Rural
Resources entrusts future of the farm with Foothills Land Conservancy
It's not a takeover.
It's a land trust to ensure the Rural Resources farm remains a space for
agricultural and educational use in perpetuity.
"We have put a
conservation easement on the land is to ensure that it remains undeveloped with
houses and buildings, beyond what has been initially stipulated, for
forever," said Rural Resources’ Executive Director Sally Causey. "As
Rural Resources moves forward, we will be able to develop a productive
agriculture and education space without the worries of development
pressure."
The easement is being
held by Foothills Land Conservancy, which just completed a record year with
7,000 acres conserved. Rural Resources made up 15.17 acres of the total land
conserved.
"The easement
essentially means that they own the development rights for this piece of
land," Causey said. "Our future new building and other
agricultural/educational structures are allowed like the pavilion being built
now with support from Greeneville’s Noon and Morning Rotary Clubs."
The
Rural Resources property was formerly owned by the Childress family.
"Watt
and Larry Childress, who inherited the farm from their grandfather, Lawrence
“Jimmy” Dobson, established the organization in response to the rapid loss of
farmland they observed and desired their four-generation farm and others to be
preserved," according to Foothills Land Conservancy Communications
Director Elisa Eustace. "Rural Resources is dedicated to the education and
training of youth in environmentally sound farming practices and teaching them
to run a farm or food related business. The organization plans to continue
utilizing the property in a manner that allows for sustainable agricultural
practices and supports educating the community for an agrarian way of life into
the future."
The easement doesn't
have financial benefits for Rural Resources, but it would have tax benefits for
families and for-profit businesses.
"We have done
this to let other farm and land owners to know what's possible and to know they
have this possibility of preserving their land for future generations to farm
and enjoy in its natural state," Causey said. “I am also grateful to
Marshall Peterson of Holbrook, Peterson & Smith in Knoxville for his
volunteer help and guidance throughout the process of purchasing the land and
establishing the conservation easement.”
More information about
Rural Resources’ farm and programming is online at ruralresources.net and on
Facebook.
For more information
about how to begin the process of conserving land, call Foothills Land
Conservancy at 865-681-8326 or go online to foothillsland.org.
