Prime Farmland Conserved

The Upper Valley Land Trust (UVLT) has announced the conservation of two more parcels of prime farmland in the northern part of the Upper Valley. “Haverhill and Newbury have some of the best farmland in the region,” says Peg Merrens, UVLT’s Vice President for Land Conservation. “We are thrilled to protect this land.”

Dale and Jackie Lewis conserved a 23-acre property near the Bedell Bridge State Park in Haverhill. ​ For decades, the Lewis family owned and operated Rocky Hill Farm on Court Street. They hayed and cropped this property and others to support their dairy operation. Today they rent their fields to Newmont Farm based across the river in Fairlee and Bradford.

Gordon Huntington’s 189 acres in Newbury fills a Connecticut River oxbow. Gordon is a third-generation farmer raised on a dairy farm in southern New Hampshire. After development pushed them north, Gordon and his parents brought the CR Farm to Newbury 36 years ago. The rich bottomland soil now supports three farm operations — Gordon grows hay, leases 20 acres to Four Corners Farm for strawberries and vegetables, and Newmont Farm leases the balance.

Merrens says that these properties are critical pieces of the mosaic of working farmland in the northern Upper Valley. Only 6% of the land in UVLT’s 45-town service area is prime agricultural soil and less than a fifth of that is conserved. These lands may play an important role in regional food security and local economics. Farming in other parts of the country is increasingly unsustainable due to climate change and water shortages. The conservation of productive farmland is an urgent focus for UVLT.

Gordon Huntington’s goal is to “do right by the land,” honoring the stewardship practices that he and his father maintained over many years. A buffer along his mile of river frontage protects water quality and reduces runoff and erosion. On the Lewis property, a 2000-foot long buffer runs along the north side of Oliverian Brook, providing habitat for migratory birds and cooling the brook and forested wetlands for semi/aquatic species’ habitat.

UVLT is a non‐profit land conservancy that works in 45 Vermont and New Hampshire towns in the Connecticut River watershed, providing conservation leadership and supporting communities and landowners to realize their conservation goals. Founded by Upper Valley residents in 1985, UVLT has conserved more than 56,000 acres of land. These include working farms, forested ridges, wildlife habitat, water resources, trails and scenic landscapes. Most of the conserved land remains in private ownership, protected by permanent deeds known as conservation easements.

The Natural Resource Conservation Service of USDA (NRCS) provides assistance and grant programs that help farmers protect soil and water resources. The NRCS Agricultural Land Easement program (ALE) helps land trusts purchase conservation easements that protect croplands and grasslands on working farms by limiting non-agricultural uses of the land. Merrens says that NCRS supported both conservation projects. Grant funding to protect the Huntington land came through the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board. New Hampshire’s SCC Mooseplate program also supported the protection of the Lewis land.

Merrens says the Lewis conservation easement is the 14th that UVLT has completed in Haverhill and the Huntington conservation easement is UVLT's 26th in Newbury. All ​ told, UVLT has conserved about 4500 acres in the two towns.