Eastbayri.com

LITTLE COMPTON — A Little Compton farm, and one of the region’s best views, will be protected thanks to a deal announced last week between the Little Compton Agricultural Conservancy Trust (LCACT) and White Rock Farm owner Jane Cabot.

Ms. Cabot, a former 30-year member (mostly president) of the Little Compton Town Council, agreed to sell a conservation easement to 23.85 acres of her 40-acre farm at 201 West Main Road for $3,284,000. Half of the money was provided by a matching grant

from the Natural Resource Conservation Service’s Farm and Ranchland Preservation Program.

She will keep about 14 acres where her house is located (she may build a barn someday) along with some land along the entry road. Also not included is the 44-acre farm that she owns next door — she and her family are still pondering its future.

“It’s something I had been thinking about for awhile,” she said, adding that when her two grandchildren voiced their support, the decision was made.

She is thrilled that the land will stay in farming as it has been ever since her great-grandfather Albert Peckham “came over from Westport in the 1860s and bought the land on both sides of the road.

“I grew up farming there” — dairy cows, sweet corn, potatoes. “You had to diversify.” And

when she came home from college, her father’s health was failing so she farmed it by herself.

The property slopes down from West Main Road, rises again to the spot where she built her house in 1995, and then slopes again to a bluff that drops 20 feet to the beach. Most of it offers views to the river, Middletown and Portsmouth, Third Beach and the Atlantic Ocean.

“People ask me all the time, ‘Do you appreciate those views?’” She answers yes, “Of course, but when you are up on a tractor you shouldn’t really be focusing on the views.” She said she especially enjoys the vista from the porch — sunsets, seals on the rocks to the south, storms. “It has a calming effect.”

She said she likes looking at the open fields across the river at Vaucluse Farm in Portsmouth “but so many of the other old fields on that side of the river are now covered by houses. I didn’t want my place to look like that.”

The waterfront has a couple of sandy spots where she recalls swimming with her father as a youngster.

That White Rock Farm name was chosen by Ms. Cabot’s mother and comes from the

distinctive white quartz rocks scattered about. A geologist told her they are unique to Little Compton and Tiverton “but I don’t recall seeing them on other farms.”

The challenge always has been that “I’ve been land rich but no money. This will finally make it easier to keep it all going.” She said she has no lifestyle changes in mind “but I am going to go out and get my first flat screen TV.”

When their son Rusty was born (Ms Cabot’s husband died years ago), she gave up farming the property herself and has since rented the land out — lately to Donald Tripp who raises beef cattle and grows vegetables there.

George Mason, chairman of the LCACT, said the agreement is one that he and others had hoped to achieve for years.

“It is a special place,” he said, adding that in every office where he has worked he has kept a framed picture of that view of “watering pond, cows, fields and ocean. It is Little Compton.”

“So many people have taken that picture,” Ms. Cabot said. “I could have done well charging for it.” In part to help protect those views for all to enjoy, she took the costly step years ago of burying the power lines to her house.

The easement not only prohibits future residential development but also requires that the the land be farmed in perpetuity. This marks the fifth time that LCACT has obtained perpetual farming rights from a landowner with the total now at 224 acres of prime farmland protected.

“The Cabot White Rock Farm ... not only has conservation and historic significance for future generations,” Mr. Mason said, but the property also “plays a critical role in maintaining Little Compton’s unique rural character. Having successor agricultural rights addresses the need for farmers to have access to affordable farmland now and for generations to come.”

R. Phou Vongkhamdy, state conservationist of the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service said, “It was a pleasure to be a part of the protection of the Cabot Farm in Little Compton. I would also like to specifically thank the Little Compton Agricultural Conservancy Trust for their efforts with this endeavor.”

Although LCACT funding comes primarily from the town’s real estate transfer tax, those funds are leveraged by grants awarded to the trust.

“This has been an exceptionally successful year for the LCACT’s grant applications,” said Wayne Montgomery, treasurer of the Trust. In addition to the $1,642,000 NRCS grant for White Rock Farm, the Trust received a $1,250,000 grant from NRCS along with a $250,000 grant from RIDEM for the preservation of 53 acres of farmland east of the Sakonnet Vineyards that borders the Watson Reservoir.

Since its inception in 1986 (Ms. Cabot was on the town council at the time), the Little Compton Agricultural Conservancy Trust has preserved over 1,894 acres of land in town.