Island trust looks to preserve farms

The line of five wooden Holstein cows facing north and five wooden Belted Galloway beef cattle facing south on North Main Street in Jamestown has been sending a silent message: We need help to preserve this farmland, before there’s a chance it might be developed.
The Conanicut Island Land Trust put up the cow signs as part of a fundraising drive aimed at buying the development rights for three farms, which would continue daily operations unchanged.
“The land trust is trying to protect three farms in the center of the island,” said Quentin Anthony, trust president. “The farms collectively represent 160 acres, and a potential for 60 to 70 homes. If we protect these three farms, we will have more than 1,000 acres – 1,000 contiguous acres – of protected land in the center of the island.”
But to do so, the trust must raise about $4 million by Sept. 30. The farms have been valued at a collective $11.75 million, but along with the money to be raised, town voters are being asked to approve a $3 million bond at a Sept. 18 special financial town meeting. The trust already has $4.75 million from federal and state grants and from the Champlin Foundations.
Anthony said the trust is approaching about half the needed funds, but the purchase is dependent on all three funding sources: the grants, the bond and fundraising.
“The federal money has to be spent by Sept. 30, or it disappears. There’s been a one-year extension already,” he said.
If the plan goes through, the three farms – one dairy, one beef and one for community use – likely would not change; the purchase would be precautionary.
“We’re buying the development rights so the farmers continue to own the land and hopefully continue their operations,” said Anthony. “We have an opportunity to protect this land forever, because we have a situation where three land owners are willing to work with us.”
Rosemary Enright, president of the Jamestown Historical Society, said her organization is interested in the preservation of the farms because they border two sides of a historical site, among other reasons. The Jamestown Windmill and the Friends Meetinghouse, both built in 1787 along North Main Road, sit amongst the farms, she said.
“The windmill is in the historic district, as well as most of the farms, so from our point of few this isn’t just a preservation issue, it’s also a historic issue,” said Enright.
In fact, the cow signs play off the issue as well. They actually say “For 350 years this has been pastureland. Let’s keep it that way.”
Times are changing in the dairy farming industry, said Jessie Dutra of Dutra Farm, which is part of the Rhody Fresh group. She runs the farm, which has a herd of 115 Holstein dairy cattle that are pastured on 140 acres, along with her husband, Joseph, and two employees.
Last year the farm’s profits hit a low, partially because of poor weather and government-regulated milk and gas prices, said Dutra. But the Dutras are starting to look for ways to increase profits, including robotic milkers. “It wouldn’t eliminate work on the farm, but it would transform it,” she said.
But for now, she said, she and her husband wouldn’t think of selling the farm to developers. “We haven’t even looked, we just don’t want to. But I know it’s just a phone call away if we wanted it,” said Dutra.
The second-largest farm, the Neale Farm, operates on 44 acres with 50 Belted Galloway cattle that are beef cattle, said second-generation farmer George Neale, who runs the farm with his wife, Martha. Neale’s father bought the farm in 1964. He said there’s been interest in his farm in the past, so it would be good to secure the land’s future.
“It’s agriculture. It’s iffy at best,” he said.
Dutra agreed.
“We know where our dreams are, they’re in preservation. But we don’t know where our son’s dreams will be, or the next generation or the next,” said Dutra, whose 4-year-old son is the fourth-generation Dutra to be on the farm.