A Promise Kept – Butterworth Easement
July, 2013 – In the fall of 2011, Hope Zanes Butterworth sat before the Concord City Council and promised that if they approved funding for the Maplewood Farm Conservation Project, she would donate to Five Rivers Conservation Trust a conservation easement on her neighboring 20 acre farm also on Stickney Hill Road.
This week, Hope kept her promise as she signed the documents that will forever preserve the fertile fields and woods of her historic farm. The conservation easement now held by Five Rivers with an executor interest held by the City of Concord covers the portion of Hope’s property that is mostly hay fields, which are actively mowed and baled and provide valuable grass forage for a local dairy farm. Hope’s donation, along with Maplewood Farm, now guarantees the preservation of much of the open space and majestic views of the Stickney Hill Historic Farm District. Preservation of the open fields in the Stickney Hill historic agricultural district is an ongoing joint project of Five Rivers and the Concord Conservation Commission.
With the conclusion of the Stickney Hill transaction, Hope became a member of Five Rivers’ double donor club because in 2005 she donated a conservation easement on a 24 acre property in Hopkinton. “This is a proud and happy moment for me” she shared as documents were signed on an outside picnic table, under an apple tree at her Stickney Hill homestead.
The Hope Butterworth Stickney Hill easement is the 51st property under easement with Five Rivers, bringing the total acres under its protection to 3,389.
