Funds needed to preserve a Shelburne farm

The Barr Farm on Pond Road in Shelburne was a dairy farm for 70 years, and for 45 of them, Wayne Barr worked on it. “I don’t want to see it become a development with houses on it,” Barr said. Now, the Vermont Land Trust, Vermont Housing Conservation Board, the Shelburne Natural Resources Commission, and buyer Matt Baldwin have come together to keep the land open and farmed, but $43,000 is still needed from the local community to complete the transaction.

The farm is currently owned by the Barr family, and Wayne Barr remains local. Baldwin, who has rented the farm for three years, plans to purchase the farm and continue working it. Baldwin noted that the Barr family had begun to explore potentially selling the farm a couple of years ago, and he approached them with the prospect of conservation and sale, to prevent development.

“The land and the barns are too nice to be taken out of agriculture,” Baldwin said.

The farm will have a perpetual easement to prevent subdivision “as long as the wind blows and the sun rises and the water flows,” said Vermont Land Trust Champlain Valley Farm Director Allen Karnatz. VLT will be responsible for making sure the property remains farmland.

SNRCC allocated $150,000 from the Open Space Fund in May; in June, another $500,000 came from VHCB. Baldwin, who lives in Hinesburg with his wife Laura and three (soon to be four) children, will also be putting money toward the purchase. With a deadline of Feb. 28 to raise the remaining funds, there is little time to lose, noted Karnatz.

“We’re kind of pulling out all the fundraising stops for this project,” he said.

Donations will go to the Vermont Land Trust to cover payment for development rights, and Baldwin will purchase the farm itself. Donations from the community that will benefit from the farm’s preservation are required as part of the sale agreement.

Following a phone call from a concerned neighbor who was traveling out of the area, Barr Farm neighbor Ed Kiniry, who lives at the intersection of Pond Road and Dorset Street, agreed to spearhead an effort to raise the $43,000 needed from the community.

Several entities have stepped up to make the sale and preservation happen, Kiniry observed, and “the Land Trust should ask for local participation.”

With the deadline looming this month, “Someone had to take the bull by the horns,” Kiniry said.

Given the sizable amount of funds needed and the short timeframe, smaller contributions, while welcome, will not suffice, said Kiniry. “It takes a long time [with small donations] and we don’t have time,” he said. Larger contributions are needed.

A short-notice meeting on Saturday morning on the farm’s preservation did not draw any neighbors, but Kiniry remains hopeful. With his wife, Kiniry has canvassed neighbors who do not live on Pond Road, but whose properties still abut the farm. Another step is contacting Shelburne residents who support the Vermont Land Trust but who don’t live immediately beside Barr Farm. Without all the pieces falling into place, it’s possible that the deal might not work out, Kiniry noted. To him, the farm is important to the surrounding community.

“I like the rural open concept that this part of the town has evolved on,” he said. And Karnatz noted that it’s not always possible to preserve this character.

“You only have one opportunity to protect land like this and it only comes along maybe once in a generation,” said Karnatz.

Baldwin, who has had the farm certified organic and now operates a corn- and hay-growing farm with pastured dairy cows, is grateful to continue the operation. “We are very thankful for the conservation efforts in this state, and the town of Shelburne,” he said.

For his part, Barr, who sold his cows three years ago as Baldwin took up the agricultural venture, simply wants to see the farm remain in place. “I’m glad to see it stay open land,” he said. “That’s my main concern.”