After 10-year Quest, ALT Expands Sakonnet Greenway with New Easement

After a 10-year quest, the Aquidneck Land Trust (ALT) has acquired an 8.23-acre conservation easement from Donald and Helene O'Neill on their 9.96-acre Middletown property, which sits adjacent to other ALT conserved properties and Maidford River within the ALT's Sakonnet Greenway, according to an ALT report.  

Since 2000, the O'Neill property has been identified as a "Priority Conservation Area" as part of the Aquidneck Island Land Trust Partnership's study entitled Critical Parcel Identification for Watershed Protection in Newport County, Rhode Island.

"The Land Trust's Sakonnet Greenway is stunning so we were very pleased to work with them to protect our portion of it," Donald and Helene O'Neill said in an ALT prepared release.

ALT Executive Director Ted Clement publically thanked the O'Neill's "for working with us to protect another piece of our Sakonnet Greenway which helps nourish and distinguish our island community."

The O'Neill property expands ALT conserved lands off Berkeley Avenue, as it abuts two of ALT's conserved properties, Newport Vineyards and Winery and Sweet Berry Farm.  The 8.23 acres is recognized as having the classifications of United States Department of Agriculture "Prime Farmland Soils" and "Additional Farmland of Statewide Importance Soils" and can also provide future agricultural activities of the area, according to an ALT release. 

The parcel is also contiguous with a section of the Maidford River and will help serve as a buffer to stormwater runoff for the Aquidneck Island waterway, the report continued.  The new conservation easement, a legal agreement between a landowner and the non-profit ALT, establishes an official 250-foot wide "Habitat and Maidford River Buffer Area" and provides for agricultural activities to continue on the remaining areas within the 8.23-acre parcel. The agreement restricts certain future activities on the land aimed at protecting the land's wildlife habitat, agricultural soils, scenic vistas, and other conservation components, but allows the landowner to continue owning the land, ALT officials said.

As part of the ALT's Sakonnet Greenway, the O'Neill property runs along eastern Aquidneck Island south of Glen Road in Portsmouth to Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge in Middletown. 

The ALT organization said in its statement that it perceives "fragmentation of agricultural land, caused primarily by development" as "one of the greatest threats to agricultural viability in New England."

In addition to other conservation lands, ALT's Sakonnet Greenway contains about 30 properties, totaling over 1,200 acres, conserved by the organization. A greenway is defined as an area with a critical mass of nearby and connected open spaces which provides community benefits such as wildlife habitat corridors, scenic vistas, and recreational spaces for such activities as hiking trails, as well as serves to protect water supplies and agricultural corridors. 

To see the location of the Sakonnet Greenway on a map, please click here. 

The most recent addition of the O'Neill property easement means that the non-profit ALT organization to date has conserved about 2,298.8 acres on Aquidneck Island.  For more information, visit www.AquidneckLandTrust.org.