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Puddles the duck greets the world.  Photo by Bet Zimmerman.Changes and Updates

If you've visited us before and want to know what's new or happening, take a look here first.

 

NEW WEB PAGES:  A Holdings page has been added that lists parcels owned by The New Roxbury Land Trust.  There is also a new Members Only section (password required) with information especially for our members, and copies of our newsletters. The New Roxbury Land Trust corporate donors are listed on a new webpage.

 

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Majority of Open Space Projects Receive No Funding is Latest Round of DEP Grants (09/04)

 

Recreation and Natural Heritage Trust Program to lose $2.5 Million (4/28/04)

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Recent Supreme Court Decision weakens protection of wetlands (4/28/04)

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A.G. Lauds Upholding Will to Preserve Eastford Farm (2/23/04)

Drinking Water Protection Tool Kit (12/03)

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Farmland Information Center (3/04)

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Free Guide for Farmers and Communities (11/03)

   
ATTORNEY GENERAL, DAG COMMISSIONER LAUD COURT DECISION AS VICTORY FOR FARMLAND PRESERVATION (2/23/04)

State of CT Press Release: Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Department of Agriculture (DAG) Commissioner Bruce Gresczyk today praised a recent Superior Court decision that threw out a fraudulently filed will which would have allowed development of a 127-acre farm in Eastford. The valid will donated the farm’s development rights to DAG, thereby guaranteeing that it would remain agricultural land. Blumenthal filed a lawsuit to challenge the will on behalf of the Commissioner of Agriculture. “This decision is a decisive victory in the fight to save a precious, dwindling resource – Connecticut farmland,” Blumenthal said. “Mamie Nahibowtiz wanted to preserve as farmland the wonderful place where she spent most of her life. In 1993, Mamie rewrote her will conveying the farm’s development rights to the state of Connecticut – thus guaranteeing that her property’s rural character would be preserved forever. Her nephew cruelly and callously attempted to thwart his late aunt’s desires by filing an invalid will. The court rightly rejected the invalid document, restoring Mamie’s wishes and safeguarding the survival of a small, but significant piece of the Connecticut’s rural heritage.” “Preserving agricultural land is very important to the State of Connecticut and I am very happy and pleased with the support provided from the Attorney General and his staff on this matter,” Greszcyk said. “Mamie Nahibowitz generously sought to keep her land in agriculture after she was gone. This decision fulfills her desire and leaves a lasting legacy to her hometown and the State of Connecticut.” Mamie Nahibowitz, who lived most of her life on the family farm at 96 Westford Road, Eastford, drew up a will in 1973 leaving the property to her nephew, Anton Faford of Norfolk, Mass., a niece and other relatives. In 1993, she decided to save the farm from development by revising her will to donate the development rights to the state When Nahibowitz died in 1998, Faford, the administrator of her estate, sought to thwart his late aunt’s wishes by filing the old 1973 will with the Eastford Probate Court. Superior Court Judge Emmet Cosgrove found that Nahibowitz had fraudulently filed the 1973 will. Cosgrove set aside the probate court decision to accept the 1973 will and instructed the probate court to reopen the proceedings using the new will that guaranteed the land would remain a farm. DAG’s farmland preservation program has been preserving farmland since 1978. In that 26-year period, 200 farms comprising 28,500 acres have been saved.

Land Trust Standards and Practices Adopted

The New Roxbury Land Trust has adopted The Land Trust Standards and Practices.  This guides land trusts in operating legally and ethically, and in conducting sound land transactions and stewardship programs.  

 

 


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Last modified: June 28, 2005

 

The New Roxbury Land Trust, Inc. is a nonprofit membership organization, created in 1999 to preserve Woodstock’s open space, natural resources and wildlife habitats.