Cornell’s BirdCast Tracks Spring and Autumn Bird Migration By Linda FriendPennsylvania Master Naturalist & Secretary, Board of Trustees, Centre County Farmland Trust While most of us are sleeping, thousands of birds are flying overhead, migrating long distances and mostly at night. Expected species during spring migration include American tree sparrows and many water birds such […]
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – March 24, 2026 – Centre County agricultural, conservation, and community leaders are calling on Governor Josh Shapiro and state agencies to ensure a transparent, community-driven planning process for the future of the SCI Rockview lands—one of the most defining and visible landscapes in central Pennsylvania. Following the announced closure of SCI […]
Holiday Greetings to you and yours! Last year, I wrote asking for your help to preserve more than 400 acres of beautiful land, as we’ve been working with owners of three properties who were willing to donate their development rights and preserve their land with a conservation easement held by the Centre County Farmland Trust. […]
Don and Esther Smith watched over the years as the landscape surrounding their 75-acre family farm changed from rural to suburban. They did not want to see their historic house and barn demolished, nor their land bulldozed for development. They preserved their land in December 2025 with a conservation easement held by the Centre County Farmland Trust — realizing a decision they made 14 years ago.
As Centre County grows, how will we keep our farmland? So far, our Centre County community has supported and done a lot of hard work to retain and preserve its farmland as our population has grown. Now, with a major highway expansion on the horizon, how will we keep our farmland that contributes so much […]
Pennsylvania is a leader in conserving farmland This relatively recent movement for institutional land preservation started with Lancaster County’s creation in 1980 of the first “Agricultural Preserve Board” in the state, as the commissioners implemented a popular program to use tax income to maintain working farms and buy development rights of endangered private properties. […]
Nancy Parks and Bill van den Berg wanted to protect land from an encroaching quarry near their Aaronsburg home. At a 2000 auction, they bought 16 acres of walnut trees and native wildflowers, and later two adjacent parcels of 11 acres. These 27 acres were part of Aaron Levy’s original tract of wilderness when he laid out the village of Aaronsburg. Over centuries, people cleared trees, built a barn, farmed crops and planted […]
History emanates from Hodge Farm. Hugh & Barbara Hodge insured it always would when they donated an agricultural conservation easement to the Centre County Farmland Trust in May 2004. This easement was significant: It was the first farm permanently preserved by the Trust and it was the first farm preserved in Penn Township. Located between […]
We tend to forget them in intervening years. But without fail, every 13 and 17 years various parts of the United States are visited by hordes of emerging cicadas — which have been sitting quietly where they were laid by females more than a decade earlier. They are found in urban as well as farm […]
Thanks to the generosity of this amazing community, 116 donors gave $10,412 to Centre County Farmland Trust during Centre Gives. These funds will help preserve more valuable land. Our beautiful countryside and delicious local food are just two of the benefits of preserving land and help make this a great place to live and visit. […]