Schuylkill County values its farms, and last week, commissioners backed that up with an extra $200,000 contribution to Farmland Preservation.

All three commissioners, Gary J. Hess, George F. Halcovage Jr., and Chairman Barron L. Hetherington, voted for the $200,000, which will be added to the county’s annual $50,000.

“In 2004, the Schuylkill County Conservation District approached the county commissioners about the inability to preserve eligible farmland and lack of financial support. Starting in 2005 and continuing for four years, Schuylkill county commissioners allocated $200,000 annually, resulting in a state matching grants of 4 to 1 that preserve 1,000 acres annually cleared the waiting list,” Hetherington said.

“From 2009 to 2022, $50,000 or less (and sometimes zero) was allocated annually, resulting in only one or possibly two farms being preserved,” he said.

“Each year, the county receives about six applications. At the end of 2021 there were over 70 farms on the waiting list. In January 2022, Commissioner Hess and I voted to restore the county’s Farmland Preservation program back to its former levels by allocating an additional $200,000 above the standard $50,000 contribution. That funding was matched by PA State contribution of $616,866. The end result is that we will be preserving six farms totaling 482 acres in 2023. Today’s allocation will again preserve close to 500 acres in 2024. Currently there are 115 preserved forms in Schuylkill County totaling 11,838 acres.

This land will forever be productive farmland,” he said.

Hetherington said that his farm, in Ringtown, was the first farm preserved in the county when the program began in 1990.

“Our daughters are the seventh consecutive generation to be raised in our 1840 farmhouse,” Hetherington said.

“Our daughter and son-in-law plan to carry on our family legacy of farming. In 2020 they purchased a neighboring farm that is preserved.”

Hetherington said the $2,500 per acre easement fee paid to a landowner in exchange for the future development rights is “only a small fraction of the commercial development value that the owner could receive if they chose to develop their land.”

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