Tom Daniels, one of our members, will bring a wealth of knowledge about land-use planning and land conservation to our November meeting at the Union League. Dr. Daniels will be discussing his new, groundbreaking research into the use of geographic information systems to improve the way we evaluate and implement farmland preservation programs.

“Preferred Patterns for Farmland Preservation”

State and local governments and private, non-profit land trusts have been “preserving” farmland through the purchase of conservation easements for over 40 years. The typical measures of progress in preservation have been the amount of money spent and the number of acres preserved. These measures, however, say nothing about the pattern of land preservation, which is more important for the long-term continuation of agricultural operations. This presentation looks at the progress in Lancaster County, PA toward forming large contiguous blocks of permanently preserved farmland.