North East talks farmland protection

NORTH EAST — A public meeting was held on the draft Agricultural and Farmland Protection Plan for the town of North East on Aug. 3, at the American Legion Hall in Millerton.
Attendance was light, but the subject matter was not. In fact, it was exactly what the town’s Farmland Protection Planning Committee (FPPC) had been working on with consultant Liz Brock, from the American Farmland Trust (AFT) for many months, all in an attempt to preserve and protect valuable agricultural land and open space in North East.

“I think that agriculture is an important part of the economy in the town,†said Conservation Advisory Council (CAC) Chair and FPPC member Dianne Engleke. “I think we pay less with our town services with land in farmland as opposed to residential development. It’s a win win, not only with farmland as an economic engine in the community, but also as a smaller tax burden. And one thing that’s important to stress is once you build on farmland you’ve lost the ability of that land to produce food for many years.â€

According to Lynn Mordas, head of the FPPC, more than 70 percent of North East’s land is used for agricultural purposes. That’s unusual, as farms are quickly disappearing from the state’s landscape.

“Agriculture is our number one industry in North East, and since it is the number one industry it impacts every other business and industry in town,†Mordas said during a previous interview. “There’s also the fact that if one looks around you’ve got incredible vistas and environmental resources in town.â€

The draft report that was presented at the Aug. 3 meeting was also distributed to the Town Board, and copies were sent to the Dutchess County Farmland Protection Board for its comments. Since then the Town Board has scheduled a public hearing on the report for its adoption in September (that date will be published once confirmed).

“I did attend the public presentation Aug. 3 and was a little dismayed at the light turnout,†town Supervisor Dave Sherman said. “There had not been as much involvement from the agricultural community as I  would like to see. It may be hard in the summer season. I am concerned with how much involvement they had in the process.â€

Town Councilman Dan Briggs, who worked on the project, said the committee went out to find people in the agricultural community when gathering comments.

“There was a lot of effort made in this and there was talking with people individually,†he said. “Until you have something that is going to affect somebody tomorrow, I don’t think you’re going to get a lot of turnout.â€

Briggs said that right now exists the “most brutal fiscal situation†for farmers that he’s ever witnessed.

“Every month it gets a whole boatload worse,†he said.

According to him, feed alone takes 16 percent of farmers’ income — farmers who are already struggling financially.

“The  bigger you are, the more money you are losing every month,†he said. “The price of [their goods] is lower then when I moved to Millerton 30 years ago. We figured that something is going to snap and it’s going to be in the United States.â€

“It’s a really sad situation,†town Councilman Tim Shaffer said.

“Right now the production of milk in this country is down from a year ago,†Briggs said. “So this is tough. This is like, ‘I’ll sell four cows to make it through this month.’ The world market has changed.â€

“When you’ve got to start selling cows to pay the bills, that’s bad,†Shaffer said. “That’s sad.â€

“I don’t know how the production keeps going,†town Councilman Dave McGhee said, ending up with asking one big question. “Where are we going to get the money to keep the farms? It looks like they’ll be in debt for a good many years to come.â€

He then mentioned some of the goals of the FPPC that he “didn’t see,†like funds for farmland protection or agritourism.

“I don’t see that,†McGhee said. “Some of this we may have to do down the road. A lot of this stuff we may be too late on.â€

“You have to understand that if someone is interested in getting the sale of development rights, that’s not emergency money,†Briggs said. “It can take years [to get the money]. Anyone who does this — it’s a long-term process and they want to be thinking about it sooner rather than later.

“We’re really talking about doing farmland preservation five or seven years down the road,†he added. “It’s not something that’s you’re going to just flip the switch on... I thought a lot of these things are already in process. I would like to think people do attach some value to open space.â€

To teach residents about what their land consists of, and how to best protect it, Hudsonia, Ltd., made a contribution to the committee’s work. According to its Web site, “since 1981 Hudsonia has conducted environmental research, education, training and technical assistance to protect the natural heritage of the Hudson Valley and neighboring regions. A non-advocacy organization, Hudsonia serves as a neutral voice in the challenging process of land use decision making.â€

Hudsonia drew up packets for each kind of habitat and put fact sheets inside them to educate property owners. According to Engleke, they are “very user friendly†and informative.

“One of the goals is to have people site their buildings in the smartest way possible,†she said. “Not on a ledge, or in a cornfield, but off to the side, so they can keep habitats undisturbed. It’s supposed to make people feel good about what they have, and how special it is.â€

The packets exist, but are not ready to be distributed yet; when they are ready, more information will be published.

Meanwhile, Sherman then asked how things bode for the agricultural community. He said he believes there is a future for agriculture and for wanting to conserve land. Briggs said in North East there are prime soils and soils of state-wide importance, which is important. Another local advantage; the parcels are pretty large.

Briggs said that 20 percent of the acreage in town is protected, but acknowledged that the bulk of that is not farmland.

“It’s protected open space, but not farmland,†he said, adding it’s important to improve the town’s inventory of its protected land. “It’s really important that stuff get protected.â€

“My view is when you go through the report, it needs to make a case of what’s protected property,†Sherman said. “The other things in here regarding population growth, which looks extremely modest, is probably to our benefit.â€

The supervisor then said he would like to see a stronger findings statement in the report; he offered to send a few notes along to the FPPC with the board’s recommendations.

Meanwhile, Mordas is not only hoping the board will adopt the plan, but also that the town will take steps to enforce it. If there’s any money remaining from the $25,000 state grant the committee received to create the plan after it’s completed, she said it will likely go toward implementation.

Comments from the public about the draft plan will be accepted until the close of business today, Thursday, Aug. 20. They can be sent to Liz Brock at lbrock@farmland.org; she can also be reached at 518-581-0078.