Another 264 acres in Adams County will remain agricultural property with the help of a land-preservation program and two other sources.

Adams County's commissioners approved a grant agreement Wednesday to acquire an easement on the Nancy Bushey property in Freedom and Liberty townships. The easement, acquired under the county's Green Space Grant Program, is between the county and the Land Conservancy of Adams County.

Adams County will contribute $264,000 toward the easement as part of the grant program. The Land Conservancy will provide $12,000, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service federal farm and ranchland program will give $500,000, said Betsy Kerlin, land-conservation coordinator for the Land Conservancy.

"It's an important piece of land because of ... open space preservation," Kerlin said. "It's a large piece of property."

But the property also has other values. Kerlin said a study showed endangered bird species live on the land, and Bicky Redman, county green-space coordinator, called the property "an Important Bird Area."

The Important Bird Area program, initiated by Bird Life International in the 1980s, identifies sites that provide essential habitat to breeding or non-breeding birds.

"It's been on the radar screen for a number of natural resource organizations out there, so we're very happy to be able to get what we hope is the first of maybe two easements on this property," Redman said. "And we'll have the total property under easement eventually, we hope. There's an interest there."

The Bushey property spans about 383 acres, but the easement acquired Wednesday only includes 264 acres of the property's agricultural land. To preserve the remaining Bushey property, Kerlin said she would have to submit the preservation as a project for next year's round of green-space grants.

"There's plans to do that next year," Kerlin said.

The county has not yet settled on the current property but expects to do so soon, Redman said.

Adams County approved four projects for its 2008 Green Space Grant Program and has been working toward finalizing the grants for the properties involved. In June, the county commissioners approved a grant to provide $125,000 toward the purchase of land Mount Joy Township could turn into a public park.

The grant, plus matching funds the township will contribute toward the purchase, will be used to buy 16.59 acres from Francis Hartlaub Jr. The land currently is open space adjacent to township property and could be turned into a park with recreational fields, county Commissioner George Weikert said previously.

Other preservation projects approved as part of the 2008 Green Space Grant Program include requests from Mount Joy Township for the Patricia Straley farm and from the Land Conservancy for the Roger Bupp farm in Huntington Township.

The county is expected to give $96,120 toward the Straley project and $91,324 toward the Bupp farm.

Kerlin said she expects the Bupp farm to be brought up as part of the program in the fall. The Land Conservancy will not put any of its own money toward the Bupp farm but will have another federal grant through the Natural Resources Conservation Service to use, Kerlin said.

"They've been a great help this year," she said.

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