Saratoga PLAN has added another plot of land to its growing conservation effort, the acquisition will preserve farmland in one of the fastest growing parts of New York.
Don Butler grew up on his family’s farm in Northumberland. He moved there when he was 7 years old, when the large red barn with 1887 written on the slate roof was still the primary barn on the property.
In the proceeding years, a lot has changed. The Butler Family Farm moved on from a milking operation, reducing their 60 dairy cattle herd to just three beef heifers today.
These days, the farm primarily produces dry hay for nearby cattle farms.
Butler says farming is still prevalent, it’s just been largely consolidated – it can be tough for small farms to survive.
“The farms have gotten bigger. There's fewer of them, but bigger. There's probably more cows and more milk produced than ever, you know. But you take from Gansevoort, which would be the town of Moreau, down through the town of Northumberland and into the town of Saratoga. It's still very agricultural here,” said Butler.
Their total farmland measures around 250 acres, but as of last week, 75 acres were entered into a conservation easement with Saratoga PLAN – the nonprofit boasts more than 14,000 conserved acres.
With the addition of the Butler’s plot, Saratoga PLAN says it’s protected more than 540 acres in Northumberland alone.
Butler says he’s happy to see the land protected for future farm use.
“I do not believe in putting solar on farmable good land. I think it's a huge mistake that the state is making right now,” said Butler.
Saratoga County is one of the few areas of New York that has seen consistent growth: according to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the decade between 2015 and 2025, the county's population grew by 6.7%.
“We get nearly weekly solicitations for solar farms, and occasional solicitations for development. And this this property, 75 acres, it has road frontage on town roads, Stonebridge Road, but it also has a lane that goes back in at a 90-degree angle, which is a public road. So, it ends up having a lot of road frontage, in which, for a developer, that's gravy,” said Butler.
Butler’s daughter, Holly Rippon-Butler, is the farm’s third-generation caretaker. She also works as an independent consultant with organizations focused on helping farmers succeed and access land.
“These conservation easements are one tool in the toolbox that can lower the value of land, can make it more in line with what your business plan as a farmer would generate in terms of income, and can make it possible for you to get financing to purchase the land or to be able to buy it if that land is really set at its agricultural value, and you're not having to compete against buyers who want to use it for other purposes and have access to more resources,” said Rippon-Butler.
She's familiar enough with using conservation easements to make farming more accessing to younger and more diverse groups, so getting to enact one on her own family’s land is significant.
“There's really a disconnect between a farm business plan and the income that you can generate growing agricultural products, or even the money that you can save while employed in farming and learning how to farm and gaining the skills are really disconnected from the kind of resources that you would need to get a mortgage or be able to put a down payment down on a farm or to buy farmland in areas that are close to markets and have high quality soils and you know, have the infrastructure that farmers need,” said Rippon-Butler.
The now-protected land was floated as a potential site for a municipal dump in 1998, the year Holly was born. Her mom, Gwenne Rippon, says it’s a relief to have the land protected.
“I watched Don’s parents sacrificing to keep the farm all these years and I just vowed to myself to do everything I could to make sure the land stayed in farming,” said Rippon.
