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farmland preservation Covering the policies, practices and initiatives report that save farmland and open ace p p Since 1990 • Deborah Bowers, Editor NEW NATIONAL LEADER Pennsylvania overtakes Maryland in farm acres preserved HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania has supplanted Maryland as the nation's leading state in farmland preservation, protecting under easement 170,173 acres, 3,644 more acres than Maryland. Pennsylva- nia has approved an additional 7,630 acres that will likely be settled within 45 days, then bringing the state's total to 177,803 acres, according to Ray Pickering, director of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Farmland Protection. The Maryland program has placed 166,529 acres under easement, and has 19,367 additional acres "under contract," according to program assistant Iva Frantz, making a total of 185,872 acres settled and committed. However, because Pennsylvania's program completes easement deals almost twice as fast as Maryland's, and because it has ample dedicated funding sources, officials are confident it will retain its lead over Maryland. By March, according to Pickering, the Pennsyl- vania program will have reached, in approved acres, Maryland's larger number, with settlement reached on most of those acres by the end of May, bringing Pennsylvania's total above the 185,000 - acre mark for settled acres. At that time, according to Frantz, it is unlikely the Maryland prograin acres under contract will be settled. While state farmland preservation programs please turn to page 2 Voters approve scores of local ballots for land protection In more than 200 localities nationwide voters cast ballots on open space funding measures totaling more than $7 billion, with many of those measures including farmland preservation as a target program, according to the Land Trust Alliance (LTA), a national organization for land conserva- tion groups. According to LTA director of public policy Russ Shay, of 204 known local measures tallied, 166 passed. More than half of the measures took place in states with state - administered farmland preservation programs, including New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, California and Rhode Island. Many of the new funding pots will help counties or townships establish matching funds to participate in state farmland preservation programs. please turn to page 2 Volume 11, Number 2 Nov. -Dec. 2000 inside this issue ... Ma. program dwelling rule change .............................. P. 5 Delawareelects conservationists .... ............................... P. 5 Oregon voters send land use law to trial ..................... p. 6 Jobpostings ....................................... ............................... p. 7 Farmland Pre sr;rvation Report is published 10 times per year. Subscription rate of $185 includes index and hotline service. Editorial and Bowers circulation offices: 900 La Grange Rd., Street, Maryland 21154 - (41 C) 692 -2708 • ISSN: 1050 -6373. Z 2000 by Bowers Publishing, Inc. Publishing, Inc. Reproductiun in any form, or forwarding of this material electronically without permission from the publisher is prohibited.