News & Notes September 2000

Farmers Praised for Commitment to Clean Water

Farmers from Bradford, Cambria and Lancaster counties have been selected to receive the annual Chesapeake Bay Clean Water Farm Award. Recipients of the 2000 Clean Water Farm Awards are:

• Ron, Gary and Glenn Kline and families, owner/operators of the Y-Run Farms in Springfield Township, Bradford County
• Robert Haid, owner/operator of a 400-acre dairy farm in Loretto, Cambria County
• Jack and Donna Coleman, owner/operators of the Cherry-Crest Dairy Farm in Ronks, Lancaster County.

The award recipients will be recognized at a luncheon ceremony during the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts (PACD)/State Conservation Commission Joint Annual Conference, to be held on Oct. 30, 2000, in Valley Forge, PA.

The Clean Water Farm Awards are jointly sponsored by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture in order to recognize farmers who strive to protect local water quality and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay by implementing exemplary farm management practices. The awards are administered by the Pennsylvania Chesapeake Bay Education Office, (PACD).

These three farmers have worked diligently to instill and maintain farming practices that protect their land from soil erosion and prevent excess nitrogen and phosphorous from entering their local streams and groundwater supplies, which eventually flow to the Chesapeake Bay.

Applications of manure, fertilizers and pesticides are controlled so that timely and exact amounts are used, curtailing the amount of excess nutrient and pesticide runoffs entering our waterways. These practices are implemented without sacrificing peak production.

During the Annual PACD Awards Ceremony this October, the three farmers will receive a large blue and white “Clean Water Farm Award” sign to erect on their property, demonstrating that Pennsylvania’s agricultural community is working hard to protect and conserve its precious soil and water resources.

In Pennslvania, more than half of the state’s 67 counties are located with the Susquehanna River Basin, which supplies nearly half of the fresh water running into the Chesapeake Bay. Sound agricultural practices, such as those maintained by the Colemans, Klines and Haids are critical to the condition of the Bay.

Clean Water Farm Awards recipients are nominated by county conservation district staff.

Return to News