Random Notes - 12/9/04
County property taxes go to buy up land in Washington state.
TNC buys Idaho ranch with eye to selling it to private holders and state. County leaders said not to be thrilled, but could make newly public river an area asset.
TNC picks Quickbird for satellite imagery. Press release says it will be used to track conservation progress throughout world.
JOB OF THE DAY - It's a part-time gig, but Livingston Land Conservancy is looking for a land protection/membership development specialist. Livingston county is in Michigan between Detroit and Lansing, north of Ann Arbor. Live there for a while and loved it. But hurry, the job closes 12/15.
Finally, SLATE says blockbuster author Michael (Jurassic Park) Crichton's latest bogey men are environmentalists. See, I told you ecoterrorism would backfire.
TNC buys Idaho ranch with eye to selling it to private holders and state. County leaders said not to be thrilled, but could make newly public river an area asset.
TNC picks Quickbird for satellite imagery. Press release says it will be used to track conservation progress throughout world.
JOB OF THE DAY - It's a part-time gig, but Livingston Land Conservancy is looking for a land protection/membership development specialist. Livingston county is in Michigan between Detroit and Lansing, north of Ann Arbor. Live there for a while and loved it. But hurry, the job closes 12/15.
Finally, SLATE says blockbuster author Michael (Jurassic Park) Crichton's latest bogey men are environmentalists. See, I told you ecoterrorism would backfire.
posted by Pat Burns | 8:03 PM
1 Comments:
Nice site this is a story about a Conservation Easement. By RopeJohn@aol.com
Keith's Tree Farm in Massachusett
Saturday, December 3, 2004
We got to the tree farm just after 10 in the morning and found the parking lot over half full. A side door in the barn had a sign directing us to enter the tree farm HERE. We were startled to find a large room with the smells and signs of a party. Popcorn and hot cider were perfect for a country atmosphere.
A pleasant girl at the first counter explained how the farm worked and gave us instructions on selecting and purchasing a Christmas tree. We had brought tape measure and pen. The best tip was at the top of the welcome sheet telling us to make use of the hayride for easy tree selection.
The hayride was a farm wagon pulled by a Case tractor. Terry and I thought this was a great way to pick out a tree. We rode through pine forests, meadows, and tree lots. We saw streams that feed the Acushnet River. The path wound around huge pines and up steep hills. We could have used cushions on this wagon with no springs. Every rock on the trail was a jolting experience.
Each tree that is for sale has a colorful tag fluttering from the top. The ten different tags are coded to the price sheet. Blue was for small trees at $15, Red was for trees in the 5 foot range priced at $20 and green and white stripe is for the most expensive $100 trees.
Several people on the wagon had been to Keith's before and were full of helpful information. We waited to get off the ride until we had gone past many tree lots and were nearly to the barn. The first lot we walked through was lot “O”. We selected tree number O - 282 by moving the red flag from the top spike to a branch half way down. Writing the number on a selection sheet we were able to pay for the tree when we got back to the barn. We found our perfect tree almost immediately and could have found dozens more. All the trees were great.
At the barn the simple arrangements to take the tree with us involved the cashier radioing number O-282 to the woodsmen. We sipped hot cider for 15 minutes while the tree was cut and loaded into our truck.
Keith's is located at 429 Main Street in Acushnet. The hours are 10 AM to 4 PM Saturday and Sunday. The farm number is 508 995-8643.
Keith Santos stared this farm 20 years ago as a wonderful place to build pleasant family Christmas traditions. The Santos have made provisions to keep this farm going forever. The have formed a partnership with The Fairhaven Acushnet Land Preservation Trust that ensures that this farms acreage will never be developed. The land trust knows that preserving riverfront woodlands protects the viability of the Acushnet River and New Bedford Harbor.
The one hour we spent getting our tree this year was magical.
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