Those with dreams of their own "Green Acres" may find their hobbyist farm located inside a national park,
ABC News reports.
The National Park Service's Countryside Initiative will soon be accepting online applications from would-be farmers who are interested in farming on three leased parcels of land inside the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, ABC said.
The homestead farms will be used for "culturally intensive fruit and vegetable production, small intensive grazing operations, or small integrated crop-livestock enterprises," the initiative noted.
Farmers who are selected will join with existing farming operations already located inside the park. Those farmers grow fruits and vegetables along with managing livestock including goats and turkeys as well as produce honey, hickory bark syrup and their own herbs, ABC News reported of the sustainable farming operations in progress.
The park service noted the value of preserving family farming in kicking off its expansion of the farming land program.
"In an era of increasing industrialization, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park serves as an undeveloped island sustaining the preservation of American farm life. The National Park Service's
Countryside Initiative program promotes living, working farms that represent the rural heritage of the Cuyahoga Valley, while also protecting the park's resources," the NPS noted on its website.
The non-profit farm conservancy began operating inside the park in 1999. It draws more than 100,000 visitors to the park each year with million of dollars in economic impact, the conservancy noted, adding that it is a much sought-after "model for public/private sustainable land use."
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