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The Tecumseh Land Trust currently holds easements, or is in the process of completing easements on over 8,000 acres of agricultural and natural land in Greene and Clark counties. To get a visual image of the area in which we work, download a map of preserved properties, current as of July 2007, here (map is in .pdf format, and is always in the process of revision. If you see any errors, please- let us know! Email Kate@tecumsehlandtrust.org). Conservation Easement List and project Descriptions
German Twp. Family Donates Farm to the Tecumseh Land Trust
The following excerpts are from a story written by Elaine Kauh and
reprinted here by permission of the Springfield News-Sun.
The white house and barn and the gently rolling farmland contribute to the picture of tranquility on the Fisher farm. Two border collies and a chocolate Labrador bark excitedly to greet a visitor, breaking the silence as a gentle snowfall blankets the 71 acres that are home to Betty Fisher and her brother Ed Fisher. Living with nature has been a way of life for members of the Fisher family. Now it will be their legacy. The Fishers are donating their farm to the Tecumseh Land Trust. "We
would like to leave sort of a remembrance that we like this sort of thing,"
said Betty Fisher, 82.
The Fishers will live on the farm for the rest of their lives, after which the trust will take over the property. With no children of their own to take over the farm, a land trust is the best way to preserve the property, they said. Under the "life estate" set up by the Fishers, the trust will place a conservation easement on the property, after which the property will be sold. The buyer must by deed preserve the open space or farm on it. The house and barn also must remain untouched, or similar replacements built, Betty Fisher said. And so a small piece of 200-year-old farmland becomes fixed in time - a permanent tribute to a way of life that's fading into extinction. Flower gardens, vegetable gardens, fruit trees and small animals all have a place on the farm, and the Fishers are proud of its small size and simplicity. Ed Fisher, 74, a farmer since age 26, is a firm believer in small-scale agriculture. "There's no place for young people anymore, there's no place to farm," he said. The Fishers don't see themselves as conservationists. "We're just ordinary people," Betty Fisher said. "It isn't just the land, it's a way of living," she adds. It's comforting to know that whoever decides to settle there also will cherish that way of life. LAND TRUST ACQUIRES BEAN EASEMENTJust before she died, Xarifa Bean signed the documents ensuring that her property in Miami Township would always remain as she wanted it - in fields and woods - under the watchful eye of the Tecumseh Land Trust. A conservation easement on approximately half of the land had been donated to the Village of Yellow Springs some 30 years ago. In the recent transaction, this easement was transferred from the Village to the land trust. In addition, Bean donated an easement on the rest of her property to TLT. Together the easement totals 138 acres. Of that, 66 acres are in productive farmland. Most of the rest of the property is wooded with mature oaks, sugar maples, basswood, shag bark, and hickory trees that have not been logged for some 50 years. Important features of this easement, according to past president Julie Cady, who helped negotiate it, are that the Bean land is contiguous to an 81-acre tract owned by Bud and Jean Marsh, which is also under easement, and that conditions of the easement will help protect portions of the Jacoby Creek watershed, a long-time goal of the land trust.
Janette Knick Preserves Farm in Memory of Father and Brothers Janette Knick has recently donated a conservation easement on her 295 acre historic Xenia Township farm to the Tecumseh Land Trust. The easement was given in memory of her father and brothers, who farmed this and other land for many years. Under the terms of the easement, the land owner can continue to farm and live on the land, sell the land, or pass it on to heirs if she wishes to do so. Commercial or residential development on the land, however, is restricted by the easement. The farm, located on the Little Miami River, west and south of Oldtown, on Route 68, has historic significance as the site of one of the principal villages of the Shawnee nation until about 1795. Tecumseh lived in the village, estimated to have had a population between 1,100 and 3,000 people, and it represented the principal obstacle to European settlement of this area. The farm was part of John Jameson’s original 1,200 acre parcel, recorded in Military Survey 387 in 1795. This was the first parcel of land recorded in Greene County, according to Dill’s 1881 history. The land has been farmed continuously since that time. Sutton farm preserved by village and land trust
The effort to preserve Yellow Spring’s Sutton Farm as open space in 1988 was not only memorable – it was successful. Tecumseh Land Trust did not yet exist, but a number of concerned villagers organized a walk on the village owned property and fell in love its three farm fields (still cultivated today), meandering Birch Creek, with it’s excellent tree lined filter strip, and outstanding oaks and hickories. The walk led the village to reconsider development of the property. The Sutton Farm walk and preservation effort also led to the creation of Tecumseh Land Trust in 1990 as private partner with local government on such projects. An easement was completed on Sutton Farm in 1992, and 68 other projects have been completed by the land trust in conjunction with the village, Miami township, counties, the state and federal governments, and -- most important – interested private landowners.
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__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Tecumseh
Land Trust of Greene and Clark Counties is a private, not-for-profit
conservation organization. Its purpose is to preserve agricultural land, open
space, and historic structures in voluntary cooperation with landowners and
their heirs, and to educate the public about methods of private land
conservation. When current Projects are complete, we will have preserved over
12,000 acres in our working area with the support of over 500 members.
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