On June 17, the Phillips farm property in Damariscotta, once slated for big box development, was sold to The Maine Farmland Trust, which will place the land under a permanent agricultural conservation easement, and resell it as working farmland.
Cate Cronin, campaign director for the Maine Farmland Trust (MFT), said the property first came to their attention in 2009 via a “passionate, middle of the night email” from local resident Karen Kleinkopf.
Cronin said, “Our lands committee then looked at the property, and it stood out because of its Rt. 1 visibility and potential uses, including its viability as a marketplace.
“We wanted to know how it would enhance the economic and community benefit to have local farmland, and this community has said there is a great need for farmland in Damariscotta. We thought it would be a great partner project with the Damariscotta River Association (DRA).”
MFT and DRA are now working together to secure both the easements, and the final funding needed for the project. The land will then be resold as part of MFT’s “Buy-Protect-Sell” program.
MFT, which was founded in 1999 with the goal of “protecting and preserving Maine’s farmlands, keeping agricultural lands working and supporting the future of farming in Maine,” has helped to preserve close to 20,000 acres of farmland in Maine.
Cronin said because Maine is the oldest state in the country, and its farming population is aging and retiring, the state is rapidly losing farmland. Young farmers are often priced out of the market, and consequently, much of Maine’s farmland is being lost. “We recognized if we don’t do something soon, we’ll lose that land forever,” Cronin said.
Both Cronin and DRA Executive Director Steven Hufnagel talked about the need to preserve local farmland and the demand for local produce, while Hufnagel also pointed out the Phillips property includes the headwaters of Oyster Creek, which feed Great Salt Bay, Maine’s first marine protected area.
“This is the heart of the whole watershed,” Hufnagel said.
Hufnagel and Cronin said while the project has received generous initial support from foundations and individual donors, more work needs to be done to raise the final $100,000 needed for project completion.
Cronin is waiting to hear about a federal grant application recently submitted by MFT, and she said the local fundraising campaign will continue.
In the meantime, Cronin expressed particular thanks to early project supporters, including the Maine Community Foundation, Eleanor Kinney and the Reny family, as well as to the seller, Jim Phillips.
“It’s been a great pleasure to work with Jim,” she said. “He’s been very supportive of this effort and generously sold at below market value.”
Phillip’s said he purchased the property in 1979, primarily because of the natural spring that provided water for his mobile home park across the road. He said the land has historically been used as farmland, and since 1979, the Pinkham family has harvested hay from the land.
“It did me well, and it did the Pinkham boys well for the hay,” he said. He also said selling the property was a bit like having “lost a friend,” but he could envision a farmer growing strawberries, raspberries or even raising beef cattle on the land.
He said the former antiques building at the edge of the property would make a great place to sell vegetables. “I know now that when I look across Rt. 1, it’ll be there forever,” he said, “just the way it is now.”
