In 2008, five parcels in North Hadley, including 22 acres on the Connecticut River, 47.5 acres of farmland, 6 acres on Lake Warner and 24 acres of woodland, were purchased and protected by a partnership involving the Kestrel Trust, several state agencies, Hadley’s Community Preservation Act Committee and Conservation Commission, and the Porter-Phelps Huntington Museum.
In 2008-2009 the Kestrel Trust , working with the Belchertown Conservation Department, protected 57 acres on Warren Wright Road, thus completing the permanent protection of the Topping Farm Conservation Area. This area, along with the Scarborough Brook Conservation Area, protected earlier, helps preserve a corridor of protected wildlife habitat between Quabbin Reservoir and the Holyoke Range.
For more than 15 years the Kestrel Trust has been consolidating a large protected area in Pelham to protect the headwaters of Harkness Brook. In 2008, Kestrel got a state grant that helped the Harkness Brook project along by partially funding the purchase of 70 acres between Butter Hill and Amherst Road. Another piece fell into place in 2009, when Kestrel and the Town of Pelham arranged to protect 68 acres at Well Away Farm.
In 2009, the Kestrel Trust collaborated with the Town of Amherst and neighbors to help protect the 28-acre Cushman Brook corridor on East Leverett Road in North Amherst.
In 2009, the Kestrel Trust assisted the Trust for Public Land to secure 67 acres on Moody Bridge Road in Hadley, known as BriMar Farm, for the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge.
The Kestrel Trust offers this roughguide to the cost of preserving land in the Valley:
Farmland, 1 acre: $10,000
Forest, 1 acre: $5,000
Backland (no frontage), 1 acre: $1,000
Wetland, 1 acre: $500
