The Aquidneck Land Trust has received another
$100,000 commitment towards its effort to conserve about 125 acres
of the Farmscapes Holdings, LLC property on Wapping Road in
Portsmouth. On August 25, 2006, the Land Trust signed an option
agreement with Farmscapes Holdings, LLC to purchase a perpetual
conservation restriction on the approximate 125 acres. Under the
terms of the option agreement, acquired by the Land Trust for
$70,000, the organization will have two years to raise $3,000,000 to
purchase the permanent conservation restriction. Not long after the
Land Trust received a generous and visionary $100,000 grant award
for the project from The Loebs Family Foundation in September, the
Gewirz family recognized the importance of the effort and stepped
forward to support the Land Trust by making another $100,000
leadership commitment to the initiative.
Regarding the project and grant award, Jonathan
Gewirz stated, ‘The Land Trust brings together like-minded people who
wish to protect the unique and natural character of Aquidneck Island.
These are folks who appreciate farms and greenspace, vistas and
habitats. They are also people who appreciate conscientious planning
and sustainable growth. “In all things a balance.” We feel it is
important to support such thinking because our lives are so influenced
by this island.’
“We are
very grateful to the Gewirz family for this major financial commitment
to our effort and for their consistent support of land conservation on
Aquidneck Island. When we entered the $3,000,000 option agreement for
this important conservation project on August 25th we knew
it was the beginning of a lot of hard work and fundraising. The
outcome is still uncertain as we have a lot of work and fundraising
yet to do, which will require financial contributions from many at all
levels, but the Gewirz family has done a terrific job helping us get
closer to our goal.” said Ted Clement, Executive Director for the
Aquidneck Land Trust.
In 2004, the Aquidneck Land Trust completed a
comprehensive mapping and prioritization project that identified and
scored over 500 threatened open space parcels on Aquidneck Island.
From that work, over 100 priority parcels for protection were
identified, one of which was the Farmscapes Holdings, LLC property.
