The land trust uses two main methods for conserving land: agricultural preservation restrictions and conservation restrictions.
Richard K. HubbardSHELBURNE – The Franklin Land Trust has helped to conserve more than 19,000 acres of land in Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden counties since its founding in 1987 and expects to reach the 20,000-acre mark by June 30, the end of the fiscal year.
“It’s very exciting for us,” said land trust executive director Richard K. Hubbard, noting that when the organization celebrated its 20th anniversary, it had protected about 12,000 acres. “Four short years later, we’re approaching 20,000 (acres), so you can see the pace of land conservation has picked up.”
The land trust gets two or three inquiries a week and is working on about 60 active projects. “There’s a lot of activity out there,” Hubbard said.
He attributes that activity to a “huge generational transfer of land” by owners who are reaching retirement and need to make a decision about selling, preserving or transferring their land to the next generation of their family.
Many want to keep their land open and undeveloped or have it continue to be farmed or managed for wood. “That’s driving the demand” for land trust help, Hubbard said.
The Franklin Land Trust is a nonprofit organization that assists farmers and other landowners who want to protect their land from unwanted development. It protects farms, forests, open spaces, mountain tops and thus the character of the region.
Through its work, the land trust has connected thousands of contiguous acres of woodlands and wildlife corridors, some for public use.
The land trust uses two main methods for conserving land: agricultural preservation restrictions and conservation restrictions.
The agricultural preservation restriction program is a voluntary program intended to offer a nondevelopment alternative to farmers and other owners of prime agricultural land who are faced with a decision about the future use and disposition of their land.
The program offers to pay farmers the difference between the fair market value and the agricultural value of farmland in exchange for a permanent restriction that precludes any use of the property that will have a negative impact on its agricultural viability.
A conservation restriction provides a way to protect land from development in perpetuity. The exact terms of a conservation restriction may vary depending upon the interest and needs of an individual landowner.
In some cases, the conservation restriction may stipulate that the land be kept “forever wild” – protected not only from building but from any alteration. More commonly, a conservation restriction prevents building on the land but allows for recreational trails, agricultural uses such as growing crops, pasturing livestock and maple sugaring and for the harvesting of wood or timber under a forest management plan.
For a conservation restriction to be enforceable over the long term, it must be held by a government body or by a nonprofit organization such as the Franklin Land Trust. It must also be approved by the state and by the town. It does not affect the landowner’s ownership of the land, only the use.
The land trust also obtains land by purchasing it with the idea the state will later purchase it for wildlife and environmental protection or through gifts.
One such gifted property is the 107-acre Guyette farm at Gloyd Road and South Central Street in Plainfield.
The Guyette family purchased the farm in 1932. Harry Guyette, his brother, Merrell, and their father, Arthur, kept the farm going for more than 70 years.
In 2008, Harry’s widow, Evelyn Guyette, gifted the farm to the Franklin Land Trust in his honor and respecting his wish that no one build on it.
The property is protected from development by her gifting it to the land trust for conservation purposes.