The apple trees on the Hermann Orchard town conservation land will remain for now, but deciding how to best manage the property amid competing priorities has not been as simple as it might have seemed decades earlier.
In 1976, when the Conservation Commission asked the town to buy the 38-acre hillside orchard land that lies between Ayer Road and Littleton Road, the Harvard Post reported the proposed purchase as a new town approach to preserving open space that included preserving Harvard’s farmland. The town would hold the land, but Bill Hermann, founder of Westward Orchards, would continue to grow apples there without a tax burden.
A 1970s move to preserve farmland
According to the Post report, Harvard had lost 2,000 of its 4,500 acres of farmland since 1950, and the pace of development was expected to continue pressure on remaining agricultural land. One commissioner predicted that rising energy prices and the cost of transportation would eventually enable New England truck farms to compete with California and the Midwest farms and “make it possible for young people to continue farming in Harvard in the future.”
But Harvard’s development has doubled since 1976. The large Watt Dairy in Still River closed, and Harvard’s few remaining farm families worry about the future fate of their farms. At the same time, in a less visible fashion, diverse wildlife habitats have also diminished, taking plants and wildlife with them.
Hermann and later his son-in-law Don Green maintained the conservation orchard for many years, but the land is now fallow and the trees being overtaken by invasive bittersweet and multiflora roses. None of Harvard’s main apple growers wants to keep it productive, even with no land costs.
A home for diverse species and native plants
The property is a mix of orchard, wetlands, and white pine woods, partially encircled by Bowers Brook, and has problematic access for human visitors. Its isolated location and multiple habitats make it home to diverse species of wildlife and noninvasive plants that are also threatened by advancing development.
Managing the town’s 1,738 acres of conservation land falls to the seven-member Conservation Commission with assistance from its Land Stewardship Subcommittee. The commission is also charged with protecting the town’s water and other natural resources.
For a few years, the Land Stewardship Subcommittee has been studying how to best manage the old orchard and balance the priorities of agriculture, resource management, public access, and costs. It has consulted with Mass. Fish and Wildlife, local growers, and other experts. The committee has explored possible land use scenarios, along with their costs and feasibility. But it is not yet ready to make a proposal to the Conservation Commission.
Shaw makes an offer
Last year, in the midst of this planning process, longtime resident Tony Shaw, owner of Toreku Tractor and Equipment, proposed turning the orchard into a hayfield. He was asked to wait while the Land Stewardship Subcommittee continued its work.
Shaw reopened his request this December, when he offered to remove the old apple trees for $4,550, half of what he estimated the job would cost, in exchange for the right to use the land for a hayfield for 10 years. He also said he would amend the Bridle Way access road, a narrow right of way whose difficult opening on Ayer Road may have been one of the reasons Green stopped using the orchard. The Conservation Commission agreed to give Shaw a response at its Feb. 6 meeting.
All commissioners at last week’s Conservation Commission meeting agreed that the old orchard needed attention and that farming on the land was a viable option. But giving Shaw a reply proved difficult while the Land Stewardship’s group was unfinished.
It was not only difficult but frustrating, so much so that Conservation Commission Chairman Paul Willard finally walked out of the meeting as the commission inched its way to giving Shaw a decision.
“Please, somebody make a motion,” he said. “Yea or nay. Please, somebody.”
For Willard the issue was simpler than for others. “Either you want a hayfield there or you don’t,” he told the other commissioners.
A hayfield as Shaw was proposing is different from a meadow field like the one on the Williams Land on Stow Road, which is cut in late summer. An active hayfield is seeded and cultivated. It is cut two or three times a year, beginning in June, when nesting birds and other wildlife are using it for protection for their young. The majority of commissioners appeared to lean away from committing to a hayfield.
Not ready to act
Commissioner and Land Stewardship Subcommittee chairwoman Wendy Sisson saw two other objections. She said the commission had rejected a similar proposal in the past from an abutter rather than be indebted to an individual who had contributed funding. She also said the narrow Bridle Way access was not adequate for farm equipment. It crossed more than 100 feet of wetlands and a small brook and would require Wetland Protection Act permitting to modify at significant cost.
The meeting adjourned immediately after Willard’s 9:30 p.m. departure, but the direction was clear. The majority of the commissioners were not ready to turn the orchard over to Shaw. The lack of a formal decision appeared to give Shaw as much an answer as an up or down vote.
