Finding A Balance Between Farming And Habitat

By Kendra Bobowick

A Conservation Commission seminar in late March got people thinking about meadow habitat, and more recently, the High Meadow in Fairfield Hills.

In a letter to the editor that appeared in The Newtown Bee dated March 30, resident Dottie Evans wrote, “The High Meadow trail crosses a rare open field habitat of the sort that is fast disappearing from our New England landscape … The sad fact is that meadows and the species that depend upon them are in severe decline all across the state. The cause is usually one of two things: development or untimely mowing.”

She names the many forms of life both thriving and nesting there, which are interrupted when the grasses are cut down. She wrote: “Huge machines arrive in June and in two or three afternoons cut everything down to the ground. Suddenly there are no bobolinks, meadowlarks or monarchs. No milkweed nurseries for the monarchs. No dragonflies plying the midair zone over grassy slopes. No swallows swooping low to catch insects. Only stubble as far as the eye can see.”

She asks, “Why mow the High Meadow so soon?” And she ends with an appeal: “Please revisit the mowing schedule.”

What Ms Evans and others may not know is that the mowing is not random, or conducted by town crews. It is contracted out to farmers who rely on the hay for their livelihood.

Director of Economic and Community Development Elizabeth Stocker, who serves as a liaison between area farmers who hay the High Meadow and other locations on and around Fairfield Hills, offered some answers.

Noting that the topic “could be open to discussion,” most likely through the first selectman’s office, right now the town’s arrangement with the farmers “is a mutual benefit.” While the farmers continue the land’s historical agricultural uses, the fields are also maintained “at no cost to us,” Ms Stocker explained. The town would need to budget the land’s care if it were maintained in some other way, she said.

Agricultural heritage and those who make their living off the land are also important, Ms Stocker agreed, saying, “Certain lands are key to that.” Since habitat is an important issue also, Ms Stocker said, “I am not sure of answers or solutions.”

Conservation Commission Chairman Mary Gaudet-Wilson had also made some inquiries about the High Meadow and also learned “there were benefits to the farmer, but as a conservationist I would love to see that schedule change.” Mowing too soon “is not the best thing to do for the wildlife or the meadow,” she said.

Middlebury farmer Mike DeSantis hays the High Meadow. “It’s how I make my living,” he said. He hays late May or early June for the hay’s best quality. “I rely on that quite a bit, nobody wants lousy hay,” he said. Livestock, mostly horses, and many in Newtown, use his hay. “It stays right here,” he said. He has been doing the Fairfield Hills field for roughly 13 years. “Farming is in the family,” he said.

Local farm owner Stephen Paproski of Castle Hill Farm knows the value of good hay, but is also aware of sensitivities to wildlife. He said, “Number one, if you wait for monarchs, etc to leave, the quality of the hay has gone. You need to cut the first of June, it’s prime time, and the older it gets the worse it gets.” Untended fields will eventually be home to invasives. Mr Paproski said, “If you don’t mow, you end up with bittersweet, multiflora rose, etc.”

He is also aware that while “you can’t make everybody happy,” there are groups such as the Newtown Forest Association paying attention to meadow habitats, he said.

On his own farm property, notable for its autumn hayrides and pumpkin patch along Route 302, he sees monarchs, etc. “They are wonderful, it’s true; we have the milkweed, too, we try to save all that. It’s nice to have a little of everything.”