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We preserve and protect farmland and open land in central Pennsylvania.
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The Centre County Farmland Trust was founded in 1994 as a public, non-profit land trust dedicated to protecting farmland and open space in Central Pennsylvania.
A Holiday Letter from Farmland Trust President Dan Guss
Ten years ago, I started volunteering with the Centre County Farmland
Trust because I told myself that I had to try to do something to help maintain our rural and natural environment for future generations.
Now, I am convinced that if enough of us are concerned and pitch in, WE
CAN make a difference! We already have. And there is much work ahead.
Read Dan's holiday appeal letter.
Help Us Preserve & Protect 1,923 acres!
It’s difficult to imagine a stronger connection to the land than Shirley and Dale Rossman's to their 84 acres of preserved farm fields and woods two miles east of Old Fort along Route 45.
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Shirley's family has held the land since 1862, when her great-great-grandfather James Grove bought 102 acres and began farming.
​Shirley grew up in the house. In a wedding on the farm, she married Dale Rossman, who grew up on a nearby farm.
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Dale still works the fields, now
planted with oats, corn and soybeans.
They raised three children here and in 2016 preserved the land with a conservation easement held by the Centre County Farmland Trust.
In our Fall 2024 Newsletter:
• How the Rossmans' preserved their Century Farm.
• Our summer donor appreciation party — when the Trust also celebrated 30 years!
• New easements in the works to preserve 440 acres.
Get the Newsletter.
Let's Connect!
Did you Know?
• CCFT spends $10,000 to $20,000 on the surveys and legal work to place a conservation easement on a property.
We're working with willing landowners to help preserve 440 acres!
We have THREE conservation easements pending!
Can you help us preserve these acres of central Pennsylvania farmland?!
The Centre County Farmland Trust marked 30 years since its 1994 founding at its June appreciation picnic, thanking donors essential to preserve and protect farmland and open land in central Pennsylvania.
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Read about CCFT history and see party pictures in the Fall 2024 newsletter.
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Image above: Jen Shuey with her appreciation gift — a painting of a familiar scene from Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts by artist Brienne Brown. CCFT presented the painting to Shuey at the June 19 picnic in recognition of her decade-long volunteer service as a CCFT Trustee, including as President and Treasurer.
Thank you to Jen & to all of our donors, supporters and volunteer Trustees!
For decades, Joseph Griffin (left, top) believed he would
retire to his cherished boyhood home and live
in the little log house on 14 acres of sloping field
and forest next to the Treaster Kettle CCC Camp and a
mile from Colyer Lake in Potter Township.
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Instead, in 2015, he chose a different peace of mind
for his land.
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Griffin donated an agricultural conservation easement
to the Centre County Farmland Trust and sold
the land to a young family (right, bottom) who share his land
conservation ethic.
Jack Ray and Sarah Decker carved out a farm life
and vision to produce a harvest in harmony with the
land and forest.
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Read their story in our winter 2024 newsletter.
Join us to help preserve land! DONATE online here.
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Preserving farmland and open space benefits everyone by helping to secure clean water and safeguarding our food supply.
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Healthy soils help us adapt to a changing climate. Farmland and open space are simply beautiful.
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Join us to help preserve land! For our winter appeal message, and a printable donation form to mail a check, click here.
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New logo features field and stream, ridge & valley
Read about our new logo and new website in the works, all to better connect with donors & serve our farmland preservation mission
Building Strength: 2023 in Review
Building organizational capacity to preserve and conserve farmland
was the top priority for the 2023 work of the Centre County Farmland Trust.
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“We have made good progress this year in strengthening the organization and improving CCFT’s financial position,” says CCFT President Dan Guss.
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Including:
• Boosting stewardship of CCFT’s 17 conservation easements, via a partnership with ClearWater Conservancy. Trustees Guss, Dave Litke and
Bob Potter are pictured left, visiting CCFT-preserved land.
• A thorough review of CCFT finances and investments.
• A technology systems project to build a new website integrated with a donor database and document archive.
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The year ahead marks 20 years since the first conservation easement was established through CCFT (on the Hodge Farm, see below).
“We’re just beginning.” says Guss.
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Land preservation benefits everyone! Join us to help preserve land!
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Artists Showcase Farmland Preservation at State Capitol
Calling attention to the need to preserve farmland, representatives of the Centre County Farmland Trust, the Farmland Preservation Artists of Central Pennsylvania, lawmakers and state officials gathered Oct. 4 for a press conference in the main hall of the Capitol Rotunda at the Statehouse in Harrisburg.
“It is my hope that this exhibit will represent the fertile valleys and wooded ridges that are so characteristic of central Pennsylvania,” said Martha Grout Taylor, member of FPA and liaison from FPA to the Farmland Trust. “By showcasing the beauty of our agricultural heritage, I hope that government officials will recognize the need to preserve that heritage." Read the story.
Two years ago, an owner of the preserved Hodge Farm in Spring Mills approached the Centre County Farmland Trust with a dilemma: He had a huge, historic barn in need of costly repairs and a good offer from a reclaimed barn wood company to demolish it. The reclaimer said he intended to sell the wood to build a luxury home in Colorado.
CCFT’s Board of Trustees decided to help in this special case. While the Trust preserves farmland and not barns, the Hodge conservation easement — in 2004 the Trust’s first — is the only one that includes a barn. The late Hugh and Barbara Hodge (pictured above) were teachers who loved the land and donated a conservation easement on 150 acres and their historic barn.
The barn is an architectural gem. It's pictured above (top, right) showing its double banks and need for repair in September 2021, and (above, left) in May 2023 during roof repairs. Often photographed and represented in art, it was awarded a 2004 Historic Preservation award by the Centre County Historical Society.
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“There’s no other barn like it in Centre County and probably in the state of Pennsylvania,” says Trustee Catherine Smith, who championed the project to help Samuel and Esther Stolzfus, current owners, to save the barn and avoid selling it off as reclaimed barn wood.
Read the story in the CCFT summer 2023 newsletter.
Lynn Miller Bequeaths Major Gift for Farmland Preservation
Lynn Miller, the late, distinguished landscape architect, professor and co-founder of the Centre County Farmland Trust, bequeathed a generous gift of $128,700 to the Trust to advance its land preservation mission. Read the story.
Donor Preserves 55 Acres
Easement Marks Trust’s 17th
David Litke, 75, is donating a conservation easement on the land to the Centre County Farmland Trust. The easement will stay with the land, so that the land will remain open and undeveloped in perpetuity. This kind of easement reduces the commercial sales value of the land and represents a landowner’s valuable donation to the public through the Trust.
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The property off Blanchard Street is on track to become the 17th property preserved through a donated farmland conservation easement with the Trust. The Trust pays the costs of securing the easement, and then will hold, steward and enforce the easement into the future. Read more.
Farm Routes are HERE!
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In 2020, our local farmers, farmers markets and entire local food and drink system adapted quickly to the new realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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So did the Centre County Farmland Trust, as hosts of the annual Centre County Farm Tour, when a dozen farms are open to big groups of people for tours on a single day.
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Instead, we created paper and digital Farm Routes map-guides linking farmers markets, preserved farms, farm stands, cideries and wineries along our beautiful country corridors.
Use our guides anytime to plan your own tours. Enjoy a wonderful day of exploring!
Watch for updates in summer, 2024!
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Learn more about
FARM ROUTES!
Twelve people who signed up for our E-News this fall won this cool, 2022 Farm Routes T-shirt! Even though our T-shirt giveaway has ended for 2022, you can still signup for our E-mail list to stay on top of farmland preservation news in Centre County!
Signup HERE
