Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/976908
108 Don Cox loves his life on Old Wild Farm in Haverhill. ere he and his wife, Laura Scholten, work the land and are raising their new baby, who was born on New Year's Eve 2017. e 97-acre piece of land has been a working farm since 1706, so when Cox's great aunt died with no heirs, she left the land to his mother and her family, with the condition that it remain a farm. At just 23 years old, living in his native Oklahoma and "pretty fresh out of college," Cox says he found himself being asked whether he was interested in farming in Massachusetts. "I didn't know if I wanted that life, but my adven- turous side said yes, and I'm so glad I did." Cox says as long as he's there, the land will remain a farm, but that doesn't mean there isn't constant pressure from outside. "We've had developers after us asking us four times this winter to sell our land," he says. He's re- fused. "All I want is to keep it a farm. As long as I'm out here, it won't be developed," Cox states. Small family farms are as much a part of the North Shore's distinct landscape as its rolling sand dunes on the coast and antique brick mill buildings in the cities. But rising land values and an ever-present pressure for new housing threaten those farms every day, and farmers whose families have been living and working on that land for generations are often faced with impossible choices about whether to sell or stay. at's why it's such big news that Green- belt, which is Essex County's Land Trust, and five other partner organizations have been awarded $1,050,000 through the Regional Con- servation Partnership Program of the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service. e award will provide Greenbelt with seed fund- ing to permanently protect working farms in the Merrimack Valley. "e Merrimack Valley is a very special place to farm due to our proximity to the ocean, which creates a micro climate that is very beneficial to crop growing, with its moder- ating effect on temperature," says Glenn Cook, who co-owns Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury with his wife, Karen. Moreover, saving Merrimack Valley farms helps to protect the region's food security, local economy, ties to history, and unique land- scape, as well as its clean air, drinking water, and natural habitats. e new funding will help Greenbelt acquire conservation easements (called "conservation restrictions" in Massachusetts) on working farms, which are voluntary agreements that allow landowners to continue to own their property while placing permanent restrictions on developing the land. "It permanently ensures that that land is forever available for farming," says Vanessa Johnson-Hall, Greenbelt's assis- tant director of land conservation. Today, Cox owns and operates Old Wild Farm with Laura, while also working full-time as a registered nurse. His parents are trustees of the land itself. Old Wild Farm operates as a homestead and farm; whatever they aren't eat- ing or using themselves, they sell at the Haver- hill Farmers' Market. eir products include hay, vegetables, fruit, wool, and sustainably forested wood, as well as pecans harvested from Cox's parents' 500-acre farm in Oklahoma. Cox is hardly alone in being hounded by developers for his farmland. "Because farmland is open, cleared, and generally on a rolling kind of landscape, it's a prime target for development because not a lot of additional funds have to go Don Cox and his wife, Laura Scholten. PHOTOGRAPHS BY, LEFT TO RIGHT, JULIA ANGLEY, DAWN KINGSTON