Land Protection

The FRCC will sometimes offer financial assistance for projects that help protect important parcels of land, usually with frontage on the Farmington River. Projects typically include one or more of these criteria:

• is located in wild and scenic towns (Barkhamsted, Canton, Colebrook, Hartland, or New Hartford)
• is threatened by development
• has landowners willing to conserve their properties
• has particular features that are important to Wild & Scenic/Outstanding Resource Values (wildlife habitat, recreational access, historic/cultural, ridgelines, scenic landscapes)
• has high quality native species communities (plant or wildlife)
• is currently unprotected open space
• connects to larger parcels of protected land
• will increase vegetated buffer between development and the river
• has water features – tributary to Farmington River, ponds, wetlands

FRCC Land Protection Program

FRCC supports conservation and restoration of the river as well as land protection within the five riverfront towns along the Upper Wild & Scenic Farmington River, as well as upstream in Winchester.

FRCC’s Land Protection Program supports Land Trusts in Barkhamsted, Canton, Colebrook, Hartland, and New Hartford that are working towards acquiring important watershed land as well as the Winchester Land Trust for property that protects waterways that flow into the Upper Farmington River.

• Download the FRCC’s Land Protection Policies and Criteria and application

FRCC has helped many of its member towns update their Natural Resource Inventory to be included in the Town Plan of Conservation and Development.

FRCC has provided grants to the North Wood Land Conservancy, Winchester Land Trust, Canton Land Conservancy, New Hartford Land Trust, and the Colebrook Land Conservancy to help protect important watershed lands.

Mill District Nature Preserve – Hartland Land Trust’s newly acquired land: