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Boulder Knoll ERT Scheduled

From the website of the Connecticut Environmental Review Team: 

What 
Cheshire Review – Boulder Knoll Open Space 

When 
Thu May 24 9:30am – Thu May 24 2pm 
 
Where 
84 South Main Street Cheshire, CT 06410 

Description 
Boulder Knoll Open Space Property Natural Resource Inventory ERT Review will be May 24th at 9:30am and will meet at the Cheshire Town Hall.

Please join the Connecticut Environmental Review Team as they explore the Boulder Knoll property and perform a thorough analysis. 

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Another kiosk at Boulder Knoll Farm on Boulder Road will be refurbished by early May, Simone noted, in time for a May 19 hike sponsored by the Environment Committee. Committee member Robert Deasy said he’s hiked the farm trail loop that will be used during the sponsored hike in May. It’s located on the south side of the road and leads through meadows and tall grass. On the north side of the open space property, Deasy recently saw a “large bird behind the barn” that was definitely a raptor and possibly a bald eagle. “It was 200 yards away,” but without binoculars, Deasy couldn’t be sure of the species.

Another kiosk at Boulder Knoll Farm on Boulder Road will be refurbished by early May, Simone noted, in time for a May 19 hike sponsored by the Environment Committee. Committee member Robert Deasy said he’s hiked the farm trail loop that will be used during the sponsored hike in May. It’s located on the south side of the road and leads through meadows and tall grass.
On the north side of the open space property, Deasy recently saw a “large bird behind the barn” that was definitely a raptor and possibly a bald eagle. “It was 200 yards away,” but without binoculars, Deasy couldn’t be sure of the species.
Kiosk Refurbished In Time For Earth Day Outing, The Cheshire Herald, April 19, 2007

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Congressman Fights to Protect Open Space

Rep. Murphy to focus on open space
04/07/2007
By Steven Scarpa
Copyright © 2007 Record-Journal

Freshman U.S. Congressman Christopher S. Murphy, D-5th District, hopes to use his new leadership role in the House of Representatives to help protect the region’s precious open spaces. Murphy announced his appointment as chairman of the Congressional Open Space Caucus. Murphy’s role in the caucus will be to help the leaders of the House of Representatives craft legislation to protect open space across the country.

The position is Murphy’s first leadership role since joining the House after defeating long time Republican incumbent Nancy Johnson in November. He also serves on the Financial Services and Government Oversight Committees. Bipartisan caucuses don’t have the same power to craft legislation as congressional committees, but are often the first point of contact for advocates seeking to plead before the federal government. “It is still rare for freshman members to chair a caucus,” Murphy said Friday afternoon.

The Congressional Open Space Caucus had been slow over the past several years, Murphy said, but he plans to change that. “President Bush and the Republican Congress had no interest in funding land preservation programs. That needs rejuvenation,” Murphy said. Murphy has worked with other members of the House from the region to get money for the government’s Partnership for Wild and Scenic Rivers program. He also signed the New England National Scenic Trail Designation Act, which would extend the Metacomet Monadnock Mattabesett trail. “Being able to chair a caucus such as this puts me in the middle of the environmental debate that will happen in the House over the next two years,” Murphy said. State Rep.

Mary M. Mushinsky, D-Wallingford, pointed out that Murphy’s own hometown of Southington is experiencing a development boom that needs to be carefully managed. “That district is a fast growing area. For some folks the development is happening way too fast,” Mushinsky said. “We hope he can take a breath and see what is worth saving in the area before it disappears … If Chris can come up with some funds to make open space happen the area will have a nice mix of residential, commercial and recreational lands.”

