From Camping to Organic Farming
By
Shary Skoloff, Pennsylvania/New York Landowner
As far back as I can remember, the woods have held an irresistible
allure for me. It was the 100 acres of forest, along with 100 acres of
pastures and cultivatable land, that captivated my husband, Gary, and me
forty-five years ago and led to the impulsive purchase that changed our
lives. From our original intent to camp and simply enjoy the natural
habitat of the overgrown old dairy farm in Susquehanna, PA, we poured
our hearts and souls, not to mention physical work, into developing what
is now a certified organic produce farm with a 60-member CSA and
presence at two farmers’ markets.
The
land, along with another 100 acres of hayfield, woods, and berry bushes
2-1/2 miles up the road in NY, is preserved under a conservation
easement donated to the
Delaware Highlands Conservancy in 2007.
We don’t ”manage” our woods, but maintain their natural state as a
sanctuary for birds, bear, deer, and many small mammals and plants, a
wildlife corridor adjoining 10,000 acres of PA state game land. All we
remove is fallen limbs and downed trees for firewood.
For the first few years, we camped at the edge of the woods while
starting to reclaim the land, build farm infrastructure, and remove
rocks, rocks, and more rocks for our first garden. From the beginning,
we also hiked through the woods with our infant daughter aboard Gary’s
back, to be joined a year later by a second daughter and a dog.
After several years of tenting, we built a small log cabin near one
of the two streams that meander through our woods and fields. A more
recent addition affords woodland vistas, with a tree-house-like master
bedroom, overlooking surrounding tree-tops and mixed hemlock and
hardwood forest across the stream.
During our daughters' youth, when they weren't helping with garden
work, animal care, and haying, they and friends were free to explore the
woods, build thatched forts out of fallen tree limbs and grasses, catch
salamanders and toads, and learn to identify wildflowers, mosses,
ferns, fungi, and other woodland flora and fauna. They grew up with a
love of and respect for nature that we shared as a family and that they
have passed on to their sons. It’s a joy to watch our grandsons playing
in the same streams and woods that their mothers enjoyed as children.
I’ve also loved solo woodland walks and horseback rides, finding a
nurturing solitude that balances life in a crazy world. For me, time in
our woods, especially with my camera, is a meditation, as it is for Gary
when he is piling fallen limbs into “habitats” for small wildlife and
raking leaves for compost.
With our property preserved as a working farm/agricultural and
environmental education center, we envision programs to help remedy
“nature-deficit disorder,” so responsible for environmental degradation.
Trees are the keystone, for all of life depends upon the oxygen/carbon
dioxide cycle that would not exist without them.
The legacy that we have long envisioned as our gift to future
generations has been partially fulfilled. The land has been protected
from development. The farm business has been passed on to a young couple
who have expanded its potential with their ideas and hard work, sharing
our land ethic and vision for the future. We are planning to gift
ownership of the land to a protective organization, retaining a small
portion to be passed on to our children and grandchildren, and granting a
land lease to the farmers. Some educational programs and nature hikes
have been held for the public, and we’ve met with university faculty to
explore making the farm available for student research in the natural
sciences.
Rachel Carson, in her inspiring book of photographs and text,
A Sense of Wonder,
wrote: "If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to
preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift
to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that
it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the
boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation
with things artificial, the alienation from the sources of our
strength.”
As much as her contributions to creating an awareness of the dangers
of pesticides and other hazards to the environment, Carson’s legacy was
her sense of wonder. It is that sense of wonder that has infused our
45-year odyssey on our farm as we have nurtured and stewarded and
protected it...and even more, as it has nurtured us, our children and
grandchildren, and many others who have visited, all of us finding
refuge from the tumultuous world that the 21st century has become. On a
recent hike, our 13-year old grandson, Aiden, said with awe: “Grandma,
you and Poppa have protected so much land and so many animals! If only
fracking doesn’t destroy it.” That “if only” is the biggest threat to
the legacy we hope to leave to future generations. Whether our dream is
fully realized or is shattered by the reality of pipelines and fracking
targeting our area remains to be seen. Our efforts to prevent it,
successful or not, will become part of our legacy as well.
For more about protecting your land, conservation easements and
leaving land as a legacy, visit the Land Trust Alliance website (www.landtrustalliance.org).
