#Middlebury #LandTrust
Fenn’s Pond, foreground, is owned by the Middlebury Land Trust, and Brookdale (aka Fenn) Farm, visible in the background, is owned by the town with a conservation easement by the MLT. Views of both may be the most frequently photographed and painted properties in the town. (Janine Sullivan-Wiley)
By JANINE SULLIVAN-WILEY
Why preserve an old barn, or a field or farm right in the middle of town? Why have trails that not everyone can use? Who cares about being able to see beautiful vistas … if it’s not the view from one’s own home?
I do. And I think there is a lot of value in preserving those things before you realize you need to because by then it may be too late. Housing or commercial development can forever change beautiful open space you thought would always be there. If you’re lucky, it will stay untouched because a land trust either bought it or obtained a conservation easement on it.
Some of the Middlebury Land Trust’s purchases and easements go back decades. Land conservation is a very long game.
I have seen first-hand what it looks like when steps to preserve open space are not taken in time. When I was growing up in Suffolk County on Long Island, woods, fields and farms surrounded me. A local farm raised chickens (although the aroma from the coops when opened in the spring was not my favorite), and a local dairy farm supplied us with fresh milk and cream.
Fast forward to my 20s, and the chickens were gone. The woods were gone. The fields of corn were gone. What had been a dairy farm had become a development of high-end homes. Commercial buildings sat along every road, interspersed among housing tracts. It was painful to see how easily all the open space was lost.
That’s why I joined and got involved with the Middlebury Land Trust (MLT) after moving to Middlebury. Since its inception over 50 years ago, the MLT has managed to conserve, by outright ownership or getting conservation easements, roughly 2000 of the 11,840 acres of this town. That’s roughly 17%.
That conserved space includes Fenn’s Pond (owned by the MLT), and Brookdale Farm (Fenn’s Farm, owned by the town) – which can never become a big housing development. Larkin Pond and its surrounding land, and Lake Elise and its environs, are also owned – and preserved – by the Land Trust.
Bronson Meadow, right in the middle of town, is another MLT property. A farmer grew hay on it until last year, when he grew plants for a pick-your-own event. That was a success, and the field is again planted for that purpose, using low-impact planting techniques.
Although Straits Turnpike has seen a lot of commercial development, one stretch of it will never become a long march of commercial buildings. That’s because the MLT owns Sperry Pond and its surrounding preserves, which together cover about 190 acres. The MLT recently added an adjacent parcel along Park Road, next to the new medical building at the intersection of Park Road and Straits Turnpike. MLT property stretches along the west side of Straits Turnpike from the new medical building to well past Turnpike Drive.
The MLT also has conservation easements on many hundreds of acres. Conservation and agricultural easements preserve the land’s natural beauty and function by limiting the type and scope of development that can take place on them.
Before a land trust agrees to accept such easements, it makes a careful assessment of the potential conservation value. Once an easement is accepted, the MLT has to monitor it. The owners have significant restrictions on what they can do on their property and how the land can be used, even though they own it and pay taxes on it. Those restrictions are permanent – even if the current owners move or die.
Amy Blaymore Paterson, executive director of the Connecticut Land Conservation Council, said whether land is owned outright or conserved, “There are benefits to the ecosystem that go far beyond the land itself. Keeping air and water clean are benefits to our economy as well.” She added, “Having access to these green spaces is a necessity for all people, no matter where they live, in order to stay physically and mentally healthy.” We are so very fortunate to have those green spaces in abundance here in Middlebury, a source of both solace and refuge.
You can contact this writer at jswspotlight@gmail.com; visit the Middlebury Land Trust on Facebook or the website at middleburylandtrust.org. Happy hiking!
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