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Here are 10 Lehigh Valley properties that Pennsylvania is making sure are preserved as farms

  • Bob Kroboth, is a farmer who grows soybean and corn....

    April Gamiz/The Morning Call

    Bob Kroboth, is a farmer who grows soybean and corn. Kroboth's Nazareth area farm received the second highest amount in the Lehigh Valley. Lehigh Valley farmers received about $2.4 million in aid to offset the effects of tariffs, but they say it's not enough.

  • Children pick up pumpkins from a Plainfield Township farm during...

    MORNING CALL FILE PHOTO

    Children pick up pumpkins from a Plainfield Township farm during last year's Northampton County Open Gate Farm Tour. Pennsylvania officials on Friday announced the preservation of 40 farms from future development, including 10 in the Lehigh Valley.

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Pennsylvania has preserved 10 farms totaling more than 560 acres in the Lehigh Valley, making that land won’t ever be developed.

The state’s Agriculture Department announced Friday that 40 farms comprising more than 2,700 acres across Pennsylvania are in the latest round of preservation. The news came a day after the state’s Agricultural Land Preservation Board approved the designations.

“Our diversity as a state extends far beyond our people to our geography, our products, our production styles, and the options that our land can be used for,” Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said in a news release. “It’s important to take pause and consider the implications of transforming farmland into developed land.”

The Pennsylvania Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program identifies quality farmland for state, county and local governments to buy development rights.

Since the program began in 1988, federal, state, county and local governments have bought such permanent easements on 5,580 farms totaling more than 572,000 acres. The purchases have happened in 59 of the state’s 67 counties.

Here are the latest farms being preserved in Lehigh County:

Frances L. and Wayne G. Heussman farm No. 1, 116 acres, and a second Heussman family farm with 84 acres

Dale L. and Ellen L. Koplin farm, 30 acres

Pamela D. Krause farm, 31 acres

Kenneth and Leslie J. Mattos farm, 11 acres

Sterling D. and Doreen B. Reinert farm, 38 acres

The Stettler farm, 45 acres

Northampton County farms are:

Sarah L. Pagotto Revocable Living Trust farm, 92 acres

Clayton III and Stacey Stine farm, 11.06 acres

Weinhofer Farms LLC, 108 acres

Other farms preserved are in Berks, Bucks and Montgomery counties. To see the latest list and learn more about the state’s farmland preservation program, go to agriculture.pa.gov.