Five localities have been awarded a total of $875,000 from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Office of Farmland Preservation.
This year’s grant recipients are Clarke, Fauquier, and Stafford counties and the cities of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.
The five localities will provide matching funds to support local Purchase of Development Rights programs. PDR programs empower localities to limit development on priority farm and forest lands and provide an incentive to landowners who voluntarily want to protect their working lands.
“Virginia is home to approximately 16 million acres of forests and over 7.7 million acres of farmland and we are proud to support the preservation of these natural resources,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “Farms and working forests are the foundation of Virginia’s rural economy, and farmland preservation benefits landowners, local communities, and the environment.”
Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Matthew Lohr said that agriculture and forestry are essential to lives of all Virginians.
“Protecting our working landscapes intact and productive is essential to maintaining Virginia’s agricultural viability into the future,” said Lohr. “These areas grow the food we all depend on while purifying the air we breathe.”
Since the program’s inception in 2008, a total of $13.2 million in state matching funds has been used to partner with 16 local PDR programs to permanently protect more than 14,800 acres on 113 farms.
For more information on PDR programs, call (804) 786-1906.
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Crystal Graham
