Conservation partnership helps Allegheny County farms remain viable with environmental benefits

The Allegheny County Conservation District has always helped family and urban farms in its work. A partnership with federal and state agencies has permitted it to increase the scale of what it can do.

With the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and the Department of Community and Economic Development, more than $1.4 million in infrastructure funding has been awarded to farms across Allegheny County from 2023 to 2025, according to a news release from the agency.

These projects support water quality improvements, reduce soil erosion, and enhance long-term productivity and health of farmland in six Allegheny County municipalities.  

It’s called the Agricultural Conservation Assistance Program or ACAP, and through it the conservation district awarded $953,893 to seven farms located in Findlay, Plum, Fawn, West Deer, Forward and South Park Township. Additional funding of $539,055 was provided through NRCS’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program, DEP Growing Greener and through state Sen. Lindsey Williams’ support of the DCED Community Economic Assistance Program.  

Pennsylvania created conservation districts, which date back to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s tenure to alleviate the disastrous effects of the Dust Bowl, through a 1945 law. These administrative commissions work under the departments of Environmental Protection and Agriculture in every county except Philadelphia. The goal: support local grassroots conservation efforts on a range of issues unique to each one.

Allegheny County’s district began its work in 1946, and it’s part of a national regulatory network. Its mission is to engage and lead through partnerships, innovation and implementation to conserve, promote and improve Allegheny County’s natural resources. It launched a strategic plan in 2021, its 75^th year.

Executive Director Heather Manzo said the district has four regulatory programs related to state clean water laws, and its authority comes from the state. The focus is hyperlocal, and partnerships like this one help farms, both urban and rural, and grow its existing programs.

This infusion of money has a direct effect on water quality and soil health in addition to the farms’ viability, she said.

“By building strong partnerships with state and federal agencies, we bring significant resources to Allegheny County that directly support farmers and protect natural resources,” Manzo stated in the release. “These investments help farmers improve their land, reduce runoff to nearby waterways and strengthen their operations. ACCD bridges the gaps between agencies, making it easier for local farms to access the tools and infrastructure they need to succeed.” 

The release listed the following farms as receiving funding from 2023 through summer 2025, with details on each one’s project: 

Mamone Farm, Findlay

Merico and Victoria Mamone, both raised in farming families, run a beef cattle operation with their two daughters. Aging infrastructure on the farm presented an opportunity to redesign with a focus on conservation. 

Morning Glory Farm, Plum

This fifth-generation family farm was preserved in 2024 under the Farmland Preservation Program, administered by ACCD. The Morrows farm beef, pork and chicken while also producing honey and birdseed. Updated infrastructure will protect animal health and safety by improving animal high-traffic areas. 

Blackberry Meadows, Fawn

Blackberry Meadows Farm produces pork, eggs and vegetables while also serving ready-to-eat foods at local farmers markets. The farm was preserved in 2019 under the Farmland Preservation Program, administered by ACCD, and operates a Farm Club that encourages community members to get involved in local agriculture. Funded improvements have made operations more efficient while preventing erosion.  

South Park Police Horse Barn, South Park Township 

The Round Barn at South Park is home to the Allegheny County Police Department’s horses. Manure produced by horses is transported to Round Hill Demonstration Farm and used to fertilize fields. Because of the impacts on a nearby stream, this project focused on engineering solutions to prevent manure runoff into surface water.  

Good Dog Farm, West Deer

Lindsay McKee and Brian Wiltrout produce chicken and duck eggs, fresh vegetables and cut flowers. They operate their small farm with the help of Ham and Cheese, the namesake “good dogs.” A combination of funding from ACAP and DCED will transform a site of severe erosion into useful growing space and substantial quality habitat for wildlife. 

Two additional projects have been approved by ACCD’s board of directors and will be contracted after the Pennsylvania state budget is passed: 

Solomon Farms, Findlay

Lee and Brittany Hartman raise beef cattle along with a few horses and poultry birds. With guidance from NRCS, they developed a grazing management plan to implement intensive grazing practices to restore land once impacted by strip mining. 

Jersey Settlement Farm, Forward

The Pasini family raises beef cattle, sheep and pigs, selling directly to consumers and select local restaurants. Committed to protecting their farm’s natural resources, they have previously partnered with ACCD on stream improvement projects. Now, they plan to replace aging spring developments to prevent erosion and ensure the safety of their livestock. 

Allegheny County has 372 farms, 87% of which are small operations selling less than $250,000 annually. The release noted, “the existence of and output from these farms are responsible for enhancing local food security for the region and providing meaningful economic support for adjacent business and industry.”

