By GLYNIS HART
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CLAREMONT –Green wreaths deck the front of Beaver Pond Farm Stand and a squad of Christmas trees stand ready by the parking lot, with more trees leaning to the left of the driveway. Inside the farm stand, gourds and jars of honey, homemade jams and a freezer of locally-raised beef offer goods from this farm and others.
In a room at the back, Becky Nelson is making Christmas wreaths. She places the fir boughs on a metal frame, trims them, and bends the metal to hold them in place. Three years ago she was able to quit her office job and work full time at the farm that’s been in her family since 1780. Her husband, Ben, has always worked full-time on the land, growing such diverse crops as hay and raspberries, maple syrup and apples, vegetables and firewood, and their son looks forward to carry on the family’s work.
But farming stays hard. Recently, said Nelson, the family came to a crossroads.
“Like a lot of farmers, we’re in a space where we need to make some serious decisions. Prices for everything have gone down and our expenses keep going up.” The roughly 250 acres of farmland on the John Stark Highway between Newport and Claremont would be worth more as residential or commercial property than it is as agricultural land. Should they break it up and sell it?
The Nelsons looked into a conservation easement. If a farm agrees to accept restrictions that prevent it from being developed, the federal government allows tax deductions equal to the difference between the fair market value of the property before and after the easement is donated.
“We talked to Bascoms [in Acworth],” said Nelson. “They put a lot of their land into conservation easements. It seems to go pretty well; we just learned it’s a pretty good way to try to hold onto the farm.
“Here in New Hampshire that’s harder and harder to do,” she said. “There’s a lot of pressure to develop with population coming up from the south.”
They looked into it, but the cost of buying a conservation easement — $25,000 — was a lot to come up with. Enter the Upper Valley Land Trust, a conservation nonprofit that tackles a number of land preservation projects every year. UVLT put out a call to donors and asked the Newport community for help.
By Nov. 9 the UVLT had raised $7,800 with the help of 87 donors; another 13 donors would earn a $5,000 matching gift.
UVLT Project Manager Megan Chapman reported then, “We’re in the final stretch, with only $16,000 remaining to reach our goal.” Major grants have been committed by NRCS, The 1772 Foundation, and NH SCC Moose Plate.
If the farm can buy the easement, the money they’ll get from the government “will help us as a business to retire some debt and get on a firmer footing to do what we do,” said Nelson.
The easement doesn’t restrict the family from selling the land, but what it does do is limit what uses it can be put to, and what kinds of changes can be made. The current configuration of buildings stays.
“It’s almost like selling mineral rights,” said Nelson. “It’s selling development rights.”
UVLT has extended the period accepting donations for Beaver Pond Farm. Their website notes: “In determining which conservation projects to undertake, UVLT considers the nature of the resources to be conserved, the potential public and environmental benefits, the level of community support, as well as future stewardship obligations.”
So far, community support to keep Beaver Pond Farm as it is has been strong. With any luck — or the help of Santa Claus — the farm stand by the side of the road will be here for many Christmases to come.
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