Land Trusts Receive Grants from Newport Foundation

NEWPORT, RI—The Nature Conservancy, which years ago named Block Island one of the last great places, is among seven land trusts which will receive a grant from Newport's 1772 Foundation.

According to Mary Anthony, at the Newport foundation, "the grant was for $150,000 to protect a 397-acre farm, which, when conserved, will be the second largest protected farm in the state." Anthony said the foundation will provide more details "as soon as" that's possible, but for now, she could say only the Nature Conservancy is "actively working" to protect this land.

The grant program is a collaboration between the foundation and the Land Trust Alliance's regional office, based in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Nineteen organizations applied for the grants, which range from $35,000 to $250,000. Seven were successful.

The Nature Conservancy is the lone Rhode Island grant recipient. The six others are located within a 100-mile radius of Boston and New York City. They are the Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust and the Buzzards Bay Coalition (both in Massachusetts), the Southeast Land Trust of New Hampshire and the Monadnock Conservancy (both in the Granite State), the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and the Scenic Hudson Land Trust (New York).

Most of the projects will protect farmland, according to B. Danforth Ely, the foundation president. Over the five years since the 1772 Foundation started working with land trusts, he said, "it has helped them protect over 9,000 acres of land." This year's awards add more than 1,945 acres to the tally, and almost 60 percent is farmland, supporting "sustainable regional food systems" for the East Coast.

In Rhode Island, the Nature Conservancy protects Lincoln's Lime Rock Preserve, as well as the landscape along the Sakonnet. It also takes care of eight preserves in South County, plus the Block Island landscape, the Nathan Mott Park & Turnip Farm on Block Island, and several other properties there and around the state.