Conserving the Landscape, Creating Opportunity for Others
While Fred DePaul no longer lives in the Village of Cambridge, he remains very interested and invested in its future.
As a young man working on a 117-acre family dairy operation, DePaul plowed and hayed files all over the village to feed his herd. As time marched on, he watched as that farmland was slowly turned over to development. "Seems like all the best land to farm is the best land to build on," he says. "I just hate to see that happen in a farming community." Determined not to see his family farm fall to the same fate, he recently conserved the property through ASA.
DePaul, who now lives in Vermont and rents the property to other farmers, first learned of the opportunity with ASA from other landowners who had previously conserved. "They all shared their reasons for conserving and every one of them had a good experience," he says. "It makes good sense for me financially and it will make the property more affordable for any new farmer looking to launch a dairy operation when I'm ready to sell. With the house, milking parlor, farmers' residence, cow pasture and additional cropland, it's ready to go.
"Plus," he adds, "I know if I drive by the farm in 10 years, it won't have 50 houses on it."
