In an effort to preserve agricultural and forest land,
Pennsylvania passed The Pennsylvania Farmland and Forest Land
Assessment Act of 1974, also known as Clean and Green. Clean and
Green provides qualified parcels of land with preferential
assessment values, resulting in lower property taxes for the
landowner. A Clean and Green qualified parcel generally must be
more than 10 acres in size and devoted to agricultural use,
agricultural reserve (i.e. open spaces used for outdoor
recreation), or forest reserve. Rather than appraising the parcel
based off of its Fair Market Value, Clean and Green allows the
Department of Agriculture (DOA) to value parcels based on their
use. The DOA provides county assessment offices with a list of use
values annually. Each county's assessment office is allowed to
provide for lower assessment values for Clean and Green qualified
parcels, but may not assess a parcel higher than the use values
provided by the DOA. Currently, Pennsylvania has
