Farmland Preservation Board Accepting Applications

Potter County Farmland Preservation Board is accepting applications from eligible property owners. Purpose of the program is to protect viable agricultural lands by purchasing conservation easements, which prevent the development of the land for any purpose other than agriculture. Applications are available from Potter County Conservation District office at 274-8411. Funding is limited, so each request is ranked by the board. As part of a state/county partnership to protect farms from development, the county’s Farmland Preservation Board purchases the development rights

Most recent addition in Potter County was the 200-acre farm of Mr. and Mrs. John Peet in Hebron Township, which was the sixth purchase. Development rights on 985 acres have been acquired. Other Potter County properties in the program include the farms of Albert and Erma Mitchell and Frank and Shirley Mitchell, both in West Branch Township; Charles and Bernita Douglass in Hector Township; Allen and Ruth Ann Long in Pleasant Valley and Roulette townships, and Galen and Helen Snowman in Sweden and Homer townships.

The Pennsylvania Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program was developed in the 1980s to slow the loss of prime farmland to non-agricultural uses. Farms are chose on the basis of quality as well as stewardship – use of conservation practices and best management practices of nutrient management and erosion control and sedimentation.