When Courtney Stevens stands at the edge of her family’s blueberry farm, Wilmot Orchards, in Newcastle, Ont., and looks across Highway 115, the view is not what it once was. Gone are the fields and trees that used to be fertile farmland — now, it’s bulldozers and rooftops.
“There’s a lot of development happening in our community, and much of it is on farmland,” said Stevens, who is also chief creative officer at the orchards. “We've had developers come to our door with offers to buy our farm for housing development — but that’s never been something we were interested in.”
To ensure their farm remains farmland forever, last week the Stevens family signed a 999-year conservation easement agreement with the Ontario Farmland Trust — a legal safeguard that blocks non-agricultural use, no matter who owns the land in future.
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