Lancaster Farmland Trust (LFT) announced that it has added The Zimmerman Farm to the growing list of preserved farms. The landowners signed the conservation easement, officially preserving their 88-acre farm forever. The Zimmerman Farm is a dairy farm home to cows, horses, chickens, and pigs.
The Caernarvon-based farm is almost entirely surrounded by other farms, including 2,000 acres of farmland already under conservation easement within a 2-mile radius. LFT remains committed to creating contiguous blocks of preserved farmland whenever possible, and this project certainly bolsters this strategy.
Many of those surrounding farms also benefit from the use of Transferable Development Rights, or TDR, for their protection. TDR is a zoning technique that permanently protects land with conservation value, like our farmland, by redirecting or “sending” its development rights to a different area better suited for growth. TDR is another tool in LFT’s tool box that, when used together with conservation easements, helps increase the pace of preservation across Lancaster County.
