Conservancy Groups Successful
WYOMISSING (Berks Co.)
The Berks County Conservancy
sent three representatives to the
National Land Trust Conference
held recently in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Nearly 1,100 local and regional
conservation groups are rapidly
protecting land in communities
across the country, according to a
new survey by the Land Trust
Alliance. The survey shows that in
the last four years alone, the
amount of land the Berks County
Conservancy and the nation’s
other land trusts helped protect
grew by more than one million
acres.
The Berks County Conservan
cy has concentrated its efforts on
the preservation of open space and
agricultural land in Berks County.
The Conservancy has protected
over 1,000 acres in the last two
years through acquisition or enact
ment of conservation easements.
The Land Trust Alliance sur
veyed local and regional land
trusts with these results:
• Land trusts have helped pro
tect 4.04 million acres —an area
larger than the state of Connecti
cut —protecting over 1,300,000
acres since 1990.
• Land permanently protected
through conservation easements
voluntary agreements with
landowners that permanently con
serve their land has grown
from 450,000 acres to 737,000
acres.
• The number of land trusts is
increasing at a rate of close to one
per week. Half of all land trusts
now in existence have, been
formed in the last ten years.
• In the Mid-Atlantic states.
protected land increased 39%. The
numbers of land trusts in New Jer
sey and Pennsylvania doubled.
Survey figures were released at
the nation’s largest land conserva
tion conference, the seventh
National Land Trust Rally. The
Berks County Conservancy was
represented by Phoebe Hopkins,
executive director, Ann Orth,
director of land projects; and Joe
Hoffman, director of environmen-
tal management, at this gathering
of more than 700 land trust profes
sionals and volunteers, govern
ment agency personnel, and other
conservationists. Topics included
the latest in the innovative and
often highly technical conserva
tion techniques land trusts use.
“People are forming land mists
like The Berks County Conservan
cy because they want to safeguard
the open spaces that make their
communities and neighborhoods
livable,” said Jean Hocker, Land
Trust Alliance president.
“They refuse to let shortsight
edness cheat them out of their her
itage, and that of their children.
And they are not waiting for some
one else to take action; they’re
doing it themselves. Land trusts
give people a choice. And they are
choosing conservation.”
Government agencies and the
business world have recognized
the potential of land trusts’ brand
of conservation.
“The future of successful natur
al resource conservation rests with
private citizens working in associ
ation with each other and with
government agencies, conserva
tion groups, corporations, and
other landowners,” said Mollie
Beattie, director of U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and a National
Pennfield Makes $500,000 Investment
In Dairy Feed Manufacturing Equipment
MT JOY (Lancaster Co.)—To
increase mill capacity and palata
bility and digestability of their
In the lower left of this construction photo the two
new half-million dollar "super flakes” machines are
shown In place before the outside walls were Installed.
The Installation work has been completed and produc
tion of the new higher quality dairy feed has come on
line.
Lancastar Farming, Saturday, December 10, 1994-A35
Rally speaker. “The growth of
land trusts is a sure sign this spirit
of partnership is taking root in
America.”
Hocker calls land trusts’ phi
losophy of voluntary, common
sense land conservation a key to
their success. Typically, land
trusts work closely with willing
landowners to help them develop a
voluntary plan for conserving their
land. Land trusts often buy land or
accept it as a donation; however,
of particular significance is their
dairy cow rations, Pennfield Corp.
has installed two new large state
of-the-art crimpers at their produc-
flowing use of conservation ease
ments.
A conservation easement is an
agreement between a landowner
and a land trust or government
agency in which the landowner
permanently restricts develop
ment and use of his land.
Conservation easements allow
landowners to protect their land
while continuing to own and use
it, and to sell it or pass it along to
their children.
don headquarters to produce what
they call “super flakes," This type
of equipment is used in the western
feedlots and California and Arizo
na dairy facilities to increase milk
production, along with protein in
the milk.
According to Don Mahlandt,
Pennficld dairy feed sales mana
ger, milk pounds and milk protein
pounds may be increased by as
much as 10 percent with steam
flaking versus steam rolling in
tests reported by the Journal of
Dairy Science. In addition, steam
flaking produces a flatter, more
digestible com flake with a 28
IbsTbu density while the present
system produces com at 38 IbsTbu.
density. In early production runs at
the Pennfield mill, barley has also
produced beautiful results.
Randy Adams, vice president
feed operations, said the old crim
per was installed when the mill
was opened in 1987. Because the
production needs for dairy feeds
have doubled since that time, this
machinery is inadequate to meet
their needs, thus the present half
million dollor investment in new
equipment
“We could have just installed
another crimper and increased our
capacity for a lot less money,”
Mahlandt said. “But we were look
ing to the future as we help dairy
farmers feed their high producing
cows to their genetic capability.
This is an investment in the
future.”
When considering the nutrition
al value of the new flaked feeds,
Dr. Tim Snyder, manager of lab
and nutritional services, said the
process improves ruminal diges
tion of starches that can increase
microbial growth. As a result of
this digestion, the production of
milk protein can irfcreasc.
At present, the new equipmnet
is on line and customers have
started to see the new feed on their
farms.