OUR HISTORY

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Our Origin

The Valley Community Land Trust (VCLT) began as a study group in 1975 and incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit on July 22, 1977.

See the Pre VCLT Brochure 1976 and 1977, Brochure 1977, Press 

The original founders consisted of war tax resisters with roots at Woolman Hill. The original co-founding members included Randy Kehler, Betsy Corner, Juanita and Wally Nelson. (Insert photo of founders and link out to accomplishments)

VCLT was the first CLT in Massachusetts, and among the first handful in the country. Other community land trusts had formed nearby in Windham County, Vermont (Earthbridge CLT), Worchester County MA, plus a dozen or so in other states.

Originally, VCLT aimed to serve both Franklin and Hampshire County. At this time of its creation, the land conservation movement was in the early days of the movement. Pathways for land conservation such as Chapter 61 enabling protections for farms and forest land were emerging in the state legislature in 1978. VCLT’s founding preceded the APR program, and as farmland was being rapidly lost in Hampshire and Franklin County, the idea of holding land in trusteeship had a lot of resonance.

VCLT acquired its first land in Colrain on June 5,1978 - a beautiful 130 acre farm on Shearer Road in Colrain (announced in Newsletter #7).

A year later, VCLT acquired its second land in Colrain for 68 acres on Shelburne Line Road in Colrain for $52,000 with low and no interest unsecured loans and donations (announced in the 1979 Fall Newsletter).

Please read more about our leaseholds on “our land” page including:

  • 2 leaseholds acquired in Wendell in 1983 through a below market sale
  • 1 leasehold acquired in Ashfield in 1989 through a land gift
  • 1 leasehold acquired in Greenfield in 1993
  • 3 leaseholds acquired in Colrain in 2016 partially financed by the sale of the original Colrain parcel in 2012
  • 3 leaseholds acquired in Greenfield in 2024 through community donations, partnership with a developer, and the remainder of VCLT’s property acquisition fund. 

(Note to potentially add: wider context in the valley – pioneer cooperative of franklin county, greenfield area clt, holyoke clt, grounded solutions, institute for community economics, voluntown, earthbridge, schumacher? Refer to An Act of Conscience featuring Valley Community Land Trust? value?)

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