What is LFT Talking About?
At Lancaster Farmland Trust (LFT), we use a lot of big words and strange acronyms, and for many, it can be hard to keep track of them all. So, we’ve decided to put them in one place! Consider this your guide to all-things LFT, so you can farm-ilizarize yourself with all of our terms and phrases!
Preservation: The process LFT uses to protect farms. This means that farms will stay farmland forever. As of 2025, LFT has preserved 600 farms!
Baseline: A document LFT staff creates with details on how a farm looked when it was preserved. This helps LFT track any changes on the farm to ensure it stays protected farmland.
Easement: The final document the farmer signs to ensure the protection of their farm with LFT. This prevents the development of the farmland in ways that would make it unusable for future farming.
Conservation: The upkeep of a natural resource to prevent it from disappearing. LFT’s conservation work on farms helps farmers implement best management practices (BMPs) to improve their farm and its environmental impact.
Best Management Practices (BMPs): Things farmers do to prevent or reduce the amount of pollution generated.
Silvopasture: Trees planted in grazing pastures to provide forage and shade for livestock.
Buffers: Trees planted along a waterway to filter pollutants. They reduce soil erosion and protect local streams.
Stream Crossing: A bridge or stabilized area for animals to cross a stream. This improves water quality by reducing pollutants that enter our local waterways and prevents erosion.
Manure Storage Pit: A pit used to store manure. This allows farmers to apply manure to fields only when needed. This lowers pollutant runoff into waterways.
Streambank Fencing: Fencing that limits animals’ access to the stream. This helps decrease erosion on the streambank and keeps things that shouldn’t be in streams out of streams.
Stewardship: The job of supervising or taking care of something. At LFT, this is the process of protecting farmland forever. LFT stewards each farm we preserve (600 and counting!) The job of making sure that farmland stays farmland never ends.
Monitoring: Visits to protected farms to check that the farm, soil, and water are in good health and that the land is staying protected.
Zoning: A land management tool used by local governments to decide how land is used in their community.
Urban Growth Areas: Areas in which development is encouraged. These are areas where development best supports community growth.
Zoned Ag (Agricultural Zoning): Areas local governments have determined are suitable for farming use. LFT wants to protect this land from urban development that can threaten productive farmland.