Leverett seeks donations to protect 147-acre farm off Teawaddle Hill Road
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LEVERETT - A campaign to permanently prevent development on a 147-acre farm, and to provide public access to its hiking trails, is seeking $25,000 in donations to supplement a state grant and town money.
The farm is north of Teawaddle Hill Road and west of Doolittle Brook, just north of the Amherst town line. Operated by William and Gwyn Mitchell, whose father bought it in 1961, the farm produces hay, maple syrup and beef cattle.
Gwyn Mitchell, 64, has four siblings who live outside the region and have a financial interest in the property. Rather than split up the farm, the goal is to divide proceeds from selling the right to develop the land.
"The idea is we will have the land and they will have money instead of land," Mitchell said in an interview.
Two years ago, she began discussing the land with Kristin DeBoer, executive director of the Kestrel Land Trust, which was instrumental in a conservation restriction on 3,500 acres in Leverett last month. DeBoer has negotiated the terms under which Teawaddle Hill Farm will continue in its present use instead of being sold off for at least four house lots.
Land for hiking, hunting
The cost of acquiring the conservation restriction and related expenses is $434,250. A state grant of $240,600 for the project was awarded last month from a program called Local Acquisitions for Natural Diversity, and the campaign is seeking $170,000 from Leverett's reserve of Community Preservation Act money, DeBoer said.
The remaining $25,000 is the subject of a fundraising letter that Leverett residents were due to receive by mail last weekend, she said. The campaign, organized by the Kestrel Land Trust and the Rattlesnake Gutter Trust, seeks money from abutters who value the views of farmland, residents who are interested in conservation, and people who use the trails for hiking and cross-country skiing, she said.
Under the plan, these trails would be expanded and blazed, and there would be two small parking areas on Teawaddle Hill Road, DeBoer said. Hunting would be permitted with the permission of the Mitchells, she said.
The land includes 40 acres of open pasture and 100 acres of woodlands. It has 960 feet of frontage on Teawaddle Hill Road, which would make the land attractive to developers.
It is the last remaining part of a large 18th-century farm complex. The conservation restriction would preserve a wildlife corridor between Leverett and North Amherst and protect streams that flow into Doolittle Brook, DeBoer said. The land has a view of Brushy Mountain, the central focus of last month's 3,500-acre conservation restriction with the W.D. Cowls Co.
'Perfect' for CPA
The request for money from the Community Preservation Act, a tax surcharge approved by voters and matched by the state, is due to come up at Leverett Town Meeting on April 28. The reason to seek $25,000 in donations instead of increasing the request from the CPA is to demonstrate the town's willingness to support the project, DeBoer said.
"This is a perfect CPA project because it meets the town's open space goals, preserves a historic landscape, and provides recreational access, with no new taxes," she said.
Leverett has more than $600,000 in its CPA reserves, said Select Board member Julie Shively, who said she supports the use of $170,000 for the project.
"We've been cautious with this money, and there hasn't been a large open-space project, but in everyone's mind, it might come around," she said.
A town committee will consider this request for CPA money along with others and hold a hearing this month or next before making a recommendation to Town Meeting, Shively said.
The Mitchells would continue to pay property taxes under the conservation restriction, at a slightly lower rate, she said.
"I support it because it's a beautiful piece of land, and there's a fabulous view of Brushy Mountain," Shively said. "It's an old New England farm that's been there a long time, and this is a chance to keep it that way in perpetuity."
Select Board member Peter d'Errico said he also supports the project and the expenditure of CPA funds.
"Leverett is obviously becoming a place of some wildness and open space, and all of that is to the good," he said. "It's better to spend CPA money for the purposes it was appropriated for than to have it sitting in a bank account."
Last year, Teawaddle Hill Farm produced more than 80 gallons of maple syrup from the trees on the land, as well as beef for neighbors and people interested in locally grown food, said Mitchell, who moved there when she was in high school.
"I think after this has been settled, we'll go back to being obscure farmers living on a side road," she said.
The Kestrel Land Trust had a role in preserving 5,000 acres of land in its first 40 years of existence, before adding the 3,500 acres to its total last month. It expects to preserve 1,000 acres from development this year, DeBoer said.
Nick Grabbe can be reached at ngrabbe@gazettenet.com.
