Farmland

Farmland protected With last week's announced easements, a little more than 1 percent of Berkeley County's 205,900 total acres - and 4 percent of prime and significant farmland - has been conserved through the voluntary program. The value of the approximately 132 acres donated last week was estimated at $2.8 million.

The issue: In the past five years, Washington County has lost 1,000 acres of farmland to development, but has preserved 5,400 acres of farmland in that same time frame. There still are 100,000 acres of farmland to preserve, but farmers can't afford to buy it up at the cost of land. What's new: A proposed transferable development rights program would enable Washington County farmers to sell their development rights to a developer in a growth area, which would provide compensation for the farmer while keeping the farmer's land in agriculture and stripping them of development rights.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Now that Franklin County has a new comprehensive plan to guide farmland preservation, economic development and transportation into the 21st century, Commissioner G. Warren Elliott said officials must work to "prevent this from being a document that collects dust on a shelf. "After two years of work and 56 meetings, including seven public hearings, the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved the plan, which had not been updated since 1977. [cont.

The view from the milking parlor at Valentia Farm does not mirror the view of the dairy farm itself: Vast grass fields speckled with lazy cattle are offset by three silos, a red barn, a modest house and a truck that kicks up dust as it rolls slowly past the tidy supply buildings. There was a day when farmer Earl Grove could look out on a similar landscape as he prepared to milk his cattle. But for more than 10 years, the view from his milking parlor has been Cross Creek Development, a cluster of nearly 200 two-story houses with siding and decks.

The Berkeley County Farmland Protection Board on Thursday approved a preservation easement for Boydville, the 200-year-old mansion in Martinsburg that was spared from burning by direct order of President Lincoln in the Civil War. The easement for the late Georgian-style home at 601 S. Queen St., along with a conservation easement for the acreage around it, ultimately will be held by the farmland protection board when the 13-acre estate is sold...

Development would put 159 houses on farmland By SCOTT BUTKI / Staff Writer A development plan by former Washington County Commissioner R. Lee Downey calls for 159 units to be constructed on property Downey owns north of Virginia Avenue and along the south side of the Interstate 81 and Interstate 70 intersection. continued The housing would be built on a 27.7-acre lot of farmland near Tammany Manor Road. The land is zoned Highway Interchange 2. The project includes 27 residential units on 6.32 acres, 60 town house units on 8.72 acres and one 72-unit multi-family apartment complex on 4.3 acres.

Program turns idle farmland into wildlife habitat By RICHARD F. BELISLE / Staff Writer MERCERSBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania was a pheasant hunter's paradise in the 1970s. More than 1 million wild birds were shot across the Keystone State every year. "Pheasant was king," said Brian Brake of Mercersburg. Brake is habitat chairman of the 150-member Cumberland Valley chapter of Pheasants Forever, a sportsmen's lobbying and conservation group whose goal is improving pheasant hunting by improving habitat.

ROUZERVILLE, PA. - More than four years have passed since the Washington Township (Pa.) Supervisors rezoned 1,000 acres of farmland in one night. Their decisions on Jan. 19, 2004, and many since have opened up parts of the township to development around the path of Washington Township Boulevard, a $14.3 million relief route planned north of Waynesboro. The focus of township officials thus far has been concentrated on the four to five miles engineered between Pa. 16 in Rouzerville to Pa. 997 near Tomstown Road.

lizb@herald-mail.com Betsy Herbst and her family participate in the Ag Expo every year. Herbst serves on the Ag Expo Board, and three of her four children plan to return to the farm after college and teach their own children the benefits of farming. That is, if they still have a farm to run. The family has entered their farm into an easement program to protect the land from development. Herbt said, however, that losing the farm is possible once their time in the easement program is up, decades from now. With that lingering thought, Herbst said the Ag Expo's job is to educate the public on the importance of farmland and curbing development.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - Eighty acres of farmland adjacent to a Civil War battlefield near Shepherdstown, W.Va., is being set aside for preservation, officials said Thursday. Ed and Helen Moore, the owners of the property, have decided to establish a conservation easement to protect the site from development, Jefferson County Commission member Jane Tabb said. The land is adjacent to the Battle of Shepherdstown site off Trough Road, which a group of people has been trying to preserve.

