As The Water Flows: Jordan Lane Farm

While her property is first and foremost considered a farm to owner Betsy Speeter, the DLC became aware that the property constitutes 25 percent of the Village of Pine Plain’s designated wellhead protection zone. It was clear that this land, with its nearly 40 acres of wetlands that play a crucial role in water quality protection, should be preserved. Development of the land in the wrong way could lead to potential pollution of the Village’s water system. 

The property became a top contender for funding from New York State DEC’s new Water Quality Improvement Program and Jordan Lane Farm became one of projects selected to receive funds in the first round of this program. Matched by grants from Dutchess County with assistance through the Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation, the protection of this land became a reality.

“Jordan Lane has been in my family for almost 200 years. I grew up there as did my grandfather and his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents before him,” begins Betsy Speeter, who represents the eighth generation to steward the farm’s 155 acres in Pine Plains. Having spent her formative years at the farm, Betsy was instilled with a deep connection to the land and the ambition not merely to keep the property in active agriculture, but to protect and preserve it in perpetuity. The DLC was able to help her realize her desire by purchasing the farm’s development rights, ensuring her family’s farming legacy continues for generations to come. “It gives me great peace to know that it will remain a farm forever,” she says. “Thank you, DLC.”

The preservation of Betsy’s farm creates a contiguous block of land protected by the DLC: some 5,000 acres of active farmland.