Farm pg 1 3-31-11
- Details
- Category: Past Issues
caption:
Preserved
Last May Woodstock voted to buy the development rights of 40 acres of land on Barlow Cemetery Road owned by Marty and Catherine Neitski. The parcel includes active farmland, woodlands, and a pond. Woodstock partnered with the state's preservation program to protect the parcel. Putnam Town Crier file photo, 2008.
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
Farm preservation efforts in northeastern Connecticut will get a shot in the arm soon after the state Bonding Commission March 25 approved the last $5 million in funding for the state Department of Agriculture's Preservation of Connecticut Agricultural Lands program.
The funds are used to acquire the development rights to Connecticut farms.
The $5 million will help preserve perhaps 10 farms statewide, according to the office of State Senate President Donald E. Williams Jr. Woodstock has made use of these funds and is currently working with other farm owners and will be looking for some of this preservation funding. "There are already a number of farms, including some in northeast Connecticut that are in the 'pipeline'," Williams said.
Agriculture represents a $3 billion industry in Connecticut, Williams said. "We've lost thousands of acres of farmland in Connecticut," he added. It's important to maintain the heritage and the character of agricultural Connecticut, he said, but it's also a huge part of the economy of the state, creating jobs.
The $5 million in funding approved at the March 25 Bonding Commission meeting is the last of a $130,250,000 pot. Williams said that the farm preservation program has been around a long time, but it wasn't until 2007, when Williams and his colleagues, created the requirement that "they get the money out the door."
Williams said that Governor Dan Malloy is "very committed" to re-funding the farm preservation program in the next budget. "We expect there will be more money in the next two-year budget," Williams added.
The Farmland Preservation Program acquires the arable agricultural lands and adjacent pastures, woods, natural drainage areas and open space vistas. The lands would be limited to agricultural use and the conveyance of rights also prohibits the subdivision or development of the lands for nonagricultural purposes. The farms continue to be owned and farmed by the farmers. The amount of money used to safeguard the agricultural rights is determined after an appraisal of the farm.
"This is for the future of our economy. It's important not to pave over our important and historic farms," Williams said.