Spring, 2024

NEWSLETTER

Conservation is not a one size fits all system, it can happen in many remarkable ways where one plan looks very different from another. Over the years, Blue Hill Heritage Trust has worked with a number of landowners to conserve properties in ways that met the particular needs and values of each.

This year, (in our spring, summer, fall, and winter newsletters), you will hear from four people who chose to work with BHHT in four very different ways to conserve the lands they love on the Blue Hill Peninsula.

Today we will hear from Jo Barrett and her desire to protect the farm and woodlands she owned in Orland. Later in the year Rich Storck, Ben Emory, and Michael Rossney will tell us what lead them alongside their partners and families to seek out unique conservation plans that ultimately reach a similar goal on the peninsula properties they love. We hope these stories will paint a picture of conservation with broader brush strokes and perhaps inspire you to consider how conservation might look to you and the properties you hold dear.

If you have driven down route 15 through Orland in the last few years, you've undoubtedly caught a quick glimpse of Rainbow Farm as you've gone around the bend. It's hard not to notice the green field speckled with livestock consisting of chickens, sheep and Scottish Highland cattle, along with several Great Pyrenees that work as livestock guardian dogs. Blue Hill Heritage Trust has had an easement on this property since 1999, ensuring that this land remains farmland for generations to come.

The following is Jo Barrett's personal account of how decisions, years in the making, allowed everything to seemingly fall into place to protect this land forever as farm and woodlands.

This 135 acres of open fields and woods is a beautiful place that always instills a deep sense of attachment in me. It is part of what the local farming community refers to as the Rt. 15 farmland corridor, where the glacier left deep, high quality soil. In addition to having highly valuable agricultural soils, this farm provides a much-loved view for people driving on Route 15 and was under pressure for residential development. 

My late husband, Dennis King and I owned and operated King Hill Farm (KHF) in North Penobscot (along with my brother-in-law, Ron King) We used many remote fields to augment our hay and grain supply. One of the best ones was a 16 mile round trip from KHF. When the land that now is Rainbow Farm came up for sale it was owned by Peter Nowick and had been under conventional corn for many years. The woodlands had been aggressively harvested. It needed restorative care. I had just sold a property and decided to buy this land because it had great potential and it was only a 6 mile round trip from KHF. That 10 mile difference doesn't sound like much until you've had to transport a mower/conditioner, tedder, rake, baler, and trucks with trailers to make hay. Or a 1960s combine to harvest grain.

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