As Cayuga County continues to progress commercially, this year 26 farm owners applied to the state's Farmland Protection Program in an effort to protect their land from future development.

Unfortunately, each county in the state is only allowed to select three farms' applications to submit to the state each year. But Cayuga County's Planning and Economic Development Office is working with county towns to increase the amount of applications it will submit this year, increasing the odds for more farmland protection in the county.

About 3,600 acres are currently protected by the program in the county.

Statewide, the Farmland Protection Program annually protects 2,192 acres, according to the trust. The trust is a national non-profit organization working with communities and individuals to protect farmland.

“We had a lot of new and repeat candidates this year,” said Trish Ottley Riter, Cayuga County's community development planner.

Cayuga County's Agricultural Farmland and Protection Board has already selected three farm applications to submit to the state but they have until September to try and encourage towns to join in the process.

The town of Fleming has already agreed to participate and qualifies as an eligible municipality that can submit applications to the state. Riter said town of Fleming officials have agreed to send two additional applications to the state.

Board members selected to submit applications from Hoskins Farm, a 650-acre farm in Aurelius; Green Valley Farms, a 1,200-acre farm headquartered in Fleming; and Wilde Farms, a 236-acre farm in Springport.

After the state deemed Fleming an eligible municipality to submit Farmland Protection applications, Riter said Town Supervisor Jim Young agreed to also submit applications to the state for the 1,000-acre Gulliver Farm and the 238-acre Saxton Acres.

Following the September deadline, state officials will place the three applications into a pool of other applications from around the state before deciding whether or not they will protect all or just some of Cayuga County's land.

“Fleming has been deemed eligible,” Riter said. “That's where a lot of our high ranked farms were located.”

This year Riter said board members narrowed down the 26 applications to about seven or eight, all with competitive scores. She said a lot of the farms had high rankings due to their soil type and the ongoing development around the applicants' farms.

Staff writer Kristina Martino can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kristina.martino@lee.net