The Work of a Lifetime
ON DECEMBER 19, 2025, FRANKLIN LAND TRUST finalized a conservation restriction on a 19-acre forested property owned by Richard French and Emily Samuels along Mountain Road in Gill. The protection of this south-facing woodlot marks another milestone in a conservation legacy spanning more than three decades and over a dozen properties across Gill and Northfield.
For Dick French, now 84, conservation has been the work of a lifetime. Growing up in Amherst, he spent childhood summers at what the family called the Clapp Farm in Gill, helping his uncle and aunt with haying and milking. Those early experiences, exploring the woods, hunting rabbits, cutting pencils out of cedar for his uncle, planted the seeds for what would become a decades-long commitment to land protection.
“I fell in love with the farm,” French recalls. “When I was a kid, my uncle would be milking the cows by hand upstairs on wood. And then in 1950 the state required cows to be kept on cement. So, my uncle put a cement floor downstairs and the cows were moved down there to be milked”
That connection to the land transformed into action when French and his family moved to Gill permanently in 1984. By the early 1990s, they had completed their first conservation restriction. But the vision extended far beyond a single parcel. Over the following years, French worked with multiple partners to conserve parcel after parcel. As executor of the Clesson Blake and Ruth Cook Trusts, he also established a small fund now held by Franklin Land Trust dedicated to conservation efforts in Gill.
The recently conserved 19-acre parcel sits just north of another Mountain Road property that French and Samuels protected with Franklin Land Trust in 2019. Completely forested and supported by prime forest soils, the property had significant development potential with its road frontage, well-drained soils, and expansive views.
“He could have gotten several house lots out of it,” notes Alain Peteroy, Deputy Director of Franklin Land Trust. Instead, the property will remain forested, managed under a Chapter 61 forestry plan that French and Samuels will continue to follow.
The ecological significance of the parcel extends beyond its forest soils. It lies within a BioMap3 Rare Species Core habitat, nested within a large landscape block that supports core habitats. The property is part of a substantial protected corridor just north of the Connecticut River’s Barton Cove area, where multiple conserved parcels create connected habitat for rare species.
While the property is not posted, there are no formal public access trails. Dick French emphasizes that like much of the conserved land in Gill, recreational use remains available on an informal basis, reflecting the town’s open character.
For French, the completion of this conservation restriction is about keeping promises made to family, maintaining the rural character of the town he loves, and ensuring that future generations can experience the kind of connection to land that shaped his own life.
“My hope is that this town remains a farm town,” French says. Though he worries about development pressures from state mandates, his own work stands as a counterweight. The hundreds of acres he has permanently protected, promise that some places will remain as they were when a young man first fell in love with exploring woods and working the land.
With the main farm nearly complete and this latest Mountain Road parcel now protected, French’s conservation legacy approaches its final chapter. What began with childhood summers and a promise to family has grown into one of the most significant private conservation efforts in the region.