Thank you, Penn State

An encouraging event occurred recently on Penn State land on Whitehall Road. The university had the tents and other structures removed from the site so that the land could be farmed. The occupants at the Whitehall Road site were evicted so that a farmer could till the land and plant it to winter wheat. It may be that if the Nittany Valley Water Coalition had been told that the land was to be farmed they would have voluntarily left the site. In any case, Penn State is to be thanked for this action. Hopefully it is the first step toward keeping the whole 500 acres of Penn State land in agriculture.

Farmers near this Penn State land wanted to keep their land as farm land, and Centre Region citizens and municipalities united to purchase agricultural easements on their land. This was a significant achievement to protect water resources of the Centre Region. Adding this Penn State land, which is adjacent, would provide guaranteed protection for a major water source for the Centre Region. It would demonstrate Penn State’s willingness to be a key player in this effort.

Thank you again, Penn State. Keep it up!

This story was originally published October 5, 2017 at 7:16 PM with the headline "Thank you, Penn State."