown support for our state’s nation-leading farmland preservation program over the past three decades, our best farmland would be lost to development. These investments help to secure a future for agriculture and the world our industry feeds, clothes and fuels.”

In this round, the state ag preservation board safeguarded 1,974 acres on 28 farms in 14 counties. For the year, the board has approved the preservation of 14,696 acres on 185 farms.

Federal, state, county and local governments have invested more than $1.4 billion to preserve 559,698 acres on 5,428 farms in 58 counties since the Pennsylvania Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program was created 30 years ago.

The program is dedicated to slowing the loss of prime farmland to non-agricultural uses. Funding allows state, county and local governments to purchase conservation easements from owners of quality farmland.

Jim Hook, 717-262-4759