Whistle Blows For Farm Preservation
Lancaster New Era

The more than 300,000 people who annually visit the Strasburg Rail Road not only see a marvelous collection of historic steam engines, they also are treated to a seven mile train ride through picturesque Lancaster County farmland.

The owners of the popular tourist attraction have long understood the fundamental relationship between the tourists who ride their trains and the farmland those riders view as engines chug through the countryside.

Visitors would not descend by the hundreds every day on the tiny rail line, if they saw swing sets and the backs of houses, rather than cows and corn fields.

Now, in a unique move, the Strasburg rail executives have decided to put their money on preserving that vital relationship.

In partnership with the Lancaster Farmland Trust, the Strasburg Rail Road is committing a portion of its ticket receipts to buying conservation easements on farmland alongside its tracks.

This year, 5 cents from every ticket sold (except Thomas the Tank Engine) could add as much as $15,000 to the trust’s farmland-preservation efforts.

Since the trust spends roughly $500 for each preserved acre, that amount translates into 30 acres. And with a matching grant from the county already in place, the preserved acreage could double.

“As Lancaster County grows, we must take steps to protect our signature farmland or we will lose it,” said Linn Moedinger, Strasburg Rail Road president.

“Without the farmland, we’re out of business,” he said. “Who wants to ride through suburbia and Wal-Mart parking lots?”

On the rail line through Strasburg and Paradise townships alone, there are 20 working farms and more than a thousand acres.

In the past 17 years, the privately funded trust has preserved 207 farms totaling 12,904 acres. The county’s tax-supported preservation program has preserved another 557 farms with 48,558 acres.

But with nearly 6,000 farms and 421,000 acres of farmland — 99 percent family owned — in the county, much remains to be done.

County population continues to grow rapidly, and the pressure to convert farmland to housing, stores and businesses grows with it.

Local tourist industry businesses, acting in enlightened self-interest, can add a powerful third base of support to those provided by taxpayers and charitable givers.The formal partnership between the Strasburg Rail Road and the nonprofit trust should serve as a model for others to emulate.

Restaurants, hotels, craft shops, private museums and other Pennsylvania Dutch educational or cultural sites, even tour companies, very well might consider the benefit of protecting the agricultural community from which they indirectly profit.

For that matter, other local businesses that depend on agriculture for their survival might consider more active participation in preservation efforts.

Of course, many business owners already support farmland preservation through their taxes and some in private donations. But for those who do not, or those who see the value in more aggressive preservation efforts, the Farmland Trust’s partnership program is worthy of their consideration.

The leadership of the Lancaster Farmland Trust and the Strasburg Rail Road deserve this community’s appreciation for their innovative and yet practical effort to protect the farmland and the farm-based economy that we here value so highly. The formal partnership between the Strasburg Rail Road and the nonprofit trust should serve as a model for others to emulate.