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GREG ROMANO, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
PHONE: 908-234-1225, EXT. 110
GREG@NJCONSERVATION.ORG

NJCF Receives $3.8 Million to Protect Farmland

FAR HILLS, NJ, June 11, 2007 – New Jersey Conservation Foundation (NJCF) has been approved for over $3.8 million in federal and State grants to continue its successful farmland preservation efforts. The funding will be used to advance land protection projects in some of New Jersey’s last remaining agricultural strongholds from the Highlands to the State’s southwestern farmbelt.

Under the USDA Farm and Ranchlands Protection Program, NJCF is receiving $2.3 million. That money will be used towards the preservation of up to 3,200 acres. The grant targets important agricultural areas in Warren, Somerset, Hunterdon and Salem Counties, specifically in the watersheds of the Black River Greenway (Somerset), Musconetcong Valley (Warren), Wickecheoke Creek (Hunterdon), and Oldmans Creek Corridor (Salem).

In addition to the federal grant, NJCF will receive $1.5 million towards the preservation of six farms, totaling nearly 600 acres in Gloucester, Salem and Hunterdon Counties. That funding comes from the State Agriculture Development Committee’s (SADC) 2008 Non-profit Grant Round, which was approved on May 9 by the Garden State Preservation Trust.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to work so closely with our government partners at the State and federal levels to help preserve New Jersey’s rapidly diminishing farmland,” said Michele S. Byers, NJCF Executive Director. “Over the past several years, we have continued our efforts to work with the farming community to safeguard agriculture in New Jersey. The benefits of agriculture to New Jersey residents are numerous, so it’s important to preserve farming as both and an industry and a way of life, as well as for open space benefits.”

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Under the USDA grant, 31 potential farms were approved and prioritized by the USDA to guide NJCF’s work. The list includes 1,300 acres of farms in Warren and Somerset Counties which are of the highest conservation priority as ranked by USDA. An additional 1,900 acres in Somerset, Hunterdon, and Salem Counties are also eligible based on the availability of funding.

Earlier this year, NJCF became the first and only non-profit organization in New Jersey to utilize USDA Farm and Ranchland Protection Program funding to preserve farmland. A previous USDA grant was used to help preserve the 84-acre Caltabiano farm in Pilesgrove Township, Salem County. NJCF is actively pursuing additional preservation agreements in Salem and Gloucester Counties with the help of the USDA funding. In recent years, thousands of acres of some of New Jersey’s most productive farmland in Gloucester and Salem Counties have succumbed to intensifying development pressure.

“NJCF’s work to save important farmland from the threat of urban sprawl would not be possible without the support of the SADC and the Garden State Preservation Trust,” explained Byers. “Now, after our successes working with the federal Farm and Ranchlands Protection Program, we are honored that the USDA has the confidence in NJCF to continue our partnership through this newest grant opportunity.”

The $1.5 million in State funding represents the last major SADC appropriation under the 1998 Garden State Preservation Trust Act. That program has nearly exhausted its funding and is now in urgent need of renewal by the State Legislature and New Jersey voters through a public referendum.

“We are working closely with the SADC and USDA, to keep the garden in the Garden State,” Byers added. “Investing in farmland preservation ensures that we will maintain our local food sources, help keep property taxes and the costs of government services down, protect our natural resources.”

NJCF is a statewide non-profit land trust. Since 1960, NJCF has helped preserve well over 100,000 acres of natural areas, urban parks and farmland throughout New Jersey. For more information on NJCF and its project areas, please visit www.njconservation.org online.