12-6-07

Final Effort to Put Walpole Farm Under Conservation Easement

_______________

Trust for Public Land Seeks Last $45,000 in Donations

By Chuck Bingaman

          The Trust for Public Land, along with the Walpole Conservation Commission and town selectmen and the Monadnock Conservancy, having failed to get a two-thirds majority for a bond issue last May, are seeking private donations for the remaining $45,000 needed to place 52 acres of farmland, known as the Ballam Farm, between Rt. 12 and the Connecticut River, under a conservation easement and give the town further protection of its wellhead property.

          “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t an emergency situation,” noted Josh Kelly, Field Representative for the Trust for Public Land (TPL) in a Monday
evening meeting in Walpole. “I’m standing before you to complete the deal.  It’s too valuable a property to be lost!”

          The “deal”, a complicated one Kelly admitted, involves a little over 60 acres of land currently owned by the Henry B. Cabot Trust and for sale for the appraised value of $875,000.  The land is zoned for commercial use along Rt. 12 and back 250 feet from the centerline of the highway.  The rest stretches irregularly to the Connecticut River shore and is zoned for agriculture, although residential development is allowed within that zone. 

          The entire property sits over a key town aquifer and wellhead protection area.  One of two town wells that serves nearly 1,000 people is on adjoining town property.  “What we’re proposing is the permanent protection of about 20% of the wellhead protection area,” Kelly stated.

          Fearing sale of the property to commercial developers, the Walpole Conservation Commission, working with the TPL for over a year, has sought ways to purchase a conservation easement that would restrict future use to agriculture or forestry, and to resell the land with the easement on it to someone who would use it for farming.  The Commission’s plan would also result in eight acres near the town wellhead being deeded to the town for added wellhead protection and in one acre being available for a farm house to be built in one corner should the new owner desire.

          The Conservation Commission, working with the town selectmen and the TPL last year received grant commitments totaling $295,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm and Ranchland Protection Program and $153,000 from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Water Supply Grant Program toward the town’s purchase of a conservation easement over the property.  The Commission also committed $50,000 from its funds to purchase the conservation easement.  The remaining needed funds were sought in a bond issue at a May 5 town meeting.  Although the bond issue received a majority vote, it did not receive the two-thirds majority needed under state law to pass it.

          Now the Trust for Public Land and sponsors of the project, facing federal and state grant deadlines, are seeking $45,000 in private donations to close the gap between financial commitments they have and the total they need to buy the land. 

Actually, Kelly said Monday evening that he needed $60,000 to close the gap, but he announced on Tuesday that he had received gifts of $5,000 and $10,000 following Monday’s meeting.  Hence, the Trust has received private donations of $139,000, but it still needs commitments of $45,000.  Admitting that he has already gotten difficult extensions of time on the grant commitments, Kelly has set a goal for raising that balance by mid-December.

“I have a limited amount of time to make the project a success,” Kelly admitted.  “It’s either total conservation or nothing!” Echoing Kelly’s alarm, Walpole Selectman Sheldon Sawyer said, “We’re down to crunch time!”

For further information about the Ballam Farm project or to make a donation, call Josh Kelly at 802-223-1373, extension 23.

The Trust for Public Land is a nationwide not-for-profit organization dedicated to conserving land for people to improve the quality of life local communities and to protect natural and historic resources for future generations.  Since its founding in 1972, TPL has helped protect more then 2 million acres nationwide, including close to a quarter of a million acres in New Hampshire. For further information, see www.TPL.org.

                               --30--