Farm crops could be planted and cattle could very well be pasturing in the near future on undeveloped portions of Tabler Station Business Park in Berkeley County. The Berkeley County Development Authority hopes to lease the available land, which now stands at about 580 acres, to a farmer while they continue to work to develop the property, Executive Director Stephen Christian said Wednesday. The development authority's board voted Wednesday to allow the group's business park development committee to interview two of the five interested parties who responded to a request for proposals, Christian said.

The 200-year-old Boydville estate in Martinsburg, once spared from burning by direct order of Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, is on track to be sold to a Martinsburg landlord for $500,000. The Berkeley County Farmland Protection Board voted 3-1 Thursday to accept a purchase agreement with Jonathon T. Mann and his wife, Meagan, pending review with legal counsel for any possible amendments or other changes. Under terms of the agreement, Mann will be allowed to make $1,500 monthly payments over five years before paying off the remaining balance.

The Berkeley County Farmland Protection Board on Thursday approved a preservation easement for Boydville, the 200-year-old mansion in Martinsburg that was spared from burning by direct order of President Lincoln in the Civil War. The easement for the late Georgian-style home at 601 S. Queen St., along with a conservation easement for the acreage around it, ultimately will be held by the farmland protection board when the 13-acre estate is sold...

Since it was established in 2002, the Jefferson County Farmland Protection Board has managed to keep developers off nearly 3,500 acres of area farmland. On Saturday, the board will note that achievement with a 10th-anniversary celebration at The Bower, one of the 36 Jefferson County farms that has land in the program. The agency issued its first conservation easement - 120 acres on a farm near Shepherdstown, W.Va. - in October 2004, said Elizabeth Wheeler, administrator of the program and its only paid employee.

More than 3,000 acres of Berkeley County farmland now is protected from development through conservation easements, the executive director of the county farmland protection board said Thursday. The addition of easements for 175 acres owned by David and Sharon Malatt in the Hedgesville area in December and 127 acres owned by Paul and Evelyn Ashton in Gerrardstown last month pushed the total acreage under easements held by the Berkeley County Farmland Protection Board to 3,195, according to Board Executive Director Robert “Bob” White.

This month, two more Jefferson County landowners added 184 acres to the county’s farmland protection program, bringing the total number of acres saved from developers to 2,615. The latest additions represent the 27th and 28th conservation easements completed by the county’s Farmland Protection Board since it was established in 2000, said Elizabeth Wheeler, the program’s administrator. Laurie L. Scott of Harpers Ferry, W.Va., added 49 acres off Engle Molers Road. The Hockman family — Judith, Gordon and Margaret Ann Saunders — owners of Twin Ridge Orchard Co. on Luther Jones Road, added 135 acres.

We are blessed to live in such a beautiful corner of this blue planet. When many of the privileged look out their windows, they get to see farms and fields, but that view could very well change and sooner than many think. No, I am not necessarily worried about resurgence in the building boom. The fact is 70 percent of America's farmland will change hands in the next 15 years. Again, it does not necessarily mean the land will go out of production, but it is a concern. Our aging farmers will be leaving the work force and thus the transferring of businesses and assets will take place.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- Winners of the second annual farmland preservation art contest, the "Preserving Our Agricultural Heritage Art Show," will be announced at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, during a reception at the Ag Heritage Center, 185 Franklin Farm Lane. Paintings, photographs and digital images by artists of ages will be on view through Saturday, Nov. 21. For more information, contact Carolyn Baker at 717-597-2186, ext. 1301, 717-765-0210 or csbaker@greencastle.k12.pa.

Suddenly, something that Washington County has in spades is fashionable again - rural farmland. Those who spent the last 15 years figuring out how to spin open fields into strip mall and subdivision gold might have somewhat run their course, as the nation is becoming more aware of the value of locally grown foods and pastoral settings. Small growers are popping up in Washington County as fast-food joints once did, producing everything from delicious, pasture-raised poulet rouge chicken to meaty Boer goats targeted to the growing ethnic population.