Vermont Land Trust Press Release - Conservation of Maidstone Dairy Farm Secures Agricultural Resources for Next Generation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 18, 2007

Conservation of Maidstone Dairy Farm
Secures Agricultural Resource for Next Generation

Twenty years ago, Pete and Marie Fay moved their family farm from Jericho to the fertile and scenic Connecticut River valley, where they’ve been working on their Maidstone dairy farm ever since. This month Pete and Marie conserved their 150-acre farm with the Vermont Land Trust to make sure that this exceptional agricultural soil would stay in farming for future generations, the Vermont Land Trust announced today.

“We looked at this decision as a way to preserve the farm, and not depreciate its value as farmland,” said Marie Fay.

In addition to supporting their 440 Jerseys, whose milk goes to Agri-Mark, the land also has several small ponds and wetland areas that are rich wildlife habitat. The more than one mile of river frontage includes sections of wooded buffer as well as a natural beach that is frequented by canoeists and campers. The Fays are conveying a public access easement to the beach and banks of the Connecticut River in keeping with the Vermont tradition of public recreation on private lands.

Pete and Marie plan to eventually transfer the farm to their son, Chris and his wife Hannah. The sale of a conservation easement is a first step toward that goal.

The Vermont Land Trust helps farmers use easements to voluntarily limit development on productive farmland. Farmers continue to own, manage, and pay taxes on the land and can sell their land; however, the conservation easement permanently remains on the property. Pete and Marie are no strangers to farmland conservation, having purchased a portion of the conserved Crawford farm in Guildhall several years ago.

“Conservation of the Fay’s farm secures an incredible agricultural resource in this farming valley and will help a family farm transfer to the next generation,” said Tracy Zschau, Northeast Kingdom Regional Director for the Vermont Land Trust.

For more information, please contact: Elise Annes, Vice President for Community Relations, the Vermont Land Trust or (802) 262-1206; or Tracy Zschau, Regional Director, Northeast Kingdom or (802) 748-6089

The Vermont Land Trust is a statewide, member-supported, nonprofit land conservation organization. Since 1977, the Vermont Land Trust has permanently conserved more than 1,400 parcels of land covering 465,000 acres, or about eight percent of the private, undeveloped land in the state. The conserved land includes more than 615 working farms, hundreds of thousands of acres of productive forestland, and numerous parcels of community lands. This conservation work changes the lives of families, invigorates farms, launches new businesses, maintains scenic vistas, encourages recreational opportunity, and fosters a renewed sense of community. For more information or to become a member, contact: Vermont Land Trust, 8 Bailey Avenue, Montpelier, VT 05602, (802) 223-5234.