Farm Conservation

I was pleased to read an Eagle Tribune story detailing the beginnings of efforts to permanently protect four of the five remaining farms in my hometown of Windham, N.H.

The project, called the Farmland Initiatives program, will include applying for water source protection, Land and Community Heritage and federal farm protection funding, according to the story. As with any major municipal undertaking, this will most likely require the approval (and money) of Windham voters, something the town has traditionally supported in the past.

Having seen several other farms in the area transformed into housing subdivisions, I am happy to read that they are beginning to examine and advocate for protecting some of Windham’s rapidly disappearing open space.

Once a quiet, rural, summer oasis, various housing booms and the construction of Interstate 93 have transformed the town into a suburb of Manchester, N.H. and Boston. With the first steps of the controversial widening of Route 93 already occurring in neighboring Salem, N.H., it is only a matter of time before the wider highway spurs a new wave of construction, threatening to destroy the remaining undeveloped land.

This is a phenomenon occurring throughout Southern New Hampshire which could permanently destroy the region’s wildlife and wild lands. Ethan Nedeau described the trend best in this excerpt from an article published in the January/February 2006 issue of Wildlife Journal.

I was seven years old when I first rode in an airplane. My lasting memory was looking down upon the distant landscape with awe — imagining the sources of
twinkling lights, and reconciling my earth-bound perspective of the seacoast
with this new aerial view. My eyes traced the strands of lights that connected
the larger clusters, scanned the smattering of lights toward the horizon, and
looked for faint lights in dark areas.
In the last 25 years, New Hampshire’s population has grown by 330,000
people and the population is expected to grow by 350,000 more in the next 20
years. Lights across the landscape at night have multiplied even more than
people have. Clusters have grown and merged. Smatterings have become
concentrations. Dark areas have shrunk to islands in an illuminated landscape. I
imagine how startlingly we could demonstrate population growth with nighttime
photographs of southern New Hampshire over the past four centuries, condensed
into a ten-second clip, showing the supernova of which we are in the midst.

Clearly, Nedeau’s interesting depiction of population growth and development, compared to the lights visible from an airplane indicates that preservation work is essential to keep at least some semblance of a rural feel in Southern New Hampshire. People should not have to travel to Bear Brook State Park or Pawtuckaway State Park to experience large tracts of natural land in the region.

That said, if these properties are conserved, the land would most likely continue as a working farm. Why not go one step further and stop farming the land, letting nature gradually return it to a truly natural state. Certainly a farm is much better than a subdivision but wouldn’t a field of tall grasses dotted with some young tree saplings be even better?

First Green Roof Comes to Merrimack Valley

Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. will host this region’s first green roof when their Addison Gallery of American Art expansion project is completed in 2009, according to a story in the Eagle Tribune.

Green roofs, which have become a mainstay in Europe, are a growing trend throughout North America. They have increased by 25 percent from 2005 to 2006 while intensive green roofs (those which include large plants) increased by 100 percent, according to statistics by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, the North American green roof industry association.

Besides the obvious aesthetic benefits, green roofs provide better insulation than a traditional roof, reducing the costs of heating and cooling the building. Since plants absorb more water then roofing material does, this will create less runoff and potential for lake, ocean or river contamination. Additionally, less water will reduce the wear on city sewer systems potentially lower maintenance and expansion costs. Many other benefits are listed here.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino created a demonstrative green roof atop a portion of City Hall in 2005. And, there are 23 green roofs built or under construction in Massachusetts, according to Green Roofs for Healthy Cities which has a searchable database of all such projects reported to the organization. The Massachusetts ones include prominent buildings such as the IKEA store in Stoughton and the Four Seasons Hotel and Massachusetts General Hospital’s Yawkey Building for Outpatient Care, both in Boston.

This is a tremendous opportunity for new construction and renovations in both urban and rural areas. Not only are there many environmental benefits, but a green roof would probably increase the value of the building and surrounding property, making it more attractive to tenants or homeowners. And, as the MGH roof demonstrates (see pictures here), they can provide spectacular sweeping views of a city skyline or a green oasis in the heart of a bustling metropolis.