McCray's Farmland to Be Preserved

While trawling through the Republican's archives for articles about local land conservation and related topics, I stumbled across this piece about conservation in South Hadley from June 2009.

McCray's farm has long been the last dairy farm in South Hadley (to put this in some perspective, only 50 years ago there were 10), and years ago they diversified their farming "portfolio" to include a miniature golf course, a creamery, a zoo, and seasonal hay rides.

The McCrays are trying to put 95 acres of their land into a state preservation program, to keep it as is (farmland) in perpetuity. It's about time that more land in this still somewhat rustic part of town got preserved. Much of the surrounding land has been developed in the past 15 to 20 years, mostly with hideous McMansions (who thinks these beastly things are attractive?), but it used to be stunning--picturesque fields rolling all the way to the river. (Across the river in Holyoke, there is still a sign on I-91 for a place to pull over for a "scenic view"--this is the land that McCray partly owns. Much of hasn't been scenic for years.)

Here's to hoping this plan goes through (if it hasn't already!).