“Letting the land thrive”: Conservation protects family history, important ecosystems
For Scott Bassage and Charlotte Hanna, conserving 223 acres in East Calais was a way to honor decades of family history and ensure the land remains forested for generations to come.
Scott’s connection to the property began in 1952 when his parents purchased an abandoned hill farm that the family visited in the summer. “It was a wonderful place for me, my cousins, and my sister to grow up,” he said. “We tried to become familiar with every single tree in the place.”
In the 1980s, Scott’s parents passed the land down to him. Over the years, Scott and Charlotte made the land their home and maintained five acres of pasture near their farmhouse for grazing animals, including horses. They also expanded the original parcel, by purchasing a few neighboring lots, into the larger tract they care for today.
Charlotte said they have a low-impact approach to tending the land. The couple collects just enough firewood to heat their home and lets the rest of the land thrive, including northern hardwood forest, three vernal pools, cedar swamp, ledges, and wetlands shaped by busy beavers. “They’re the real developers here,” Scott chuckled.
The importance of forest and wetlands
The couple recently donated a conservation easement on their land to VLT, ensuring it will remain in its natural state forever.
“I’ve known this land all my life, and I love the idea that it will be undisturbed,” Scott said.
The project was made possible in part by a significant contribution from the Town of Calais’s conservation fund, which has supported a dozen projects since the 1980s. This is the largest forested property the town’s conservation fund has helped protect. The project also aligns with Vermont’s goal to conserve 30% of its land by 2030, a vision supported by the Town of Calais and its Conservation Commission.
Larry Bush, chair of the commission, emphasized the project’s significance to the community: “Everyone agreed this is a good thing for Calais.”
Scott and Charlotte’s land neighbors Hoolie Flats Farm, another conserved property, creating a 350-acre corridor of protected land along Pekin Brook and one of its major tributaries. The conservation easement designates water protection areas along the stream, to ensure the banks will remain forested, protecting water quality and boosting flood resilience downstream.
Several other ecologically sensitive areas on the property also have additional protections under the easement: vernal pools that provide important breeding habitat for amphibians, and areas of rich fen, a special kind of wetland that supports unique plants and animals. All together, the property provides a range of habitats for numerous lifeforms and its protection will support biodiversity in the central Vermont region.
“Wildlife corridors like these are critical for species adapting to habitat changes caused by climate change,” said VLT Project Director Mead Binhammer, highlighting the life that depends on undisturbed forests and wetlands, including salamanders, wood frogs, and rare plants such as round-lobed sundew and Kalm’s Lobelia.
VLT ecologist Allaire Diamond points out the rare round-lobed sundew that grows on the Bassage property.
“The importance now, increasingly it seems, is to have habitats where the forest, trees, and all the creatures — animal, plant, and fungus that live there — are allowed to live undisturbed and not be subject to development,” Larry added. “It’s one of the best things we can do to mitigate climate change.”
For Scott and Charlotte, the decision to conserve their land is deeply personal.
“I’m 80 years old,” Scott said. “It really gives me a glow inside to know this property will never be more developed than it is now.”
