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When Frederick and Mary Gunther began farming in Vernon and Tolland, Connecticut, approximately 130 years ago, they had no idea of the legacy they would leave.<\/p>\n
Working with Frederick and Mary\u2019s descendants, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS), and Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), Connecticut Farmland Trust (CFT) purchased the development rights on the property to ensure that Gunther Farm remains in agriculture in perpetuity.<\/p>\n
Last week, Connecticut Farmland Trust transferred the protected Gunther Farm to the Tolland County Agricultural Center (TAC), a regional leader in agricultural education, in CFT\u2019s first buy-protect-sell project. \u00a0Located in a highly developed area, TAC had been unable to expand its operation until CFT secured public and private funding to purchase the adjacent 22.3-acre Gunther Farm. \u00a0CFT placed an agricultural conservation easement on the property and then gave the restricted land to TAC. The addition of Gunther Farm will enable TAC to add educational opportunities for youth and adults, more public trails, and an incubator operation for a beginning farmer.<\/p>\n
Several generations of the Gunther family used the farm primarily as a dairy, until the death of Russell Gunther in 1983. \u201cThe land has been in our family since the 1890s and had been farmed continually up to my dad\u2019s death,\u201d said Ellen Rodzen, Russell\u2019s eldest daughter. \u201cWith this much farming history invested in the land, it just did not feel right to consider development of these acres.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodzen\u2019s sister, Doris Ostrowski, concurred saying, \u201cThe family all agrees that placing our farm under protection and keeping it as open space is the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gunther Farm is home to some of the state\u2019s best agricultural soils and possesses important grassland habitat, the Gages Brook floodplain, and prime habitat for endangered wildlife \u2013 all of which will be permanently protected due to generous financial support from USDA-NRCS\u2019s Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program, DEEP\u2019s Open Space and Watershed Land Acquisition Grant Program, and a grant from The 1772 Foundation. Connecticut Farmland Trust and was awarded all three grants.<\/p>\n
\u201cPreserving this tract of land is of substantial benefit to Connecticut and its residents,\u201d said Thomas L. Morgart, NRCS State Conservationist. \u201cMuch of it has been found to be either prime farmland soils, or statewide important soils, meaning that particular land has the ability to produce high yields of crops when treated and managed according to acceptable farming methods.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are pleased to preserve the Gunther Farm \u2013 for the family as well as for TAC. The farm is one of the last in Vernon\/Tolland and has been threatened by encroaching development for more than a decade,\u201d said Elisabeth Moore, CFT Executive Director.\u00a0 \u201cWe are grateful to the Gunther family and our project funders for making preservation of the farm possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout the expertise of Connecticut Farmland Trust,\u201d said Rebecca Tanner, TAC board member, \u201cit would not have been possible for TAC to navigate the grants and challenges of preserving the farm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frederick and Mary Gunther would be proud to know that the farm they created so long ago will forever be safe from development, and that the Tolland County Agricultural Center will benefit and be able to expand its educational programs for generations to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Frederick and Mary Gunther began farming in Vernon and Tolland, Connecticut, approximately 130 years ago, they had no idea of the legacy they would leave. Working with Frederick and Mary\u2019s descendants, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS), and Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), Connecticut Farmland Trust (CFT) purchased the development rights […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3752"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3811,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752\/revisions\/3811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctfarmland.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}