CE Success Stories

Del-Rose Farm is located in Bloomville, NY. A multi-generational traditional dairy that has diversified over the years to include vegetable sales, baked goods and crop sales. Barb and Ernie Hanselman are joined by their three sons, Seth, Kale and Ladd as they discuss the farm’s various Best Management Practices and their day to day operation. The family explains why they chose to place an Agricultural Conservation Easement on the farm to ensure it’s continued use for generations to come.

For eight generations, the Frisbee family have been running their family-farm operation, Riverdale Farm, in Delhi, NY. In fact, their family were some of the first settlers in the area. The Frisbee’s have been active participants in our programs for almost 20 years. Their farm follows a Whole Farm Plan, has an Agricultural Conservation Easement, participates in our Economic Viability Program initiative, Pure Catskills, and follows a forest harvest plan with our Forestry Program. In this video you’ll learn more about the projects we’ve accomplished through partnering with this amazing farm family and hear more about their plans for the future.

A small dairy operation with a mixed herd of Jersey and Holstein cows, Judy is still the primary operator of the farm. Joan “helps shovel” a few days a week, and jokes that farming is the best therapy there is. She should know- she has her own business as a local Nurse Practitioner. Merry Breeze Farm became a participant in the Agricultural Program in 1999, before their father Viggo Skovsende transferred the farm and land to them. Since their father’s passing in 2015, Judy took on additional roles including planting and harvesting crops. “Dad always wanted to keep this an operating farm” said Joan, and the easement is what made this possible for them. The sisters had many reasons a Conservation Easement was the right choice for them including preserving land, preventing development, paying debt and paying help. “As you can imagine, you can get into debt farming, the money from the easement really helped” said Judy.

The first closing of 2018 adds an additional 231 acres to the WAC Conservation Easement portfolio. The landowner is Brush Ridge Associates, LLC; the property is located in Middletown; the easement terms prohibit subdivision, protect water quality, and designate allocated use areas while preserving agricultural and forestry lands as working landscapes, critical to the health of watershed communities. Those are the stats available to any interested citizen, yet the underlying story is just as significant, as recalled three weeks post-closing in the living room of Ed Bennett Jr., member of the aforementioned LLC and the property’s full-time resident.

Agricultural Program participant Helene Heyning of West Wind Farm shares her story of farming in the NYC Watershed. Her story is the first in our new video series titled Boots in the Barnyard. Each video will feature a different participant’s story of farming, protecting water quality, and life in the Catskills.