Two Canandaigua farms are slated for permanent conservation protection covering 673 acres, with state grants supporting working agricultural land and creek corridors at Catalpa Farm and Brock Acres.
The projects are part of $4.7 million awarded to the Finger Lakes Land Trust for three farms totaling 842 acres in Ontario and Onondaga counties. The third property is Cargile Farms, a beef cattle operation in Skaneateles.
The three projects were included in previously announced state farmland-protection awards. The money will cover purchases of perpetual conservation easements, surveys and associated legal costs.
Catalpa Farm adds to earlier conservation work
The Land Trust plans to protect 400 acres of Catalpa Farm, a fifth-generation farm owned by the Pritchard family. The operation dates to the 1890s and grows corn, soybeans, winter wheat, hay and clover seed.
The property adjoins a 596-acre Catalpa Farms parcel that the organization protected in 2017 using the same state grant program.
It lies within the town of Canandaigua’s Padelford Brook Greenway, a 10,800-acre area designated for farmland protection and agricultural viability. The town has adopted zoning and planning measures to reduce development pressure and support farming there.
The planned easement includes two resource-protection areas for stretches of creek running through the property.
Brock Acres protection includes Beaver Creek
A second Ontario County project covers a 273-acre parcel at Brock Acres, a commodity crop farm owned and managed by the Brocklebank family in the town of Canandaigua.
The property has about 2,600 feet of frontage on Beaver Creek, a tributary of the Seneca River. It is across New Michigan Road from a 700-acre parcel protected by the Land Trust in 2019 with farmland-protection grant funding.
The family has worked with the Ontario County Soil and Water Conservation District on water-management projects to capture nutrient runoff and keep it out of waterways.
The easement will cover the creek corridor, a small farmstead area and agricultural fields. Brock Acres adjoins Catalpa Farm; the Land Trust says the projects will form a protected farmland complex of more than 1,500 acres.
Skaneateles beef farm is the third project
In Onondaga County, the Land Trust plans to protect 169 acres at Cargile Farms in the town of Skaneateles. The third-generation family operation includes about 72 acres in crop production and 20 acres of pasture, along with woods and wetlands.
The Cargile family sells beef cattle locally, and an on-site butcher shop provides custom processing for other local meat producers.
The easement divides the property into three zones. A farmstead area includes existing homes and agricultural buildings. A resource-protection area provides added protection for wetlands, a stream corridor and forested slopes, while the remaining farm area can be used for agricultural production.
The property borders the town-owned Skaneateles Conservation Area, a 300-acre site with more than seven miles of hiking trails.
The state Department of Agriculture and Markets administers the Farmland Protection Implementation Grants program. It assists counties, municipalities, soil and water conservation districts, and land trusts with projects consistent with local agricultural and farmland-protection plans.
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