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We work with local families to protect their farms so that they can remain a valuable part of our beautiful landscape forever.
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.
Thank you for supporting the Gift of Good Land!
Help conserve valuable farmland in Centre County!
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The Coleman Family's Gift of Good Land
In 2017, Mondon Smith knew the remaining 110 acres of his family farm, the Coleman Farm in Altoona, faced an uncertain future. Colemans had farmed the land, a Century Farm, since 1835.
Smith's parents had died after living into their 90s. He had become the farm's sole owner and wanted to keep it in agriculture and protect it from development.
He approached the Trust about preserving the land through a conservation easement. The easement is a legal instrument that stays with the land to keep it open and undeveloped in perpetuity.
CCFT Welcomes New Trustees
Soil scientist and climate strategist Franklin Egan (pictured, right) and conservation easement donor David Litke (pictured, far right) are the two newest Trustees of the Centre County Farmland Trust.
Both were elected at the November 17 CCFT annual meeting to a three-year and one-year term, respectively.
Read about Egan and Litke, plus the re-election of Trustees Catherine Smith and Linda Friend.
2022 in Review
CCFT President Dan Guss (left) presented 2022 highlights and a look ahead to 2023 at our annual meeting in November.
Read Dan's letter.
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.
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!
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.
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. The Farmland Trust postponed the Farm Tour in 2020 and 2021.
Instead, we created paper and digital Farm Routes map-guides linking local food & drink and preserved land along country corridors. Explore our farmers markets, wineries, farm stores, cideries and preserved farms. Use our guides anytime to plan your own tours. Have a delicious day, getting to know the hands and lands that feed us!
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
