News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Ryan Owens, (603) 357-0600

October 1, 2009
 

SWANZEY FARM CONSERVED FOREVER
Innovative Development Process Enables Project

(SWANZEY)—Over the past 30 years, dozens of Swanzey youth have grown up learning to mend fences, bale hay, and tend livestock by helping Mike Johnson farm in East Swanzey. On September 25 th the Monadnock Conservancy purchased from the Johnson family a permanent 92.6-acre conservation easement that ensures that Ridgehill Farm will remain available to grow food, harbor wildlife, and inspire responsibility and a love of nature in neighborhood kids for generations to come. A community party, pig roast, and parade led by oxen Buck and Ike, Swanzey’s ambassadors of open space, celebrated the project’s completion the following day.

Protecting the farm from residential and commercial development was one of the last wishes of Mike Johnson’s late father Henry, and the land has been in mother Suzie Johnson’s family for almost 100 years. Mike boards horses and raises beef cattle, sheep, fowl, and a small dairy herd on the farm. In the winter, the farm also hosts the animals from Dublin’s Friendly Farm, and Johnson is the owner of oxen Buck and Ike, known as “Swanzey’s biggest rural characters.” Ridgehill Farm is one of the last self-sufficient working farms in Swanzey.

An innovative approach to industrial development and wetlands protection enabled the easement purchase. In 2008 Moore Nanotechnology Systems LLC, the NH Department of Resources and Economic Development’s 2008 Company of the Year, moved to Swanzey and built a new production facility. The development necessitated a small impact to wetlands on the site, which triggered a sequence of mitigation measures mandated by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. When mitigation opportunities on the property were inadequate to satisfy regulations, NH-DES consulted the Town of Swanzey for alternatives.

The town’s Conservation Commission and Open Space Committee suggested a cash payment toward the Ridgehill Farm conservation easement, which would forever protect important wetland resources. The firm was happy to oblige, the wetlands impact permit was issued promptly, and the final mitigation package included the farm easement payment, on-site man-made wetlands, and the grant of an additional 15-acre conservation easement that protects open space immediately adjacent to the new facility. Funds for the remaining half of the Ridgehill Farm easement purchase came from the Town of Swanzey.

The 92.6-acre conservation easement will ensure not only that the land remains available for farming, but also that it continues to harbor diverse wildlife species. The property features long frontage on the South Branch of the Ashuelot River, floodplain forest, open grasslands, and upland woods. The portion of the river on the property is known to harbor the rare wood turtle, and the open fields are important habitat for a number of uncommon bird species.

Dozens of friends and neighbors gathered Saturday, September 26th, to celebrate the conservation easement, including many of the same children, now grown, who spent their childhood free time working on the farm. Several of these grown children settled nearby with their own families, and they continue to help Mike Johnson regularly, such as this summer when they milked cows and stored hay while Johnson recovered from an injury. The party was one more chance for a grateful community to say “Thank You” to a family that has already given so much.

Founded in 1989, the Monadnock Conservancy is a non-profit land conservation organization that serves 35 towns in southwestern New Hampshire. Its mission is to identify, promote, and actively seek protection of significant natural, aesthetic, and historic resources in the Monadnock Region; and to monitor and enforce the protection of lands in the trust. For more information about the Monadnock Conservancy or the Monadnock Community Conservation Partnership, call (603) 357-0600.