Partnerships for farm preservation

By SANDY LONG

DELAWARE COUNTY, NY — It isn’t easy saving farmland these days. Sometimes it takes a partnership—several agencies, a brave young couple, substantial foundation money and a willing seller who set the stage for preservation through a watershed protection program. The final result is a model for other potential farmland preservation efforts.

Located in the towns of Kortright and Meredith in Delaware County, Rockycrest Farms is a 388-acre Catskill dairy farm with 150 cows and a young family, Kyle and Bonnie Rockefeller and their children, Alexis and Chase, at the helm. Their purchase of the former Deerfield Farm represents the third and final stage in the landmark preservation project.

The Open Space Institute (OSI) announced the successful sale of the farm earlier this year. OSI works to protect scenic, natural and historic landscapes and to conserve habitat. The organization achieves its goals through land acquisition, conservation easements, regional loan programs, fiscal sponsorship, creative partnerships and analytical research.

The project supports the environmental and economic viability of farming in New York State. In July 2007, OSI’s land acquisition affiliate, the Open Space Conservancy (OSC), acquired the Deerfield Farm from Jim and Barbara Robertson with funds from the Lila Acheson and DeWitt Wallace Endowment. The farm was one of 10 original pilot farms in the Watershed Agriculture Council’s (WAC) Whole Farm Planning program, which aims to manage a farm’s economic and production needs while balancing environmental sustainability.

“New York is an agricultural state. With almost 25 percent of our land devoted to more than 37,000 farms, there is no denying the rich and viable agricultural heritage of New York,” said Jennifer Grossman, OSI’s vice president of acquisition. “We rank third in the nation for milk production, and our 6,000 active dairy farms have made milk New York’s leading agricultural product. The courage of the Rockefeller family to continue honoring this way of life at a time when milk prices are dropping and the economy is failing is to be lauded.”

As a pilot farm, Deerfield Farm was the site of a long-term study by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to quantify the benefits of Best Management Practices (BMP)—conservation practices meant to prevent or reduce pollution and protect water quality.

The study proved that effective management of water quality threats on farms located within the watershed can be a viable and cost-effective substitute for regulation or filtration. “We follow a plan so the runoff is minimal,” Rockefeller said.

WAC purchased a conservation easement on the property in 2008, permanently protecting the agricultural land from incompatible development, and opening the door for the sale of the land.

Amy Kenyon, president of Farm Catskills, an organization working to build a sustainable farming community in Delaware County, summarized the successful venture this way: “Delaware County has long had a ‘working landscape’ where farmers and foresters sustain the land and natural resources which, in turn, sustain them. Our role in the project was to work with OSI to understand the importance of keeping it in agriculture, owned by a farmer, and to connect OSI with farm families that were interested in the farm.

“The Rockycrest project was innovative in that it not only preserved the land from development, but also made it possible for a young farm family to buy the land and keep the farm in agriculture—a protected working landscape. This type of project is critical to our future ag preservation efforts because it addresses the issue of farmland affordability for young farmers.”

OSI has protected more than 100,000 acres in New York State and has assisted in the protection of an additional 1.7 million acres in other parts of the country. Visit www.osiny.org for more information.

Protecting land locally

The Delaware Highlands Conservancy (DHC) is the Upper Delaware River Region’s local land trust, protecting the farms and forests of Pike and Wayne counties in Pennsylvania and Sullivan and Delaware counties in New York. To date, the DHC has helped to protect nearly 11,000 acres of forest and farmland. In addition to working with individual landowners who want to preserve their land for the benefit of future generations, the DHC hosts educational events for the public, supports the Butterfly Barn nature center and connects residents and visitors to local working farms and forests to foster economic opportunities that support these important businesses. For more information visit DelawareHighlands.org or call 570/226-3164.