Religious Communities Protect Land

EARTHKEEPING NEWS
A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY

Volume Nine, Number Six
September/October 2000

Religious Communities Protect Land, Resist Sprawl

Genesis Farm, NJ

Genesis Farm, founded in 1980 by the Dominican Sisters of Caldwell, NJ, comprises 226 acres of woods, wetlands, and tillable land (45 acres). The Farm was incorporated in 1988, and the Sisters created a separate not-for-profit educational corporation (for Earth Literacy) in 1992.

In 1998, the New Jersey Farmland Preservation Program, a state-funded open space effort, purchased the development rights (PDR) on 140 acres, thus protecting the land from development in perpetuity. Genesis Farm is now in conversation with the state-funded Green Acres program for the purchase of the development rights on the remaining 86 acres.

Genesis Farm's Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA) has been in operation since 1988. There are approximately 200 families who have full or half shares in the project. It has initiated a small cheese and bread co-op with 3 local producers, in order to support and expand the marketing of goods for all involved.

Sr. Miriam MacGillis says, "Genesis Farm is partnering with others who wish to preserve, expand, and broaden the agricultural viability of the region. This new venture, The Great Limestone Valley Food Shed, is committed to a broad-based effort to prevent the mindless sprawl which is inching its way here. By calling together farmers, retailers, food processors, land conservancies, and watershed organizations, we hope to launch an educational process that can touch all segments of our towns and communities to focus on the potential we have to model a viable and ecologically sound food source and watershed for the future."

From Sr. Miriam MacGillis, Director,
Genesis Farm, 41A Silver lake Road,
Blairstown NJ 07825;
908/362-6735; fax 908/362-9389;

St. Joseph, MN

Since the early 1900s, the residential and commercial development of the growing city of St. Joseph has steadily encircled the Monastery of the Sisters of the Order of St. Benedict in central Minnesota. Monastery farm operations had to close, and the question arose -- would they have to sell off more land to developers to meet their own needs?

However, as property manager Sister Phyllis Plantenberg states, "Within the monastery a growing sense arose that practicality had to be set aside and discussions that sprang from our monastic heart, and the heart of the Gospel, had to begin."

In the 1990s the Sisters sold 80 acres of wetland to the Sand Prairie Wildlife Management Area in Sherbourne County, with technical assistance from the Department of Natural Resources. For the last seven years, the community has maintained a CSA garden with 30 subscribers, and supported the St. Joseph Farmers' Market. In 1999 they secured a perpetual conservation easement for 26.5 acres through the Minnesota Land Trust (MLT). The easement, now owned by a St. Cloud hospital as Oak Savannah Park and monitored by the MLT, stipulates that it will remain untouched by development of any kind.

From Sister Phyllis Plantenberg,
St. Benedict's Monastery,
104 Chapel Lane, St. Joseph MN 56374;
320/363-7101; pplantenberg@csbsju.edu

St. Paul, MN

In the early 1960s the Sisters of the Order of St. Benedict purchased 80 acres of undeveloped land in Maplewood, an inner-ring suburb of St. Paul MN. They planned to build a monastery, a junior college and a retirement home. They built the monastery, but the 37 acres reserved for the other buildings remained in woods and prairie. Developers made repeated offers for the property. The Sisters were torn between protecting their retirement fund and protecting the natural beauty of their surroundings.

In 1996 help came from The Trust for Public Land (TPL). TPL facilitated the sale of the property to the City of Maplewood. An independent poll of Maplewood residents revealed that they wanted more open space, and would be willing to pay for it. They subsequently voted a property tax increase of $26 per year to finance the acquisition.

From Sr. Duane Moes, Treasurer,
St. Paul's Monastery,
2675 Larpenteur Ave, East, St. Paul MN 55109;
651/777-8181.