CHARLEMONT — The Franklin Land Trust recently secured the permanent conservation of 38.8 acres of privately owned forest and farmland in Charlemont after a lengthy process that began in the spring of 2024.
The land, owned by Dorothy “Penny” DeGeorges, is located off of Route 2 in Charlemont’s village. She and her late husband, Paul, purchased the property in 1966, and despite selling the house in 1984, retained ownership of the land and maintained its agricultural use through hay production.
“I’ve been with the land trust for about three years now, and Penny has been a friend of the land trust for quite a bit longer than that,” said Liam Cregan, a land conservation specialist with the Franklin Land Trust. “About two years ago, she came into the office wanting to conserve this land that she has owned.”
The land trust decided to pursue conservation of the property due to its landscape that includes productive forestland, an active hayfield, a wildlife habitat and slopes that contribute to the health of Mill Brook, a coldwater fisheries resource that flows into the Deerfield River.
In addition, this Charlemont property has a habitat identified by the state’s Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program as supporting a “species of special concern,” that being a vascular plant that Cregan said is only found in a few places in Massachusetts. It also includes areas recognized by the state government for their ecological importance.
A 6-acre field on the property is still being actively hayed by Hall Tavern Farm. The forested area includes high-quality soils suitable for sustainable forestry.
“In this case, the tool that was used [to conserve the property] was a conservation restriction, and that is a legal document that gets attached to the deed,” Cregan explained. “So if Penny passes on the land to her son, and that son then sells it to somebody or passes it on to his kids, it will stay conserved. Essentially, it’s an agreement between the landowner at the time and the land trust that’s committing to not use the property in certain ways, namely to develop the property, to dump on the property, to build in any way.”
Because this land is remaining privately owned, it will still be on the town’s tax roll as it was before the conservation restriction. The conservation project was made possible through financial support from The Nature Conservancy’s Resilient and Connected Appalachians Grant Program and an anonymous donor who provided funding for the boundary survey. Additional project expenses, including stewardship funding, legal work, title review, closing costs and staff time, were supported through grant funding and the Franklin Land Trust’s resources.
The Franklin Land Trust was formed in 1987 and since its inception has conserved about 36,000 acres of land across Franklin County, which Cregan equates to the average size of a Massachusetts town.
