The Benefits of Land Preservation

Martha Neale was coping with the death of her mother in 2007 when 402 of her fellow Jamestowners filled the town hall to cast a vote that would define her family’s future, as well as that of her neighbors, Joseph and Jessie Dutra. The unanimous vote, in support of a $3 million dollar bond issue to purchase the development rights of the Neale and Dutra farms, sent a clear message – protect Jamestown’s historic farming legacy and eschew the potential for condo and housing development of these 145 acres. As the five-year anniversary of the town’s vote approaches in September, the plea from both families is: follow Jamestown’s lead and preserve more acreage for future food production.

For Martha, the town vote was especially poignant, since the farm she grew up on in North Kingstown was sold to developers in 1986, following her father’s death. The family simply couldn’t afford to continue. “It was absolutely heartbreaking. I still have such a knot in my stomach about it,” she says. “It was paradise I thought, and looking at it now, it was a hundred acres and would have been a pretty viable, sustainable operation. I’d give anything for 100 acres like that now.”

The Neales have about 60 head of cattle: Belted Galloways, a breed from Scotland, which husband George Neale refers to as “Oreos” because of their unique bands of black and white coloring. In the five years since the town’s vote, Martha and George, organic beef farmers, have had the capital to reinvest in Windmist, their 37- acre property.

“I don’t deny my husband any of his tractors or trucks because he went for decades without anything and fixing stuff that was beyond fixing. It’s not anything grandiose. You really need to have the right equipment for it,” says Martha.

When all was said and done, a total of $9.75 million dollars was provided to purchase the development rights through a complicated conservation agreement between the USDA, the state of Rhode Island, the Nature Conservancy, the Town of Jamestown and individual donors.

Joseph Dutra, one of the founding fathers of the Rhody Fresh Dairy Collaborative, says the vote to preserve his 80 acres was a “once in a lifetime opportunity” and a lifeline. Joseph’s grandfather began his family’s farming tradition. “He owned property downtown where the school is, where they started. They grew peaches, asparagus, strawberries. He always had cows. I think he always peddled milk,” Joseph explains.

The Dutras say the future now holds options for their nine-year-old son Joey should he decide to embrace the family farming legacy. Today, Joseph raises dairy replacement heifers and produces hay to supply local farmers.

Lisa Primiano, Deputy Chief of the Division of Planning and Development at the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, estimates there are close to 480 acres of protected farmland in Jamestown; nearly half, preserved with the help of state programs. That totals around eight-percent of the town’s 6,000-acre land mass, representing the highest percentage of protected farmland in Rhode Island. Primiano says the state is seeing a whole new generation of farmers – young people, many of them college educated, with no family ties to agriculture.

As Martha Neale mourned the loss of the 100 acres her parents farmed in North Kingstown, Primiano expressed concern too that acreage devoted to farming in Rhode Island would become scarce. The number of farms in Rhode Island, at 1,219 in 2007, rose 42 percent from 2002, according to a DEM Census of Agriculture.

“I think what we’re going to see is probably a land shortage before we know it and an increase in the number of people that want to start in the farming business but not enough land available to do that. They’re probably going to get into more cooperative situations with people who have some land available,” Primiano states.

$4.5 million in funds for farmland protection is included in a $20 million state bond issue, which will be before Rhode Island voters this November.

Bob Sutton has managed the Jamestown Community Farm on 17 acres of land leased for a nominal fee. The farm produces about 14,000 pounds of vegetables a year, supplied to local food pantries and soup kitchens. He says only one percent of what we eat is actually grown in Rhode Island. “I think we shouldn’t get ourselves too separated from how we eat,” Sutton says.

But ask him if we need more farmers markets in Rhode Island and he’ll tell you there’s a better way. “Farmer’s markets are okay but the farmer then has to leave the farm and every minute that he’s standing waiting for someone to buy a dozen eggs, waiting for someone to buy a tomato, he’s not working back on his farm.”

Far more efficient, Sutton contends, is to market food products where they’re grown. “I think a more direct marketing [is more efficient], like you see in Jamestown now. You go by Watson Farm and there’s a sign there for pork and eggs. You go by Windmist Farm and there’s a sign there for all the things they sell.” In 2007, 249 farms in Rhode Island reported direct market sales totaling $6.2 million, up from $3.6 million in 2002.

Jessie Dutra claims it’s essential that communities replicate what Jamestown has done, which is to preserve land for future food production. “Supporting local. It’s not just a slogan. It really needs to be a lifestyle. The closer your food source is to you, the less you’re burning the infrastructure and hopefully, the healthier it is,” Dutra maintains.

Although Jamestowners historically have been very motivated to preserve agricultural land and open space, it didn’t hurt the effort to garner support for preservation of the Dutra and Neale farms to show the community what preservation does for the view.

Ironically, it was Quentin Anthony, President of the Conanicut Island Land Trust (it pulled out of the Neale-Dutra development rights deal), who recognized this. His group organized volunteers to remove brush along a stretch of North Main Road to reveal an unparalleled vista, months before the town vote took place.

“We understood that there was an incredible view when you traveled down North Road with the Hodgkiss Farm on your right and the Neale Farm on your left, but both were obstructed by years of growth. We went in one year and cleared out all of the growth, which essentially obstructed any view of the marsh below, the bridge, or even the golf course because we believed then that if you opened up those views, the population of Jamestown would then see the significance of protecting property.”

The Conanicut Island Land Trust is credited with protection of the 26-acre Godena Farm property, perhaps best known in Jamestown because its owner Manny Godena earned a place in history when he refused to sell his land in the 1950s to Commerce Oil, which had tried to site an oil refinery in Jamestown.

Today, the Land Trust is refining a nature trail through the property, which has been preserved as open space. The trail eventually will include signage describing indigenous plants and their relationship to local wildlife.

Town Administrator Bruce Keiser was asked if the protection of Jamestown farms and the preservation of the incredible vista along North Road defines his community today. “You can’t move around the Island without seeing what we’ve preserved and what the benefits of that preservation provide to us on a daily basis,” says Keiser. “I drive by there every day and drink in that view. It’s a gift that keeps on giving.”