122 acres of Vollinger Farm in Northampton conserved for ag, wildlife
A total of 122 acres of the 217-acre farm on North Farms Road will be preserved. The trust said the land was at much higher risk for development than farms in the Connecticut River floodplains.
Farm owner Robert 'Bob' Vollinger had been working with the trust on the project for about five years, the trust said. This also is the first time that the trust is the holder of a federally funded easement.
'This complex process to become qualified for and hold an Agricultural Land Easement required a steep learning curve for everyone involved,' said trust Conservation Director Mark Wamsley in a statement.
The easement aims to protect the long-term viability of the nation's food supply by preventing the conversion of productive farmland to non-agricultural uses, the trust said.
Many farms in Western Massachusetts are prime wildlife habitat, providing land and water for many wild creatures. This farm is next to a city-owned conservation area, which supports similar habitats.
The Regional Conservation Partnership program provided $749,500 in funding, while Mass Audubon's Catalyst Fund provided an additional $100,000.
Another 80 acres is temporarily enrolled in the state's Farm Viability Program, which provided funding for Vollinger to renovate one of his barns. Kestrel hopes to protect that land permanently in the future.
The Vollingers have owned the land — hayfield, woods, pasture and crop fields — for three generations. It's next to the Broad Brook-Fitzgerald Lake Greenway, the largest conservation area in Northampton.
'Conserving the farm was always my goal. Now it will also help me plan for the future and contribute to my retirement. I'm looking forward to spending more time on the farm and being out on the land in the coming years,' Vollinger said in the statement.
Kestrel Land Trust is a nonprofit group based in Amherst that conserves and cares for forests, farms, and riverways in the Connecticut River Valley of Western Massachusetts. Visit kestreltrust.org to learn more.
Read the original article on MassLive.
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