The Bucks County Agriculture Heritage Area is nestled between the Delaware River and the Neshaminy Creek. In this agricultural area one can still sense the 18th and 19th century agricultural heritage that originally dominated the entire county. Land values are higher here than anywhere else in Bucks County and farmers are finding it increasingly difficult to resist offers that are literally over 100 times the amount their parents paid for their properties a generation ago.

Plain-sect farms have long been part of the agricultural foundation of both Lancaster and Chester counties. However, until recently, they have been hesitant to participate in government sponsored programs or work with individuals outside of their order to change land management techniques. Pat Fasano, Manager of the Octoraro Watershed Association (OWA), along with his Amish liaisons, Henry Beiler in Lancaster County and David Fisher in Chester County, has worked diligently to change that by visiting over 250 plain-sect farms to discuss methods to reduce nitrate runoff from farmland that crosses through streams. Officials in Chester County credit a recent increase of plain-sect farmers participating in preservation programs to years of patient grassroots outreach by individuals like Fasano and a recent influx of private money from organizations like the Brandywine Conservancy. Grant funding from the William Penn Foundation has allowed the Conservancy to target conservation easements to the plain-sect community in Chester County. Since 2007, William Penn funding for this plain-sect initiative has led to seven conservation easements on 380 acres.

More than 200 acres of farmland were recently preserved in northern Buck County's Haycock Township. Agricultural easements were placed on the 86.4 acre Ahlum Farm and the 124.8 acre Isaac Farm. The Bucks County Agriculture Land Preservation Program is responsible for the easements, thereby adding two more working farms to the program's growing list of preserved properties. Bucks County and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania provided funding for the purchase of the easements, with the County donating 40 percent of the cost and the Commonwealth the remaining 60 percent. The Isaac Farm was the first in the township to be preserved through the county preservation program. With the addition of these two farms nearly 50 percent of Haycock Township's land area is preserved. The majority of the township's preserved acres are state game lands or part of Lake Nockamixon State Park. Some land has been preserved through natural and agricultural easements, and as a county park. An additional 570 acres have been evaluated for future preservation by the township. Haycock is updating its Open Space Plan in order to utilize its municipal share of the County's Open Space bond.