Sussex County has reached a milestone: Over the past 19 years, it has preserved 100 farms totalling more than 12,500 acres.

The achievement was marked today at one of the most recently preserved farms, Sugarwood Farm in Stillwater, during an event that also spotlighted a "unique partnership" with the non-profit Morris Land Conservancy that helped preserve that farm and three others in the rural township.

Farmland preservation typically has involved the state and county jointly buying a farm's development easement so the land becomes deed-restricted to agriculture. Statewide, more than 1,700 farms encompassing 168,000 acres have been preserved.

In Sussex, the state historically has paid for about 70 percent of the cost of farmland preservation, while the county paid the rest; and a few farms were saved through easement purchases made directly by the state or by state grants given to nonprofit groups.

Last year, however, statewide demand for preservation "exceeded available state funding," and the county did not receive any state funds, officials said. Instead, Sussex paid the entire cost itself to preserve 29 farms, using funds from a county dedicated tax for open-space/farmland preservation, Traylor said.

This year, the Morris Land Conservancy stepped in to fund 30 percent of the cost of preserving Sugarwood Farm and three others, the Vendetti farm also in Stillwater, the Fritz farm in Andover Township and the Stoll farm in Frankford, while the county paid the remaining 70 percent. These four farms were vying for preservation last year, but did not make the cut due to a lack of state funds, officials said.

"Morris Land Conservancy is to be applauded for taking the lead in preserving four farms that otherwise might not have been preserved," state Agriculture Secretary Charles Kuperus said. "Thanks to its efforts, these farms forever will remain a part of Sussex County's agriculture and rural character."

The conservancy's funding came from a state grant. Morris Land Conservancy also recently assisted Sussex in developing a plan that has identified more than 25,000 additional acres of farmland for preserved over the next 10 years.