{"id":162172,"date":"2026-04-10T08:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T08:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/162172\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T08:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T08:09:15","slug":"pennsylvania-preserves-nearly-1000-acres-of-local-farmland-over-2600-statewide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/162172\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania preserves nearly 1,000 acres of local farmland; over 2,600 statewide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">(WHTM) \u2014 Nearly 1,000 acres of farmland in our area will be protected from future development thanks to an investment from the state government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Pennsylvania announced $10.2 million is being spent to purchase the development rights for 2,645 acres on 31 farms statewide, including 833 acres in the Midstate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">John Marsteller Jr. sold the development rights to a 233-acre crop farm in East Hopewell Township, York County, the family\u2019s fourth preserved easement and creating a 2,700-acre block of preserved farmland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/franklin-county-continues-investment-protect-204109479.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Franklin County continues investment to protect farmland;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Franklin County continues investment to protect farmland&quot;}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Franklin County continues investment to protect farmland <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIt\u2019s been important for me and my family to not only farm the land, but to make sure that there are farms, and productive ones, for the future,\u201d Marsteller\u00a0said. \u201cMy mom always said that I was born on a tractor. I\u2019ve been driving trucks and tractors since I was five years old. I was born and raised on the same farm that I live on today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cPennsylvania leads the nation in\u00a0preserved\u00a0farmland, thanks to the unwavering commitment of our farm families and strong support at every level of government,\u201d Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding\u00a0said. \u201cMany of these farmers have been offered the opportunity to sell their land for development, but they\u2019ve chosen instead to stay committed to feeding our Commonwealth and carrying on their families\u2019 farming traditions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The investment is through the Pennsylvania Farmland Preservation Program which brings together the state, local governments, and nonprofits to purchase the development rights for farmland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The program was created in 1988 and has preserved 665,585 acres in 58 counties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Farmland preserved in the Midstate is below.<\/p>\n<p>Cumberland County<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Adams Family Trust, 80-acre crop farm, Silver Spring Township<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Delbert B. and Lorene M. Sensenig, 108-acre dairy farm, Southampton Township<\/p>\n<p>Franklin County<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Barry L. Timmons, 46-acre crop and livestock farm, Montgomery Township<\/p>\n<p>Lancaster County<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">James L. and Alica B. Denlinger, 48-acre crop farm, East Lampeter Township<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mahlon J. Stoltzfus, 59-acre crop farm, Leacock Township<\/p>\n<p>York County<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">180 Jerusalem School #1, 110-acre crop farm, East Manchester Township<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">KT Burton #1, 149-acre crop farm, Shrewsbury Township<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">John W. Marsteller, Jr. #2, 233-acre crop farm, East Hopewell Township<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc27.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(WHTM) \u2014 Nearly 1,000 acres of farmland in our area will be protected from future development thanks to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[73226,73228,28,30,29,73227],"class_list":["post-162172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-east-hopewell-township","tag-john-marsteller-jr","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-preserved-farmland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}