Conservation Success Stories

Mt-Sugarloaf

What draws people to places? What connects them to a landscape, a rock, a river? What do they bring to these places to change them, offering something of their own personalities? And what motivates them to want to preserve them by donating the places they love the most?

-Rema Boscov

We have long wanted to find a way to preserve the stories of some of the people who have conserved their land with FLT, and learn more about what inspired them to do so. Luckily for us, local writer and artist Rema Boscov volunteered to do just that.

Rema, whose eloquent words are quoted above, is an artist, writer, and teacher who has worked as an Artist-in-Residence for three of our national parks: Buffalo National River, Voyageurs National Park and North Cascades National Park.

A former journalist, she wrote for various newspapers and magazines, including The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. Now she’s traveling the hills and valleys of our area meeting folks, walking with them on their land, listening to their stories and writing about what she learns.
We’re thrilled to have Rema tackle this important work, and very grateful to her for this generous gift.

Read more about Rema at remaboscov.com

Landowner Stories

Caryl Dyer Barn

Caryl Dyer

Not far from her barn, the kitchen door to Caryl Dyer’s Bernardston farmhouse stands open. Enter here. Of course. This is where she cooked for her two sons and her late husband Ed, and where she canned, many days, year ...
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Chris Jerome

Chris Jerome

When Chris Jerome decided to preserve her land in Ashfield she went to the Franklin Land Trust website and sent an email. “I got a call that afternoon,” she says, and was told, “Whenever we get a chance to protect ...
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Dick and Susan Todd

Dick and Susan Todd

Dick and Susan Todd no longer own the land they protected. They live nearby. "It's more of a comfort after you've sold it than before," Dick says. They raised sheep in a field that’s still a field. They walked in ...
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Ron and Nina Coler

Nina and Ron Coler

Ron and Nina Coler are about as local as you can get. "I grew up in Buckland and Ron grew up in Ashfield. We met in high school," Nina Coler says. "We lived in the same dorm at Umass, Amherst." ...
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Tony Borton

Tony Borton

About five years ago, in Tony Borton’s woods in Conway, lightning struck a tall hemlock. The tree “just exploded” Borton says. A splintered trunk like petrified flames remains, and shards lie scattered all around. “Later that summer,” he says, pointing ...
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Judith and Wayne

Wayne Meeks and Judith Colton

  Sitting in their screened porch, overlooking 100 acres of preserved field and forest, Wayne Meeks and Judith Colton speak of a much broader view. “When you preserve the land you also preserve the community,” Meeks says. They summer in ...
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Letter From The Executive Director

Preserving a multi-generational legacy poses numerous challenges for landowners, ranging from succession planning to economic pressures. Each family's situation is unique, and in our new series of blog posts covering some the work we've done this year, we explore the ...
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Home Is Where The Heart Is

Article by Sebastian LaMontagne  “You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl” says Thelma Nye Pilgrim as we walk across the open field behind her homestead in Plainfield. Thelma ...
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Somebody Has to Be Here

By Sebastian LaMontagne In 2022, millions of Americans were introduced to the minutiae of land conservation through an unexpected source, the television series Yellowstone on the Paramount Network. The show revolves around the fictional Dutton family, who own the vast ...
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Candid Camera

By Alex Wahlstrom  In Plainfield, on the edge of a babbling Meadow Brook, a great blue heron steps into focus. No more than two feet away from the camera lens, the heron cautiously continues to work the edge of the ...
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