A record 145 farms in 15 counties will be preserved with state farmland preservation funding after successfully qualifying this month in the single largest application round in the history of New Jersey's Farmland Preservation Program. The farms total 12,644 acres and were formally approved by the Garden State Trust at their monthly meeting on May 16.
Legislative approval is pending.
A total of 200 farms were eligible to compete for funding in this round of the SADC's county grants program but 31 landowners did not bid, two were disqualified for bidding above the highest appraised value and 22 applications were withdrawn. To date, the Farmland Preservation Program has permanently preserved 419 farms totaling 62,231 acres, with an additional 109 farms and 14,804 acres approved for preservation. These totals do not include the farms in this funding round. Almost 76 percent of the 119 applicants were from Hunterdon, Somerset, Sussex and Warren Counties. Information presented at the meeting included the overall state plan prepared to handle the disease and specific recommendations to minimize or eliminate mosquito-breeding sites.