Finalists Selected for New England Leopold Conservation Award

The finalists are:

• Guy Choiniere of Highgate Center, Vermont. Choiniere Family Farm embraces conservation practices that build healthy soils and protect water quality. The certified-organic dairy farm uses an innovative compost bedding system for its grass-fed cattle. In addition to a 50-foot vegetated buffer along the farm’s frontage with the Rock River, Choiniere has planted 5,000 trees to reduce soil erosion. Keeping nutrients on the farm and out of the river, benefits water quality and the farm’s financial viability.
• Steve and Lora Goss of Pike, New Hampshire. StoneFen Farm uses regenerative grazing and stockpiling practices to raise grass-fed beef cattle. They worked with federal, state and local conservation agencies to reduce runoff into the Connecticut River by installing grassed waterways and concrete low-water crossings. They used prescribed thinning and harvesting to create a productive forest. The couple, who farm with their son and his wife, also have planted habitat for pollinator insects.
• Bill Hull of Pomfret Center, Connecticut. Hull is a leader in forest management, timber harvesting, and the manufacturing and marketing of wood products. He has pieced together an extensive land holding in multiple states since buying his first woodlot as a teen. He founded Hull Forest Products, Inc. whose mission is to preserve working forests, grow trees, and manufacture wood products and sustainable building materials. His forests provide bird and wildlife habitat, and stimulate the rural economy.
• Perry Raso of South Kingstown, Rhode Island. Raso operates Matunuck Oyster Farm and Matunuck Vegetable Farm, which supply his restaurant, Matunuck Oyster Bar. Raso, who began growing oysters in coastal waters on a one-acre farm, has opened a shellfish hatchery on property. He educates others on the environmental benefits that shellfish aquaculture. Oysters remove nitrogen-containing particles from water, which increases the oxygen available for other living things.
• Linda Rinta of West Wareham, Massachusetts. Rinta grows cranberries, blueberries and beachgrass at her family’s third generation farm. Water usage has been reduced on her farm with a renovated irrigation system. She has advocated for providing pollinator habitat beside cranberry bogs and solar arrays. Rinta raises honey bees and has planted acres of habitat for insect pollinators and native bees. Cape American Beachgrass is grown as a nursery product on the farm’s wetlands and sandy areas.

Earlier this year, owners of forestland and farmland in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont were encouraged to apply (or be nominated) for the award. Applications were reviewed by an independent panel of agricultural and forestry conservation leaders.

The New England Leopold Conservation Award is made possible through the generous support of New England Forestry Foundation, American Farmland Trust-New England, The John Merck Fund, The Ida and Robert Gordon Family Foundation, Wildlands and Woodlands, Whole Foods Market, David and Ann Ingram, and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Sand County Foundation presents the Leopold Conservation Award^® annually in 20 states with a variety of conservation, agricultural and forestry organizations.

For more information on the award, visit www.leopoldconservaitonaward.org.