In a new study conducted for Pennsylvania s Commonwealth Foundation by Dr. Steven Hayward of the Pacific Research Institute, Hayward found that the 5 counties in the state with the fastest growing populations gained over 15,000 acres of farmland between 1992 and 1997. Bucks County has gained more farmland than the combined losses in the hot housing markets in neighboring Chester and Montgomery Counties. But one person s sprawl is another s backyard. And what we call our backyards is making all the difference in these numbers. There s farm land and forest land.
Farm land grows things under control like wheat, pigs, soy or cattle.
Forest land grows deer, snakes and trees. Last year the United States Department Of Agriculture National Resource Inventory bulldozed Pennsylvania s political landscape with the news that 1.1 million acres or about 1700 miles of forest land or farm land had been developed between 1992 and 1997. At a time when the US Census Bureau actually believes the Commonwealth lost population. In other words the numbers that drove the big government money on to the field were wrong by nearly a factor of four. Last week they were withdrawn and attributed to a computer error by the Department of Agriculture.