A Triple Win for Rural New England
Ample Housing, Thriving Forests, and a Healthy Economy
Editor’s Note: This article is drawn from the paper Forestland Conservation and Housing: An Environmental, Economic, and Community Triple Win for Rural New England, a project led by The Nature Conservancy in Maine and authored primarily by Jennifer Dann, Connor Horton, Vanessa Komada, and Dayea Shim. To read the full paper and engage in convening around this work, visit www.localwoodworks.org/why. – Brian Donahue
Small cluster in Massachusetts: Three units of housing (plus barns) on four acres, 167 acres of farmland and woodlands protected. Woodlot on the hill provided building materials for the new house and renovation of the old house. Photo © Brian Donahue
Conservation land trusts have always been devoted to saving land from development. But because some development is inevitable (and often desirable), carefully shaping and guiding it can help determine the long-term success of conservation. One guiding principle is to cluster human infrastructure at every scale—the region, the town, the individual property—so that in the end, more open space can be protected. This is a key component of what is commonly called “smart growth.”
The principle of smart growth is more than spatial—it cuts to the heart of community. It is not just a question of where development occurs, but also what kind. The mission of land conservation must evolve to not just reluctantly accommodate development, but to actively encourage it where communities need and want it. Coordinating development with land conservation can offer great synergies, and can yield benefits for both people and ecological systems.
“Land trusts can score a climate, economy, and community triple win for rural New England: advancing climate forestry; growing local wood economies; and revitalizing rural communities with housing and access to nature for all to enjoy.”
No place exemplifies the necessity of this evolution and coordination more than rural New England. While the region’s population is not growing rapidly as a whole, and many communities are actually losing population, some rural towns are seeing strong in-migration (by those who can afford it) from urban areas—driven by the pandemic, climate change, and an understandable desire to live closer to nature. The resulting low-density development is a well-known threat to New England’s landscape, as fragmentation and conversion undermine both the ecological integrity and effective management of farms and forests. This sprawl also undermines the viability of communities themselves, because it does not provide existing residents with adequate opportunities for employment and housing.
Housing needs in rural New England face a daunting set of challenges. Older residents have few attractive local retirement options and so often age in place, even if they would choose not to, often tying up larger homes that might have become available for younger working families. Meanwhile, an older, deteriorating housing stock becomes more expensive to restore. Houses and land are snapped up by urban migrants and investors in seasonal rentals and vacation homes, driving up prices. And many developers find it easier to navigate and profit from the upscale, single-family market than the sorely-needed denser, smaller-scale housing.
Proposed Building Unit Needs by 2030 in northern New England. Image courtesy of Local Wood Works
In response, conservation organizations are coming to realize that they are well positioned to help communities rebuild and retain their character, promoting protected landscapes and land for needed housing. Land trusts have connections with landowners; the trust of their communities; and the skills, tools, and landscape-scale vision to analyze the diverse conservation and development values of properties. They can partner with community land trusts and housing organizations that have the complementary skills to take on the leadership of building and managing housing, and can help coordinate complex real estate deals involving multiple partners and sources of funding.
“The principle of smart growth is more than spatial—it cuts to the heart of community.”
Land trusts can also lead by practicing and promoting climate forestry and sustainable wood harvesting on their own protected land. The region’s forests, through a mixture of wild reserves and actively managed woodlands, can sequester and store carbon both on the ground and in long-lasting wood products while also serving other environmental goals, including biodiversity protection; water quality enhancement; and public access to recreation, scenery, and wildlife. Land trusts can be sustainable wood suppliers themselves, and through partnerships can influence the utilization of local wood in the construction of housing. Tying sustainable wood production as directly as possible to the construction of local housing helps support employment for foresters, loggers, processors, and tradespeople, while also providing accessible housing for that workforce.
Image courtesy of Local Wood Works
No single magic solution can close the widening gap between what it costs to build a decent house and what the average household can afford to spend. But land trusts can offer a part of the solution by working with housing organizations to help identify appropriate sites for housing—especially in existing developed areas and where housing might be appropriate as part of a larger conservation project. They can help with another part by making connections between sustainable forestry and local construction. By actively pursuing these goals as necessary parts of their mission, land trusts can score a climate, economy, and community triple win for rural New England: advancing climate forestry; growing local wood economies; and revitalizing rural communities with housing and access to nature for all to enjoy.
Photo © Faith Rand
Brian Donahue is Professor Emeritus of American Environmental Studies at Brandeis University, and a farm and forest policy consultant. He co-founded and for 12 years directed Land’s Sake, a nonprofit community farm in Weston, Massachusetts, and now co-owns and manages a farm in western Massachusetts. He sits on the boards of the Massachusetts Woodland Institute, the Friends of Spannocchia, and Franklin Land Trust. Brian is author of Reclaiming the Commons: Community Farms and Forests in a New England Town (1999), The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord (2004), and Slow Wood: Greener Building from Local Forests (2024). He is co-author of Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities (2017) and A New England Food Vision (2014).