Two hundred years after its founding, Weatherly Borough was asked to think about its future.

Anna Shigo, Carbon County’s open space coordinator, invited the borough to participate in regional workshop on land conservation and the county’s open space grant program working with the Wildlands Conservancy.

“This is a very historic time,” Dennis DeMara, outreach coordinator for the Wildlands Conservancy, told Weatherly Borough Council on Monday.

“This is the first time in the history of Carbon County, a small sixth-class county, that the voters passed a bond referendum at 83% to preserve farmland and forest land,” he said.

Carbon County undertook a $10 million bond issue to preserve open space in the county two years ago, clearing the way for a program Shigo leads, DeMara said.

“The (Agricultural Land Preservation) program has a few million dollars now, instead of small amount to preserve farms,” he said.

“There’s 10 or 12 farms they’re working on, and we’re working on preserving critical lands,” said DeMara, who also spent 50 years working with the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the county’s parks and recreation.

“So, it’s about planning for the future,” DeMara said. “It’s really looking at your zoning, your subdivision, land development ordinances and deciding how you want your community to grow and how you want it be preserved.”

The Wildlands Conservancy received a technical grant to help communities, such as Weatherly, take advantage of the county’s open space grant program.

Dawn Gorham, director of land preservation for the conservancy, said she will attend the regional workshop that the county is planning to talk about the opportunities available to the borough.