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![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090111095042im_/http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/images/newheadersmal.jpg)
Nearly $3 Million Available to Protect New York Farmland
The Natural Resources Conservation
Service (NRCS) announced the receipt of $2,728,900 in Federal financial
assistance for New York's landowners through the
Farm and Ranch Lands
Protection Program (FRPP).
FRPP funding provides up to 50 percent in federal matching funds to eligible
municipalities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who have pending offers
to purchase conservation easements on prime New York farmland.
The program allows municipalities and NGOs to apply on behalf of landowners, and
allows the landowners to receive compensation for voluntarily limiting future
development of their land while they retain property rights with a perpetual
conservation easement that restricts non-farm development.
During Fiscal Year 2004, NRCS obligated more than $3 million in FRPP funds to 12
entities, which protected more than 4,174 acres of working farmland in New York.
"This funding will enable farmers and landowners to enhance and protect our
State's soil, air and water resources for the future," said Joseph DelVecchio,
State Conservationist.
NRCS is the lead agency for administering the FRPP. Funding for the FRPP was
authorized in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, known as the
Farm Bill.
Story appeared in The
Community Trader, Ontario County.
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