CONSERVATION NOTES (continued)...

But wait, the Town’s $150,000 contribution from the conservation fund and Blue Hill Trust’s $200,000 have covered less than half of the $765,000 purchase price. Where’d the rest come from? Bear-Paw, the Town, and Blue Hills Trust considered the project so important that they were willing to go out on a limb and secure loans for the remainder—loans that will need to be repaid within two years. How can we do that? Dan Kern at Bear-Paw is already busy writing grant proposals, and chances are good that these will be successful and cover the money owed, though we won’t know until later this year when the funding sources make those decisions. And grant funding may not completely cover the entire amount owed. We may well need to do some local fundraising here to make the mountain truly ours. Anyone can make a direct contribution to the effort by calling Dan at Bear-Paw, 463-9400. And we can also use any good ideas for fundraising events—there has already been a suggestion to hold a contra dance evening at the BLCC—what do you think? Please call Harmony Anderson, 332-0709, with any of your ideas. It would be nice to have some fun while we work to conserve our mountain!

The second conservation project that needs citizen input this spring is the Managing Growth Committee (MGC) and Planning Board’s work toward strategies to protect our town’s farmlands. In the last few years the town has been making good progress conserving forestlands and wetlands, but our valuable agricultural lands are still vulnerable. These are the lands that give Strafford so much of the rural character we value. And one doesn’t have to be a believer in Hollywood doomsday scenarios to feel that it is a very good idea to protect our soils that can produce food right here. Consideration of landowner rights must be a big part of developing ways to protect our farmlands. Some combination of compensating landowners for  conserving their agricultural lands as well as ordinance to direct any development of farm tracts away from the best soils seems like a reasonable approach. Instead of presenting any proposals among the Warrants this year, the MGC and Planning Board wish to gather ideas from Strafford citizens to help in this effort. At both the Tuesday voting day and the Saturday Town Meeting day, a survey will be available for you to fill out. Please give us your opinions and ideas!