CATAWISSA, Pa. — Mark Rohrbach is a fourth-generation farmer and owns several farms in the Catawissa area.
"The majority of what we have planted on this farm is soybeans. But we have animals on the farm, and we also have crops for grain, and we also have a seed business," said Mark Rohrback, Soil Bound LLC Farm.
Thanks to Pennsylvania's Farmland Preservation Program, this farm and 34 others will be protected from future residential and commercial development.
The state buys development rights on farms, ensuring those areas stay farmland in the future.
Recently farms in Columbia, Lackawanna, Lycoming, and Union Counties became part of the program, including Soil Bound LLC Farm near Catawissa.
"We actually now have two farms that the land development rights are sold on, adjacent to one another, and we have a third one that we are looking to sell the land development rights on in the future," explained Rohrback.
Rohrbach says he hopes his children will take over his farms someday.
"This gives them the opportunity to have open ground that's preserved for them for not only the next generation but for generations to come. It gives them the opportunity to be able to continue to farm and earn a living off of the land," added Rohrback.
Since the program started, more than 6,000 Pennsylvania farms have been protected from future development.
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