In 2025, Don and Esther Smith used a 14-year plan to lock 75 Pennsylvania acres from development, saving Esther's childhood farm and its historic house and barn

Don and Esther Smith managed to secure permanent protection for their 75-acre farm in Spring Township, Pennsylvania, on December 5, 2025, which protects the fields, woodland, and historic house on the property from development. Esther grew up on the farm, and the couple did not want the house and barn to be demolished as residential development spread around the land, the Centre County Farmland Trust reported.The limestone farmhouse could be dated to the early 1800s and once served as a stagecoach stop on the route between Lewisburg and Bellefonte, where the Smiths have lived for about 30 years, and their property now sits beside the Steeplechase residential subdivision and the Central Pennsylvania Institute of Science and Technology, with Interstate 99 nearby. The couple had watched the farms nearby lose houses, barns, and outbuildings as new homes replaced agricultural properties, and they wanted their own land to remain intact. “It is a nice little farm. We did not want to see it go,” Don Smith said in the trust’s account.A conservation plan that took 14 yearsEsther’s mother had signed an option agreement with a developer to sell the property after her death, and when the developer later proposed a lower price than expected, the Smiths had an opportunity to renegotiate and retain the development rights. They initially approached Centre County’s Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easements program, which pays eligible landowners for development rights. The programme uses criteria that include soil quality and development pressure to evaluate properties, but the Smiths spent several years on its waiting list.County agricultural preservation coordinator Elizabeth Pirrone-Brusse suggested in summer 2024 that the couple contact the Centre County Farmland Trust about donating their development rights, because unlike a purchase programme, the trust does not compensate landowners for the reduction in market value that is associated with restrictions on future development. The Smiths agreed to give up those rights, and the easement was completed in December 2025, with Don describing the long process as “nerve-wracking” and saying that the couple was happy when it was finished.The farmhouse and working fields remainA conservation easement is a legally binding agreement that is attached to a property and limits specified activities, usually including development, while the owner retains the land, and under the arrangement that was described by ClearWater Conservancy in its conservation easement guidance, restrictions remain in place when the property changes hands. The Smith farm will continue to support agriculture, with the Ault family having grown corn, soybeans, hay, and grains on about 50 acres that they leased from the Smiths for years, and that arrangement is expected to continue. The couple also maintains a large vegetable garden with hundreds of tomato and pepper plants.The agreement covers 16 acres of woodland as well as fields, and the trust says that the protected land will help maintain water quality, preserve soil, store carbon, and protect habitat, with the easement also safeguarding scenic views from public roads. The Smiths plan to keep growing vegetables and berries, making wine from strawberries and raspberries, and supporting a local farmer and beekeeper who work on the land.Farmland protection across PennsylvaniaCentre County’s farmland preservation programme says that the county has 1,023 farms and that its Agricultural Land Preservation Board has approved 64 agricultural conservation easements that have been covering 9,410 acres since 1991. The Smiths donated the development rights rather than receiving payment for them, and while the land remains privately owned, future owners will be bound by the easement’s terms. The Centre County Farmland Trust will monitor the agreement and work with the Smiths and subsequent owners to make sure the land continues to comply with its restrictions.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.