The world is such a big place, it’s hard for most of us to imagine we can make that big a difference. On a global scale, 41,500 acres might seem inconsequential. But when you zoom in on Massachusetts, and then closer still to its western rural communities, 41,500 acres is a lot. And if that acreage is prime, undeveloped forest and farmland in an otherwise small, urban state, you realize, for us, at our scale, how huge an accomplishment it is to protect that much land.
So, Richard Hubbard, as a former state official in charge of farmland preservation, and more recently as leader of the Franklin Land Trust, gets to take a deep bow as he heads into retirement, having worked for three decades to protect from development so many farms, open spaces and wild lands in the Franklin County and North Quabbin Region.
“This is the most difficult decision I’ve ever made,” said the 63-year-old New Salem resident, who worked for the state Department of Food and Agriculture for about 15 years overseeing its first-in-the-nation state Agricultural Preservation Restriction program.
Hubbard grew up in the Worcester County town of Dudley, where he first became interested in farmland preservation after watching farms give way to development.
Hubbard was hired in 1986 as Western Massachusetts field specialist for the state’s APR program, which buys development rights of farms, paying farmers the difference between development value and agricultural value of agricultural land.
Hubbard had a hand in negotiating virtually all of the APR projects in this part of the state. He figures he has worked on at least 400 land preservation projects between his work at the non-profit land trust and at the agricultural department.
His work has had a profound impact on maintaining the character of this region, a feature that we so often tout as one of the most defining characteristics of where we have chosen to live and why people love to live, work and play here.
“Right now, if you looked down on the valley from Mount Sugarloaf, you’d see it hasn’t changed much for probably 150 years, except for UMass off in the distance,” Hubbard observed as he reflected on his work and pending retirement. “It’s still a very, very green valley. That valley would be covered with houses now, if not for the (APR) program. It would be a very, very different place. People criticize it, and farmers get frustrated with it, and certainly there are things that could be done to improve it. But for all its faults, I’m convinced we would not have commercial agriculture in this state at the level we have right now if not for the program.”
The non-profit Franklin Land Trust, created in 1987, has similar goals as the state APR program: preserving our open space. Under Hubbard for the past 14 years, the trust has grown to nine full-time employees from 1½ full-time positions.
Over the years, the trust has protected about 32,000 acres through a variety of programs.
While we wish Hubbard the best as he charts a course on the other side of his early retirement, we have a couple of other wishes: that he continue to channel his energy in ways that protect our rural landscape and way of life, and that the Franklin Land Trust finds someone equally effective and committed to the cause.