This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Burrillville Land Trust, an all volunteer, community based, 501(c)3 private land trust in Burrillville. Our board members are those that come to us with a passion and love of the natural world. Our mission is to preserve and protect the rural character of the town of Burrillville through education, advocacy and acquisition. The Burrillville Land Trust is recognized in the state, recognized by regional and national environmental groups and education and advocacy groups, as a leader in forest and agriculture conservation. Our programs include the first in our state natural dye workshop, recognized internationally as the first in New England American Chestnut Tree give-a-way program.
We have conducted Blue Bird and Rain Barrel workshops, free seed programs and a host of other workshops on conservation easements and land protection. Since 2000, the Burrillville Land Trust has conducted over 500 scheduled walks, tours, hikes, bird/wildlife, snowshoeing, research studies, Geocache, and more, on our properties. We started the Burrillville Farmers’ Market and other markets all over the state.
We conducted 47 Learn the Facts workshops all over the tri-state area when a fracked gas power plant threatened to destroy vital and necessary ecosystems in the north western part of Rhode Island.
Over these 25 years the Burrillville Land Trust has brought in close to $1 million in goods and volunteer services for Burrillville and the people that live here. We have given our time to make this happen all free to the town residents. Those funds included foundation grants and fundraiser events that paid for acquiring land that will forever be protected. The state through RIDEM, environmental groups such as Audubon (and) The Nature Conservancy, and foundations such as the Rhode Island Foundation, the Bafin Foundation, the Champlin Foundation, the Levy Foundation and more, all recognize the strengths and importance of the Burrillville Land Trust.
Everyone in the town of Burrillville loves open space. So much so, that in 2021, Burrillville land owners took advantage of the state sponsored Farm, Forest and Open Space Act. 8,322 acres of private land are set aside under this act, land that is restricted from development. The value of these properties is over $87 million dollars. There is no property value cap on land that gets a town tax deduction
under the Farm, Forest and Open Space Act. Rhode Island is one of two states that are state constitutionally required to save natural resources by municipalities. This was put into place long ago in the state constitution to save the seashore and coastal areas. Over the decades, this requirement has moved inland.
There are 55 land trusts in Rhode Island – 19 municipal land trusts and 36 private land trusts. Our hope is that the town of Burrillville moves to incentivize protection of open space in other ways besides the Farm, Forest and Open Space Act. The town has a wonderful and necessary opportunity to showcase the importance of open space, forests, streams and agricultural land. A one time tax deduction for
those who place their land in a conservation easement would go a long way to preserving the rural character of our town. All of us who live here don’t mind paying a little extra to preserve our sense of place in our town.
The town could also bolster their state mandated Conservation Commission by giving them the authority to accept responsibility to manage town owned land. And the town can put into place conservation easements held by a third party that would protect the biodiversity, the hunting and fishing, and all the natural resources that the town owns, forever.
Just like nearly all the land trusts in Rhode Island, the Burrillville Land Trust is an all volunteer land trust dedicated to keeping our water clean, our forests healthy and our air breathable
Paul Roselli
Paul Roselli is the president of the Burrillville Land Trust
