Day 277
A few posts back, I asked for positive vibes to help out with a potential plan that would dramatically impact the farm’s future. While I still need those positive vibes, progress has been made and it is positive.
The northern border of our property butts up against two other properties. One is a golf course The other is a local conservancy. We have a relationship with the conservancy and knowing we could potentially be neighbors with one of their properties was a wonderful surprise when investigating the acquisition of the farm.
Even though our focus has been on restoring our land, we’ve always kept the idea of collaborating with this conservancy in the back of our minds. I’ve kept consistent communication with them since we bought the land and have shared ideas black and forth about how we could potentially work together.
Recently, their executive director came for a walk and talk on our property. Besides showing off the results of our restoration work so far, we brainstormed potential plans for the future should we ever collaborate. I provided ideas for how I could help use the conservancy land for education, restoration, and education. After a very productive talk, a few next steps were discussed. While these steps are somewhat small, they have potentially huge impacts. This upcoming winter, with the land frozen and easier to navigate, we hope to walk the property and better define property boundaries. We also hope to flag a potential path through the preserve. If all goes well, sometime next year, that laid out path would be transformed into a primitive trail. I would then be able to better access the preserve from our already established trail and begin restoration work. Eventually, this wooded land could be used for other purposes.
Ultimately, we could have direct access to another thirty acres of nature that could slowly be transformed into a special place for our community. Selfishly, I would have more room to run the trails, my family would have a new place to explore, our animal friends would have an improved habitat to live, and the community would have another place to build a deeper connection to the natural world.
