Our Mission Statement
Hilltown Land Trust protects land and promotes ecological diversity and health, respectful land stewardship, historic character, and natural beauty in our hilltowns.
What Does Hilltown Land Trust Do?
Hilltown Land Trust works to conserve ecologically important wildlands, economically and culturally important working lands, and the scenic beauty and rural character of the hilltowns in our 13-town service area. Our service area includes Ashfield, Chester, Chesterfield, Conway, Cummington, Goshen, Huntington, Middlefield, Plainfield, Westhampton, Williamsburg, Windsor, and Worthington. Since our founding in 1986 as a local, all-volunteer land trust, we have acquired 34 conservation restrictions (CRs) covering over 2,500 acres in our service area, with more projects currently in the works. We have also acquired and then sold to the state three agricultural preservation restrictions (APRs) on 468 acres of Worthington farmland.
HLT owns nine properties: two in Williamsburg on which we maintain hiking trails, two in Worthington wetlands which we plan to leave undisturbed, another forested property in Worthington on which we plan to develop a small trail, three contiguous properties on the Huntington-Westhampton border, and a forested property on Hanging Mountain in Westhampton. This large protected area includes extensive hiking trails, an area managed as a sustainable forestry project, and an undisturbed area reserved for wildlife. You can learn more by visiting our Protected Lands page.
Our project committee and Executive Director work with landowners to develop conservation restrictions on their land and lead them through the process of permanent protection. If you think you may be interested in working with HLT to protect your property, please contact our Executive Director, Sally Loomis.
To learn more about our work and vision, read our Seven-Year Strategic Plan: 2016-2023.
Visualize the region we serve with the Protected Lands in Hilltown Land Trust’s Service Area map.
