Dillner farm in West Deer receives state investment to be preserved as farmland

Dillner Family Farms of West Deer has received a nearly $700,000 investment from the state Department of Agriculture to preserve the property as farmland through permanent conservation easement.

It is one of 21 farms that received an easement last week and the only farm in Allegheny County.

Dillner Family Farms is a 79-acre fruit, vegetable and livestock operation owned by Don and Jane Dillner since 1991. The farm also operates a community supported agriculture (CSA) program and farm market.

Katie McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture, said farms are selected based on quality of the farmland and their stewardship, along with the chances that the farmland is vulnerable to development. The state will invest $661,270 into Dillner Family Farms.

The Dillner farm is a prime example of how agriculture supports a community, said Shannon Powers, press secretary for the Department of Agriculture.

“Four generations of the Dillner family have been committed to putting fresh food on the tables of local families. Their latest commitment to conservation, combined with the state’s investment in preserving their farm, will ensure that fresh, local food is available to feed Allegheny County families for generations to come,” Powers said.

The Pennsylvania Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program was developed to strengthen Pennsylvania’s agricultural economy and protect prime farmland. Approved in 1988, the program enables state and county governments to purchase conservation easements from farmers.

As defined by the National Conservation Easement Database, a conservation easement is “a voluntary, legal agreement that permanently limits uses of the land in order to protect its conservation values.”

Farmers may choose to receive the proceeds from easement sales in a lump sum payment, installments up to five years or on a long-term installment basis. Some farmers might decide to use the proceeds to reduce debt loads, expand operations and pass on farms to the next generation.

“Farmland preservation provides a secure pathway for future generations to succeed,” Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said in a press release. “It ensures future agriculturalists have land to farm, and, in return, consumers will have food on the table. Once farmland goes out of production, it rarely comes back, which is why farmland preservation is so important.”

Jonathan Dillner, a son of Don and Jane Dillner, said the family is grateful for the state’s investment but declined to comment further.

The program has purchased permanent conservation easements on 5,949 Pennsylvania farms, covering 603,646 acres, in 58 counties, ensuring they will remain farms in the future.