Programs

Farm Bill

Conservation Security Program 2005

Massachusetts

Ipswich/North Coastal/Merrimack watersheds

The watershed areas lie in Essex County within the North Coastal Watersheds of the Ipswich and Parker Rivers. The North Coastal Watersheds of the Ipswich and Parker Rivers encompass large expanses of fresh and saltwater wetland resources that support both marine fisheries and freshwater wetland and upland wildlife. The Ipswich River serves as an important public drinking water supply.

Farmers within this watershed areas are stewards of their land, operating with a long-term commitment to maintaining and improving these working lands for generations to come. Many of these farmers have employed improved management techniques and proven conservation practices; some with technical assistance form NRCS and some simply on-their-own.

Conservation practices such as permanent vegetative cover, cover crop, conservation cropping systems, nutrient management, pest management, pasture and hayland management, and prescribed grazing are commonplace on these farms.

Stewardship Rates

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Ipswich/North Coastal watershed
Merrimack watershed

Essex County farmers are stewards of land pressured by development and steeped in history

The quiet of Robert and Kathleen Brown’s farmland in West Newbury, where the whisper of summer breezes is disturbed only by the chirping of birds and the buzzing of honey bees, stands in contrast to the sounds of traffic that carry over the hayfield behind their Farmer Brown’s Farmstand on busy Maple Street in Middleton.

Yet thanks to the Brown’s conservation efforts in both locations, they are being recognized as conservation stewards through the Conservation Security Program in 2005. Of the 233 acres that they farm in both towns, 48 have been enrolled in CSP.