Michael Brodinsky, a Wallingford Town Councilor and vice president of the Wallingford Land Trust, hopes to see some tangible local benefits from having Murphy tackle such an important issue. “I am glad he’s up there,” Brodinsky said. After Murphy get acclimated to his new duties, Brodinsky would like to see him come back to the district and hold meetings with local conservation commissions and land trusts. “I want him to lay out the possibilities for us,” Brodinsky said. “I think that is where it starts.” He would like to see what funding is available to municipalities from the federal government and to get a clear picture of what Washington can do in terms of protection for fragile land. “These are all things we can dream about,” Brodinsky said. “We can get to work on the grassroots level and help him out.” sscarpa@record-journal.com (203) 317-2225

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Open Space Funds Now Total $1.52 Million

Cheshire Receives Boulder Knoll Grant
4/12/07 
by Leslie Hutchison
Copyright © 2007 The Cheshire Herald

It took seven years to get the money from the state, but Town Manager Michael Milone announced Tuesday night that the $450,000 grant to purchase Boulder Knoll Farm is finally in the town’s coffers. The town purchased the 88-acre agricultural property in 2000 for $1.5 million with the state grant used as part of the purchase cost.

The farm was the last working dairy farm in Cheshire and had been owned and operated by the Lassen family since 1902. The grant payment was delayed for years due to a number of issues including the need to conduct remediation of certain areas on the farm. The funding from the state Department of Environmental Protection required that two farm dumps be closed in a manner following modern environmental requirements.The town hired a firm in 2004 to do the dump clean up and install test pits.

On Tuesday, the Town Council voted to appropriate the grant money into the town’s open space land account. According to a memo from Finance Director Patti-Lynn Ryan, “Since this grant is in effect a reimbursement for funds originally provided by the land account, it most be officially appropriated for this account to restore its balance.” Milone said the funds in the account will now total $1.52 million. The money “may be used for major improvements or for more open space acquisition.”

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Sky Farming

Sky Farming

A fascinating article exploring the concept of urban farming: the idea of turning skyscrapers into farms that can produce 30 acres worth of crops on only one acre of space.

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Connecticut Organic Farm Tour

The CT NOFA Organic Farm Tour visits three spectacular farms in the beautiful Housatonic River Valley.

The Annual CT NOFA organic farm tour will visit three farms on or near Route 7 and the Housatonic River in western Connecticut on Sunday June 24, from 10 to 4. These farms are examples of the best of organic and sustainable agriculture in Connecticut.

Tour participants will visit Fort Hill Farm in New Milford, Marble Valley Farm in Kent and Stone Wall Dairy Farm in Cornwall and hear from each farmer about their farm operation.

All three farms are on permanently protected farmland. They are relatively new farm enterprises managed by long time CT NOFA members who have all worked on other farms for years to gain the skills and experience needed.

Paul Bucciaglia operates 20 acre Fort Hill Farm in New Milford on land owned by The Nature Conservancy. This is just the sixth year he has leased this land. His CSA includes nearly 300 members, many of whom pick up at one of 13 drop off sites in Litchfield, Fairfield and New Haven counties. Paul also sells at the Weston Farmers Market and through New Morning Natural Foods in Woodbury. Visit www.forthillfarm.com for more information.

Megan Haney worked at Mad Mares CSA in Bethany, at High Hill Orchard in Meriden and at River Bank Farm in Roxbury over the last decade or so, always looking for an opportunity to have her own farm. She found that on the flood plain between Route 7 and the Housatonic River in Kent on land preserved by the Kent Land Trust.

Chris Hopkins owns and operates Stone Wall Dairy Farm in Cornwall, a grass based dairy producing raw milk from Jersey cows. His land was recently permanently protected for agricultural use when Chris sold an easement on the farm to the Connecticut Farmland Trust. The easement was designed by the Trust to unite several parcels of the farm and the farmstead into one unit, which allows for the development of on-farm processing and other farm related businesses that are important for farm success. Part of the land also has an easement with the Federal Government because it is in the viewshed of the Appalachian Trail.

The work of several long time CT NOFA members is important in bringing these farms into being.

