When Florence resident Gary Warner, 63, was considering what to do with a parcel of land he owns in Goshen, he remembered hearing about land conservation opportunities offered through the Hilltown Land Trust and decided to pursue a conservation restriction for his 200-acre property.
“This land was part of my grandmother’s farm on my mothers side, and it has been in my family for generations,” Warner said. “As I am getting older, I thought that it was time to have a plan for the property.”
Warner is the owner of Goshen Stone Co. He says that his quarry takes up about 15 to 20 acres of his property in Goshen, and the rest he would like to see protected.
He said that he was standing in a cleared field one day when he was struck with the importance of his family history and it’s connection to the land.
“They worked this very spot with hand scythes, and left their signature on the land with fences and stone walls that are still here,” Warner said. “So many lives have lived on this property; learning about them helps me put myself into that picture.
Warner said that over the years, he had attended a couple of seminars hosted by the Hilltown Land Trust, where he learned that his land was within an important area that the Trust was interested in protecting.
According to Hilltown Land Trust Executive Director Sally Loomis, the land is classified as both “Core Habitat,” and a “Critical Natural Landscape” based on the state’s BioMap2.
BioMap2 is an important conservation tool designed to guide the strategic conservation of biodiversity in Massachusetts throughout the next decade.
Using data on the state’s animals and plant species, ecosystems, and landscapes, this map designates both Core Habitat and Critical Natural Landscapes.
Core habitats are areas that are crucial to ensuring the long-term persistence of species of conservation concern, exemplary natural communities, and intact ecosystems across the state.
Critical Natural Landscapes identifies larger landscape areas that necessary for wide-ranging species and are better suited to support a variety of ecological processes, disturbances, and the effects of climate change.
“This is 200 acres that includes a large block of forested land and there is a substantial wetland on the Warner property,” Loomis said.
The property is also located within an area known as the Berkshire Wildlife Linkage, a 2.4 million swath of land that covers western Massachusetts, southern Vermont, eastern New York, and northern Connecticut, connecting the forests of the Green Mountains in Vermont, and the Hudson Highlands in New York.
While the Berkshire Wildlife Linkage contains large sections of conservation lands, many of these protected parcels are surrounded by unprotected acreage that is in danger of being developed.
The Nature Conservancy, together with several land trusts and other agencies, is working to increase protected lands within the linkage to reduce barriers to wildlife movement throughout the region.
Efforts to maintain and restore connectivity within the Berkshire Wildlife Linkage are concentrated on a 742,000-acre north-south pathway through the middle of the linkage, that currently facilitates movement of a wide range of native species, including bear, bobcat, otter, porcupine, fox, deer and moose.
“Connectivity is important, especially with climate change becoming more of a factor for species that need to move from habitat to habitat, particularly on a north south route,” Loomis said.
A conservation restriction limits future development by transferring certain property rights, such as the right to construct new buildings or roads, from the landowner to the land trust.
“The land can still be used for logging and for fire wood; that is basically what I used it for before the restriction was put on it,” Warner said. “The difference is, that it will always be protected from development no matter who owns it.”
Accepting property for a conservation restriction however, does come with a certain price for land trusts.
“There are real costs involved with donations like title searches, appraisals surveys, legal fees – and this sometimes puts land trusts in the position of not being able to accept free land,” Forest Ecologist for the Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts, Laura Marx said.
The donation of the Warner property, was made with assistance from the new Berkshire Wildlife Linkage Catalyst Fund managed by The Nature Conservancy. The fund is made possible by a grant from the Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust Fund at the Boston Foundation.
The Hilltown Land Trust was the first recipient of the trust, receiving $2,000, to secure the Warner land.
“We’re excited to include the Warner Parcel as our thirty-second conservation restriction,” Loomis said
The last piece of land to be conserved by the Hilltown Land Trust was a 125-acre tract of land in Chester that supports valuable wildlife habitat and water resources.
Owned by Sarah and William Freedberg of Northampton, the property is adjacent to the Chester-Blandford State Forest and thousands of acres of conservation land.
Loomis referred to the land as a “beautiful property,” noting that it enlarges an important block of wildlife habitat and protects a mile-long section of Griffin Brook, a feeder stream to the federally designated Wild and Scenic Westfield River.
Loomis and Marx agree that conservation restrictions are important tools that have now become more popular with the general public.
“I think that people in this area are fairly well informed about conservation restrictions because of the decades of hard work that a variety of different organizations have done to educate people in Western Mass about conservation options,” Marx said.
“Sarah Freedberg is an excellent example of an informed landowner,” Loomis said. “She knew exactly what she wanted and approached us about a conservation restriction in 2006, but we did not cover the town of Chester at that time.
Fortunately for them, the Freedbergs had always wanted to conserve the land, and they were patient and persistent. They reconnected with the land trust in 2014, after the trust had increased its land conservation capacity and expanded its service to include Chester.
Warner said that he appreciates what he has learned from the Hilltown Land Trust and says he may consider additional conservation restrictions in the future for property he owns in Northampton near Fitzgerald Lake.
“It took a while for me to really understand how it all works, but having done this now in Goshen, it has helped me to stretch my imagination about my other land,” Warner said.