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| The path to the pond. |
The rough-mowed
trail led through an old field of asters and goldenrod edged with native high
bush blueberry and American cranberry, humming with native pollinators. The
trail continued through a stand of multiple-trunked ash, red maple, and beech typical
of New England’s often cut woodlands. At woods’ edge, native water lilies, and
yellow water poppy bloomed in a goodly sized pond. Spruce, yellow and paper
birch colonized ledge outcrops and stonewalls defined the pond’s east side. Directly
across the pond was what appeared to be an old skid road, more evidence of past
logging. A beaver lodge nudged cattails and at the muddy water’s edge, moose
tracks and scat made a new landscape seem familiar. Thls land, 38 acres in all,
was to become my home and my business.
Farming by Chance
Decades
of hiking and living in northern New Hampshire’s White Mountains helped make my
new home at 1700-foot elevation in the western Massachusetts highlands feel
like home. This is the southern limit of a northern forest type and the
northern limit of central New England woods where northern species like yellow
birch, spruce and fir meet white ash and red oak. When moving to the new house
and fifty acres in 2005, I had no intention to do any large-scale gardening
much less farming on what was clearly marginal, poorly drained land. With a new
graduate degree, I was changing careers and intended to find a full time job in
conservation.
However,
plans change and five years later, after receiving a beginning farmer grant, I
started Bug Hill Farm. I began by experimenting with black currants planted on
the property over 40 years ago by a German doctor. I fell in love with these
densely flavored, tart berries beloved in many parts of Europe, and began
selling alcohol free cordials made from them at my local farmer’s markets. High
tunnel production of raspberries followed, as did ever-expanding plantings of berries.
A commercial kitchen for value added farm products was built in 2012, so that
the farm could both wholesale and retail value added products.
Transitioning to Successional
Habitat
My original
intention of managing the land for biodiversity and conservation hasn’t changed,
and the farm’s 2010 Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) grant for
creating early successional habitat for wildlife has helped
support that. With this grant, ten acres of second growth, poorer quality woods
were cut leaving a few “seed” trees of red oak, sugar maple, and mature poplar.
Over many years, the loss of early successional habitat, critical to the
survival of many species, has resulted in greatly diminished populations of
migratory birds and native pollinators. Middle-aged mostly unmanaged woods now dominate
most of New England and may not support great biodiversity.
In spite of diminishing species in the
mature forest, the public has a negative perception of patch clear cuts, and
the resulting re-growth (early successional habitat) appears messy and chaotic.
Three years after the cut, I hope the farm may help change that perception with
our addition of new trails through regenerating native low and high bush
blueberries. These native shrubs and young stands of poplar, cherry, and wild rubus
species support increased numbers of migratory birds, insect pollinators, small
mammals and reptiles – wildlife, like children, seem to enjoy “messy”
landscapes. And by making our land available for exploration by neighbors, we
hope to demonstrate the positive changes a messy landscape, created with careful
cutting, can produce.
In 2012, the farm received a
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grower grant titled Effects of Controlled
Disturbance within Early-Successional Northeastern Forest Habitat: Evaluating
Soil Quality, Plant Production, and Economic Feasibility.
This grant may help new entry farmers who are considering the purchase of marginal
lands because of the affordability when compared to prime agricultural land. Two
questions faced by those considering this route is how much site disturbance is
needed in order to establish some productive cropping and what alternative,
perennial crops may be viable on marginal lands where annual row crops are not
economically feasible or perhaps even desirable.
Experimenting
with Change
With our three-year SARE grant, the
farm is creating experimental plots of three types of disturbance (measuring
for soil health).The control plots will utilize traditional cut, stump, till,
and plant techniques. The other two plots will use non-traditional methods. In
one, we will plant directly in early successional habitat, and in the third plot
we will use a permaculture technique called hugelkultur. All plots will be
planted with three species of berries (native New England elderberry cultivars,
a native New England black chokeberry cultivar, and haskap, also called
honeyberry, which is native
throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere.)
Managing natural succession on the farm
includes finding younger people who will succeed me in managing the farm
business and the land that supports it. What will the future look like at Bug
Hill Farm? Businesses like ecosystems have various stages of growth. The farm
is posed for that next stage, and hopefully it will encompass a different style
of ownership that includes different ages and interests.
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