Margaret McCauley, who passed away this winter, was the long time manager of the Nature Conservancy’s Sunny Valley Preserve, a collection of farms, forests and open space on almost 2000 acres of protected land in New Milford and adjoining towns. She was active in searching specifically for an organic farmer to use half of a beautiful, level, 40 acre hay field and then in working with Paul to provide the infrastructure needed for a successful farm including a well and barn. The Preserve will miss her great skill in managing those farms while balancing the complex environmental, economic, personal and other considerations the come into farming today. And Connecticut’s Land Trust community will miss her strong voice for preserving farmland and using it well.

Joan Larned is another long time member and a former certified farmer. She was very active in the Kent Land Trust’s search for a farmer to operate on their farmland. From talking to her over the years, I know it was a quite a struggle to find a farmer for that land and I hear that there are still hurdles that Megan is having to jump as she establishes her farm. The property includes a house and a barn, essential elements for a farm which are sometimes missing from protected land.

Since the Connecticut Farmland Trust’s formation in 2002, I have represented CT NOFA on its board as it built its capacity to protect farmland. So it was a real thrill for me as president of the Trust to be able to purchase the easement on Stone Wall Dairy Farm, the first CT NOFA farm that the Trust has protected. The funds for this purchase came from the community.

It is said that Connecticut loses 20 acres of farmland every day. This tour gives you an opportunity to see what talented and dedicated farmers can be produce on 20 acres. It will give you an understanding of what we are losing.

Admission to the tour includes a local and organic lunch and is by pre-registration only. Participants in the tour will provide their own transportation. Cost for this tour is $30 for NOFA members and $45 for non-members. Join CT NOFA and take the tour for $75, Two member tickets cost $55. Two non-member tickets cost $80.

To attend the tour, send a check with names of participants and contact information to CT NOFA, Box 164, Stevenson, CT 06491. Visit our web site, ctnofa.org or call the office at 203 888-5146 for more information.

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Thanks Republican-American!

The following letter to the editor appeared in The Waterbury Republican-American on March 22, 2007. It was written by two FOBK board members to thank the Republican-American for their recent spotlight on our organization.

Town should run Boulder Knoll Farm

Copyright © 2007 Republican-American

Those who love our state’s farms want to express our thanks to the Republican-American for the front-page article March 6 by staff writer Lauresha Xhihani on Boulder Knoll Farm in Cheshire. The article was timely and informative.

Communities across Connecticut are losing farmland at an alarming rate. In the past 20 years or so, our state has lost more than 20 percent of its farmland. At this rate, there will be no farmland left in just two generations.

Along with losing our ability to grow local produce, we’re losing the wisdom of the few remaining farmers, and we may no longer be able train a new generation unless we take steps now.

The town-owned Boulder Knoll property could be a marvelous resource, once brought back to productivity. A town farm can grow fresh, local produce for use in the schools, support local farmers, preserve precious agricultural land and educate a new generation about food and farming.

Our hats are off to Ms. Xhihani. We hope her story inspires other communities to work to protect and restore Connecticut farmland, and promote farming.

Greg Melville

Susan Fox

Cheshire

The writers are treasurer and board member, respectively, of Friends of Boulder Knoll Inc.

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Historic Recognition Sought for Ives Property

This article published in the March 29 issue of the Cheshire Herald, and reproduced below, examines the Ives Farm bid for Historic Recognition, an “important step in opening the door to funding opportunities for restoration of [the] farm buildings.”

The Boulder Knoll property could have historic significance as well, especially regarding the old barrite mines. The Friends will be closely following this process and wish the Cheshire Land Trust luck in their endeavor.

 Historic Recognition Sought

by Leslie Hutchison
Herald Staff

Copyright 2007, The Cheshire Herald, All Rights Reserved.

Historic homes abound in town, but the Bradley/Ives House has the distinction of being the only one on Cheshire Street still located on its original acreage. The 1730 farmhouse is also one of the oldest on the street, a significant designation in a neighborhood chock full of 18th century structures.

