DEERFIELD — The state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) has acquired 262.5 acres of forest rich with wildlife and family history in Deerfield.
The forestland, consisting of three parcels, stretches along Keith Cross Road and Pine Nook Road up to the Pocumtuck Ridge Trail. The property was acquired through DCR’s Land Protection Program, which facilitates land conservation for the purposes of protecting plants and animals, conserving natural and cultural resources, and providing recreational spaces for the public.
DCR acquired the property on Sept. 30 for $1.52 million from the Rogers family, who owned Hilltop Farm before it closed in 1994.
“When you have that [land] around you, you really want to protect it, you want it to stay there, you want other people to have that opportunity,” Arthur “Tooey” Rogers II said. “It will keep it open for the town of Deerfield. It’s really a win-win for all. It brings a tear to my eye to think of it being preserved.”
After his grandmother Marion Keith Davenport inherited the farm from her family in the 1920s, she raised Tooey Rogers’ mother, Anne Fiske Davenport Rogers, on the farm. His mother later married Arthur Arnold Rogers.
“A geologist at heart,” according to Tooey Rogers, Arthur Rogers left his job at Shell Oil to become a dairy farmer, learned the ins and outs of cows and crops, and moved with Anne Fiske Davenport Rogers back to her family farm. There, they raised Tooey Rogers and his two siblings, William Rufus Davenport Rogers and Margaret Fuller Rogers Schumacher.
“We had a lovely, wonderful existence there growing up,” Tooey Rogers said. From around the age of 7, Tooey Rogers drove tractors, rode Sailor the horse and Frances the mule, milked the cows, and helped bale hay and store silage. Chuckling, he recalled packing hay bales onto a wagon, competing with his brother for the tallest stack.
In the summers, “We never went to camp, because we were living in camp,” he added.
Unable to clear the financial hurdles of running a small dairy farm, Tooey Rogers’ father sold his herd of about 60 cows in 1994 before Eaglebrook School later purchased the more than 100 acres of the farm’s open fields, barns and pastures in May 2023. Now, Eaglebrook students explore the fields as part of their outdoor classroom lessons.
The 262.5 acres of forest surrounds Eaglebrook’s plot. According to DCR Deputy Communications Director Ilyse Wolberg, acquiring the land aligned with the department’s long-term priority of protecting the Pocumtuck Ridge Trail due to its scenic, ecological and historical value, along with its close proximity to the Mount Sugarloaf State Reservation. Wolberg added that the land is also home to diverse plants and wildlife with declining populations, including frogs, salamanders, wood thrush and peregrine falcons.
Wolberg added that DCR is still in the process of determining the best balance of public use and natural habitat conservation for the land, but the department plans to maintain the Pocumtuck Ridge Trail.
“Protecting this land means more places for people to hike, explore and take in the incredible views that make the Deerfield Valley so special,” DCR Commissioner Nicole LaChapelle said in a statement. “We’re grateful to the Rogers family for entrusting the state with this land, so we can protect local wildlife, preserve clean water and ensure that future generations can enjoy this space.”
Although timber trails lace the forests, Tooey Rogers said he followed the streams and his memory when exploring as a kid.
“When you grow up in something like that, you don’t need the trails. You find your ways to go,” Rogers said, “if you don’t mind getting your feet wet.”
Rogers shared the streams with spotted salamanders 6 to 8 inches from nose to tail tip. Between chores at the farm, he climbed the towering trees. On one adventure, he found himself about a foot away from a sleeping raccoon in a pine tree.
“I could’ve reached out and touched him,” Rogers said, adding that the raccoon was less excited to see him, hissing and growling before he climbed down. “We had kind of an unequal conversation 60 feet above ground.”
Minnows, bullfrogs and spring peepers also swam in the ponds where Rogers and his siblings skated in the winter.
“That’s what I loved to do, I loved to find animals,” Rogers said.
A retired science teacher at The Advent School in Boston who now lives in Concord, Rogers used to tell his students stories from the forest and farm, aiming to connect the kids with the natural world. His students learned to stack hay bales onto a wagon; watched frogs, water snakes and snapping turtles swim in ponds while covered in mud; and created lists of their 10 favorite animals besides the easy answers of dogs and cats. A picture of Rogers with Jane Goodall even hung in his classroom.
When one student squashed a spider, her teacher declared a new rule to the class.
“Nobody kills a spider in my class. There’s no reason to do that. They have every right to live,” Rogers remembered announcing. From then on, the spider squasher became the “spider warrior,” protecting every spider that crawled in for a science lesson.
The roots of Rogers’ lessons often stretched back to his family farm in Deerfield, with a determination to teach kids, “There’s a lot more to this world than Target and Walmart.”
“It will be with me all my life,” Rogers said, referring to Hilltop Farm and its forests. “It’s hugely good to know that much of the land will be protected, cannot be built on, and will be there for people to walk through and to enjoy as I did, climbing trees and finding yourself next to an angry raccoon.”