SHELBURNE — Following a vote of support from the Selectboard, 62.37 acres of land on Taylor Road will be permanently protected by the Franklin Land Trust.
The property was first donated by Nancy Hazard and Phyllis Lawrence to the Mount Grace Land Trust, though the Franklin Land Trust will now hold the conservation restriction, according to Deputy Director Alain Peteroy.
Christa Collins, a conservation consultant with Mount Grace, described this as a “belt-and-suspenders approach to conservation” in a phone interview. She added that while Mount Grace has no plans to dispose of the Taylor Road property, if the organization ever were to do so, the conservation restriction from the Franklin Land Trust would still be in effect.
“It’s a 62-acre, kind of ridgetop parcel along Taylor Road. It slopes right down into Taylor Brook, which is a coldwater fishery, meaning that it should be able [to support] trout and other native fish,” Peteroy told the Selectboard. “The land was donated to Mount Grace Land Trust. … As part of the agreement, they need to put a conservation restriction over the top of it.”
Selectboard Vice Chair Rodney McBride said he was quite familiar with the property and that he was among the Shelburne residents who went hunting there. Peteroy added that this conservation restriction would leave the property open for public use, which would include hunting and hiking.
“In the restriction, just with prior notice, it allows you to put a tree stand up or a deer stand, so if that’s how you hunt, you just have to check with Mount Grace,” Peteroy said. “We’ll put together a little communication packet about that, but that’s basically in the document.”
The parcel of land that will have the conservation restriction is a wooded and forested area. Selectboard Chair Andrew Baker raised the question of why the restriction states that agriculture is an acceptable use on the property as currently, no agriculture can take place. Peteroy clarified that the nature of a conservation restriction is to keep the options open, so that if at one point agriculture becomes feasible again, it will be an accepted use.
“Perpetuity is a long time,” Peteroy said. “It is weird at this point to say agriculture, but it might be again.”
In securing a conservation restriction, Peteroy added that the land trust takes away “a lot of the rights” of the landowner, as some uses will now be prohibited, and later adds specific uses back in that are necessary or that already exist on the property. For this parcel specifically, green energy infrastructure, such as solar panels, is among the accepted uses.
“That’s how these things work — we clean the slate [by] saying ‘you can’t build anything’ … and then we allow [specific things],” Peteroy explained. “If, for instance, Mount Grace decided to open up 5 acres for pasturing … they could put in some solar panels that would support the agriculture.”
According to Collins, Mount Grace will be rolling this parcel into Chapter 61, and has a practice of paying taxes at that rate back to municipalities.
