Protecting the Land that Supports Them

The Mannings and the Stoddards live in two different states and are in two distinct phases of their farming careers, but they share one thing in common. Both of these families are devoted to their land, to agriculture, and to conservation. Both have protected their farmland so that it will remain open and available for agricultural uses, forever.

The Manning Farm is located on Robinson Road in Strafford, VT.  With over a mile and a half of road frontage and nearly three miles of perennial streams including Fay Brook, the Manning Farm sits in one of Strafford’s most scenic landscapes. In 1961, while driving a milk truck, Roscoe Manning visited the farm on Robinson Road and told his wife Ruth that he had found the farm for them. For more than 50 years Roscoe and Ruth cared for the fields and forests there, milking cows, growing a huge garden, sugaring, harvesting timber, and raising their family. The land passed to their children after their deaths and on January 12^th, 2018, after months of planning and fundraising, their children conserved the farm, protecting it for generations to come.

Simultaneously, Earl Ransom and Amy Huyffer, of Rockbottom Farm and Strafford Organic Creamery, bought the conserved farm land. Rockbottom Farm is an organic dairy and the last dairy in Strafford. The farm and creamery supports the family, produces local food, hires local employees, and creates economic benefit for the community. Earl and Amy have been steadily increasing their herd size over 15 years and had been leasing portions of the Manning’s land for pasture and hay. Placing the conservation easement on the land meant that Earl and Amy could purchase the farm at a reduced cost. The reduced cost makes it more affordable for farmers to purchase the land and use it for agriculture, it keeps the land in local ownership, producing local food.

The funding for this transaction came from UVLT’s Fund for Conservation Action, an ongoing capital campaign that supports urgent high-impact projects. Additional funding came from the Alliance for Vermont Communities and a local fundraising campaign that generated $16,000 from 60 Strafford households in just a few weeks!

Across the river, in North Haverhill, the Stoddard family is passionate about farming and has been planning for the future of their land. Steve Taylor, former NH Secretary of Agriculture, said about the Stoddard’s “Both sides of their family have generations of wonderful farmers. Farming and being good stewards of the land is in their DNA and their decision to conserve their land makes sense. It’s important to keep productive agricultural land in agricultural use. I admire them for that. They’re carrying on a great tradition.”

Blackmount Farm, owned and operated by Bob and Linda Stoddard, has been in Bob’s family since his grandfather purchased it in 1936. Bob and Linda operated it as a 60 head dairy farm until 2001 when they switched to raising heifers for another dairy. They did this until 2017. Now their land is being leased by another local dairy to grow corn and hay. But the Stoddard’s know that this land could support a dairy farm again one day and they didn’t want to see their fertile, agricultural land developed. Instead they decided to secure their farm land for the future by conserving it with the Upper Valley Land Trust.

The Stoddard’s scenic hill farm contains diverse natural resources and boasts abundant and well managed soils with 90% of the acreage listed as either Prime, Statewide Significant, or Locally Important. “New Hampshire has some of the finest farm soils in the country and UVLT is committed to protecting these resources to help ensure our region’s future agricultural viability and food security,” says UVLT Vice President, Conservation, Peg Merrens, “to date we have protected 11 properties in Haverhill for a total of over 1,000 acres, and hope that the protection of Blackmount Farm will be a renewed catalyst in our efforts to conserve the important areas in the northern region of our service area.”

The Blackmount project was funded in large part by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Major assistance was also provided by the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program. The project was also supported by funds from the sale of the Conservation License Plate (Moose Plate) through the NH State Conservation Committee grant program. Capstone funding was provided by the Thomas W. Haas Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

Both of these farm families made firm commitments to the future of their land and our community. “With well over 60 working farms conserved with the Upper Valley Land Trust” says Conservation Project Manager Megan Chapman, “these special stories highlight the importance of land conservation in providing stable ownership and/or crop production transitions that allow the land to continue to provide our community with food, fiber, open space, and unique rural character.” Today’s farmers, like the generations that will follow, are always adapting to manage successful, productive operations from the land they love and steward. While the specific farming operation that any one conserved farm uses today is likely to change as time goes by, the land, and its agricultural potential, will be there to greet the next farmer who comes along with a dream, ready to take up the challenge and the love of farming.