{"id":110301,"date":"2016-03-30T09:35:47","date_gmt":"2016-03-30T13:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=110301"},"modified":"2023-06-27T12:20:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T16:20:00","slug":"uconn-restores-acreage-to-agricultural-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2016\/03\/uconn-restores-acreage-to-agricultural-use\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Restores Acreage to Agricultural Use"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before long, the sounds of chain saws and large land clearing equipment will echo over a portion of UConn\u2019s northwest corner.\u00a0 By summer, the now wooded acres, adjacent to the University\u2019s Spring Manor Farm on Route 32 and near the UConn compost facility, will begin their transition back to agricultural production.<\/p>\n

Mary Kegler, manager of farm services, views the upcoming transformation as a positive move for the College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources. Jennifer Kaufman, natural resources and sustainability coordinator for the Town of Mansfield and staff liaison to Mansfield’s Agriculture Committee, agrees that it\u2019s the right move for the town.<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/a>
Map showing the nearly 40 acres of land that will be returned to agricultural use.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But why the change?<\/p>\n

This activity is the result of farmland mitigation \u2013 a way to assure that the total amount of land once dedicated to agricultural use in a community is not forever lost when farm parcels are converted to a different use.<\/p>\n

In this case, the requirements for mitigation were contained in the environmental impact studies done for the construction of the Charter Oak Apartments and the extension of North Hillside Road \u2013 now named Discovery Drive \u2013 which resulted in the loss of approximately 35 acres of cultivated farmland on UConn\u2019s North Campus.<\/p>\n

Rich Miller, director of UConn\u2019s Office of Environmental Policy which is responsible for ensuring that the University honors its environmental commitments, says he and his staff have been coordinating aspects of this farmland mitigation effort for more than 10 years and the intent has always been to replace those lost agricultural acres. The only question was where the land would come from.<\/p>\n

Working with the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, UConn ultimately selected nearly 40 acres of University property that is now wooded but was once farmland known as Rock Spring Farm. The parcel selected intentionally exceeds the 35 acres of agricultural land that have been lost, as a margin of safety in case the project encounters sections of land that cannot be disturbed due to the presence of wetland soils or rock outcrops.<\/p>\n

\"Mary<\/a>
Mary Kegler, manager of farm services, walks through the woods on some of the land that will soon be returned to agricultural use. (Sean Flynn\/UConn photo.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kegler says, \u201cYou can see evidence of how the land was used in the past by looking at the remains of an old dirt road around the perimeter, as well as wire fencing and stone walls that still intersect the property. The trees are all about the same age, roughly 60 years old, so we know that the land was once cleared and used for farming.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says that the additional farmland will have a variety of positive effects, and will be especially welcome because it will give the University more land for crop rotation \u2013 an important soil conservation management practice. She explains that well-drained, tillable flat land is used to grow corn, and with this additional open land Farm Services will be able to put in a corn crop while other areas are rested by planting clover and other cover crops, including both legumes and grasses. This rotation helps keep the soil healthy and productive.<\/p>\n

Kegler says UConn\u2019s award-winning dairy herd will be a beneficiary of the increased farmland. She says the University grows corn\u00a0 for silage \u2013 a kind of fermented cereal for cows \u2013 and may also be able to grow additional hay for the herd, perhaps with alfalfa, on the new agricultural land, representing a financial savings to the Farm Services\u2019 budget.<\/p>\n

But the benefit is not just to UConn.<\/p>\n

When the long-planned-for connection from campus to Route 44 \u2013 Discovery Drive \u2013 opened in December, more than a few members of the Mansfield community reacted with a huge sigh of relief, including Kaufman, the town’s sustainability coordinator.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the perspective of the town, we can already see that the new road is helping alleviate traffic congestion on Route 195,\u201d she says, \u201cand we\u2019re grateful for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile keeping a natural system intact is always the optimal approach, sometime tradeoffs must be made,” she adds. “We appreciate that UConn is fulfilling its obligation by returning this land to productive farmland, and is working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to implement good land management practices. This is in keeping with our goal of preserving Mansfield’s rural character.”<\/p>\n

Miller, UConn’s environmental policy director, notes that returning the land to agricultural production is an important step in maintaining the University\u2019s land-grant heritage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great when we can advance projects like this,\u201d he says, \u201cto help preserve natural history and restore land uses that are so important to the fabric of the community. It\u2019s one of the best parts of my job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The farmland mitigation project will offset the loss of about 35 agricultural acres to construction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":110593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1727,2387,2225,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1935],"class_list":["post-110301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-construction","category-sustainability","category-uconn-storrs","category-university-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 03:09:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110301"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110898,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110301\/revisions\/110898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/110593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110301"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=110301"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=110301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}