The Bradley/Ives house may soon receive another accolade: a listing on the State Register of Historic Places. After Betty Ives donated her farm to the Cheshire Land Trust last summer, the group began the process of applying for inclusion on the state register.

To assist in that process, the land trust applied for, and received, funds from the state’s Historic Preservation Technical Assistance Grant. The $3,000 grant allowed the land trust to hire Nina Harkrader, a historic building consultant, to document the historical significance of the 164-acre Ives farm and its buildings.

The grant document noted that achieving state register status would allow the land trust “to offer a measure of recognition and protection to the farm buildings on the site.” It will also “be an important step in opening the door to funding opportunities for restoration of these farm buildings.”
At the annual meeting of the land trust on March 20, Harkarder presented information on her ongoing research. She said the documentation process requires her to “consider the physical evidence of change over time – buildings are rarely static.” Harkrader commented on what she discovered during a tour of the farmhouse earlier this year, when she “found some important clues” about the home’s original construction.

That information includes “the size and the way the rafters are prepared” in the attic. The wood has “hewing marks” from hand tools. Even more significant, Harkrader noted, are the existence of “scribe marks” that indicate the wood was cut so “each piece would fit each joint” in the rafters.
A scribe mark was used to make sure the rafters were installed in the right order. Because rafters were often hewn at another location, workers scratched a number into each beam to show the builder in which order the rafters should be placed. For the Ives attic, workers used Roman numerals to determine the order. Harkrader said she found scribe marks in the attic that ascended from numbers from “I” to “VI.”

When land trust member Jeanné Chesanow inspected the property earlier this year with Harkrader, the two confirmed there are “layers of history” in the house and buildings. Harkrader stated, “the trick is deduce from physical evidence” what is original to the structures. “Basements and attics show the least amount of changes,” she added.

During the inspection, they also noticed a fireplace had been adapted to contain a metal stove. “A metal smith had made (the stove) match” the original mantle that was decorated with pilasters. “It’s a nifty piece of metal,” Harkrader said.

Other discoveries include a beehive oven in the summer kitchen and floorboards in the home that are two feet wide, indicating very large trees were used for construction.

Conducting historic research is like putting together “a puzzle” Harkrader noted. “It’s detective work.” She added, “It’s like a kaleidoscope, you pull all the pieces together to get it in focus.”

In an article for the land trust’s March newsletter, Chesanow wrote that the farm was originally owned by the Lyman Bradley family. Three other Bradley brothers, who also lived on Cheshire Street, were all tinsmiths. She noted, “Their business was run out of small buildings here and there on the street, one location being just south of the present Ives farm.”
Chesanow continues to delve deep into census records and land deeds about the area. “You see sociologically, as time went on, the Ives family did better and better.” She found the homeowners had “a live-in servant” in the 1870s, probably from Ireland, and also a German immigrant who worked as a farmhand.

The application for the state registry is “a little more than half way” complete, Chesanow stated. She expects the 20-page document will be finished in May. After that, “it takes about one year, once it’s submitted” for a ruling on the application to be made. 

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Environmental Review Team Brochure

Environmental Review Team Brochure

This PDF file of the State of Connecticut Environmental Review Team gives a good overview of the ERT process. The application for an ERT of the Boulder Knoll property has been submitted and an ERT should occur over the coming months.

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Cheshire Town Management Plan for Jackman Farm, Lassen Farm, and Blauvelt Property

Cheshire Town Management Plan for Jackman Farm, Lassen Farm, and Blauvelt Property

This link leads to the original management plan for the Boulder Knoll property, adopted by the Cheshire Town Council on June 6, 2005.

Of note are lines II.4:

“As to active agriculture, this plan recognizes that aspects of both farmland preservation and continuance of agriculturally related activities are valued by the public… therefore, efforts shall be made to engage a portion of the properties in agricultural activities;”

and line III.B.D.1: “Field areas… shall be mowed.”