The John and Julia Stover farm in Cumberland County accounts for about 140 of the newly preserved acres, and multiple farms in Lancaster County account for more than 600 acres, the release stated.

The Pennsylvania Agricultural Land Preservation Board on Thursday protected 2,389 acres overall from development on 28 farms in Pennsylvania through the state’s farmland preservation program, the release stated.

The state’s preservation efforts work through the Pennsylvania Agricultural Conservation Easement Purchase Program to help slow the loss of prime farmland to nonagricultural uses, according to the release.

The program enables state, county and local governments to buy so-called conservation easements, or development rights, from owners of such farmland, the release stated.

There have been more than $1.1 billion of these investments since the program began in 1988, according to the release.