“Small farms are on the front lines of keeping our families fed by providing fresh, local produce for communities, schools and food banks. They also play an important role as stewards of our environment,” Williams, D-West View, said in the release. “Every Pennsylvanian has a constitutional right to pure water, and this funding will help small local farms like Blackberry Meadows and Good Dog Farm continue to feed our families, while prioritizing sustainability and protecting our waterways for generations to come.” 

Manzo noted that the number of small farms has declined in the county. “We are losing family farms at twice the rate as the national average,” she said. “We are losing land and farms.”

But some progress has been made. “Some of our farms are first-generation. That is wonderful, too,” she said. “That is a giant undertaking. We have some success. We have some talented, dedicated smart folks who have created [them].”

The partnerships that enabled these grants have “been amazing” and enable a scale of work that would have taken a decade to do, Manzo said. “This huge money was a very critical infusion to help farms with their natural resource needs at the farm level. And it has ripple effects into the larger watersheds they are part of.”

Finding grants can be a long process, she added. These awards took time but “have been game changing for the farms in Allegheny County.”

Greg Boulos, whose family owns Blackberry Meadows Farm, agrees and said the grant enabled the farm to complete heavy-use area pavilions needed to protect high traffic areas. “We designed them to allow the animals to move out of the building in many different directions so they would not cause soil disruption around the pavilion,” he wrote in an email. “We just started using these pavilions this fall, and they are working great! Animals are finding shade without us setting up temporary shade structures. I’ve been changing their exits and entrances to reduce damage around the building, which is awesome for the environment.”

He said another part of the project included the installation of partial pasture fence to keep the animals from following their noses into local waterways and out of the back side of the farm’s pastures. “This project has saved 75% of the time needed to set up livestock containment as they move around the property, through pasture and forest,” he wrote.

The process was competitive, too. After the announcement about the grants, the district formed a reviewing committee and developed a rubric based on state guidelines to score the applications. They looked for interventions and projects that would have the most impactful environmental impact and permitted rolling applications during the two-year period.

She credits her staff for making this program a reality and far-reaching.

Manzo said all the money could have been spent on one big project but decided not to do that. “We wanted to lift all boats as the saying goes,” she explained. That meant making phone calls to state and federal programs to get additional dollars to fund as many as possible, and she also credited Williams for assistance here. “It’s another big nod to the staff,” Manzo said. “They were tenacious.”

Farms that did not win grants can apply again. That’s important because with farming, unless the owners have some degree of wealth, Manzo said the funded projects surpass anything most farmers would be able to afford.

“Family farms to do large capital improvements like this have to partner with organizations like the conservation district and its partners to provide this supplemental funding,” she said.

Boulos agreed with that statement. “ … Being able to use these funds to improve production and benefit nature is a win-win-win-win: for us, the taxpayers, the neighbors and everyone who loves our rivers and parks,” he wrote.  

Getting these projects underway helps ease labor costs. Updated infrastructure – including something as low tech as spring bank fencing to keep pigs and other livestock away from the water – is just a good intervention, too. So is building cement pads and cover for animals and proper manure storage as all can help slow down or prevent soil erosion, just as Blackberry Meadows did. The latter gives farmers “the best land that they can grow food on.”

She agrees with Boulos on how wide the impact can be with these efforts. “The public benefit is there,” Manzo said. “These things help the farms with viability and provide food security. All these things are critical. These types of projects help the water quality far beyond the edge of the farm. They keep the cost of drinking water lower, helps aquatics.”

Her staff inspects the projects throughout the construction work. “Typically we have long-term relationships with these farms,” she said. “We see how [the projects] are happening and how they hold up. We will continue to support the farms and their future once this funding ends.”

How much more major funding will be available remains to be seen. The state budget impasse has held up two projects, but state departments also can fund programs with pass-throughs of federal money earmarked for agriculture and the environment.

For example, the district had embarked on an agriculture and soils program to prevent pollution through ACAP, and it had received $830,000 to award over three years.

Another effort is the Urban Grower Success Micro-Grant program made possible through the state receiving a USDA’s Farm Service Agency $860,000 grant over two years. It was working on these through a partnership to be more efficient, Manzo said, with the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council, Grow Pittsburgh, Hilltop Urban Farm, Pasa Sustainable Agriculture and Chatham University. The target for these: urban farmers who hadn’t been in the system to access federal dollars.

But those are on hold right now. Manzo said the money has not been canceled but noted there has been some turbulence. “We’re hoping for a positive answer soon,” she said. “We just want to get this money into the farmers’ hands.”

Farmers interested in learning more about future funding opportunities can visit www.accdpa.org/acap or contact Agriculture Resource Conservationist Madeleine Sheinfeld at msheinfeld@accdpa.org.