Shaun Keenan and Benji Knisley donate a conservation easement to the SVCA on their 190-acre Sand Hill Farm.

The owners of historic Sand Hill Farm in Somerville have donated to the Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association a conservation easement limiting development on their 190-acres of fields and woodlands.

The property, located on a high ridge south of Sheepscot Pond in northern Lincoln County, offers spectacular views extending as far as the Western Maine mountains. It is known to have been worked as a farm at least since the 19th century, and was one of the first Maine farms to be certified organic by the Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association (MOFGA), in the early 1980s. It retains that certification today.

Owners Benji Knisley and Shaun Keenan signed the easement agreement at SVCA headquarters in Newcastle on April 25, in the presence of SVCA board members and staff. They will continue to live on the property and operate it as a farm. Their principal current crop is organic pick-your-own strawberries, but in the past they have grown a variety of grains and vegetables for market.

They also have been harvesting firewood for sale over the past two seasons - wood from the many trees knocked down on the property by summertime microbursts that hit their section of Somerville two years in a row.

Shaun first came to Sand Hill Farm in 1992 as a farm manager for the then owners, Mark Miller and Bonnie Rukin-Miller, who is a past president of MOFGA. Shaun and Benji leased the farm in 1995, and bought it in 2003.

In 2000, Mark approached the SVCA about protecting the land with a conservation easement that would limit residential development on the property while allowing the owners to continue to farm and to explore alternative, ecologically sensitive ways to earn a living from the property such as maple sugaring, hay rides, weddings and events. When Shaun and Benji purchased the property in 2003, they continued the negotiations with SVCA that resulted in this easement.

Sand Hill Farm, located less than a mile from the Sheepscot River, includes 13 acres of wetlands, about 150 acres of managed forest and about 24 acres of fields in current agricultural use. The overall property provides valuable wildlife habitat, and is located in an area that is part of a 7,000-acre undeveloped block of land recognized by SVCA and the State of Maine as providing critical habitat. The property also contains soils listed by the Natural Resources Conservation Service as "Prime Farmland Soils" and "Farmland of Statewide Significance."

SVCA Executive Director Maureen Hoffman said this donation "was a wonderful project to work on. Both sets of landowners and the many partners that helped move this forward all demonstrated how conservation easements can help to keep local land in local hands, working to sustain the owners and their neighbors in the same manner it has for the last several centuries. This easement also ensures that future generations will be able to enjoy the scenic views and the strawberries, just as we have."

Also attending the signing event at the SVCA offices were Nancy Holmes and Barbara Damon-Day, both of Newcastle, who recently granted to SVCA protective easements on their separate properties in the Deer Meadow Brook area in Newcastle.

The Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association is a member organization advocating shared stewardship of Maine's 58-mile Sheepscot River since 1969. Today, more than 2,400 acres and 13 miles of riverfront are protected. The SVCA's ongoing monitoring of water quality helps ensure the watershed's ecosystems stay healthy, including its Atlantic salmon habitat. SVCA's mapping services, technical support and educational programs encourage prudent land use so the resources people value today are conserved forever.