“Our work at South Kingstown Land Trust is experiencing the macrocosm through the microcosm. For us, it’s making that personal connection with individuals. It’s making sure they have a quality experience—be it the farmer, or the hiker, or the six year old. I believe that’s why we’ve been successful.”

- Julia Fry Landstreet, Executive Director, South Kingstown Land Trust

South Kingstown Land Trust is a Rhode Island-based non-profit organization that believes open spaces make all the difference. They are committed to protecting and stewarding natural resources, open spaces and cultural landscapes for the benefit of their community. The team at PK Health Gear interviewed Executive Director Julia Fry Landstreet and Marketing and Development Coordinator Matt Eldridge about their passion for protecting natural habitats, the hard work their volunteers do that helps move the needle for change, and how caring for our communities on the ground-level makes a big impact on our environment as a whole.

Let’s start by learning about the South Kingstown Land Trust. How did it all begin?

Matt: The land trust began in 1983 as a volunteer-only organization when a concerned group of community members saw the development in the state of Rhode Island happening at an unfettered rate. They united over their concern for the natural resources of the town, the quality of drinking water, things like that. Today, South Kingstown Land Trust protects more than three thousand acres of open space across South Kingstown. About half of the land is owned outright by the land trust, while the rest of the land is made up of conservation easement properties: This includes farms, protected forests, and cultural landscape properties. For the most part, our work is protecting and maintaining open spaces. A major part of our work is caring for the fourteen miles of trails spread across eight different properties. Through this, the land trust provides a significant amount of public access to nature on top of protecting the actual natural resources. Providing this access creates a significant boost to the quality of life in our community.

Matt, what is your focus at the SKLT specifically? What are you most passionate about?

Matt: Whenever I think about my time at the Land Trust, I always think about when I first started. It was an interesting little microcosm of the land trust we were doing. I started working on a habitat creation program for Spadefoot toads, which is one of the only endangered amphibian species in Rhode Island. They live in shallow vernal pools that are only wet for part of the year. It’s quite a specific type of habitat that happens to be shrinking in Rhode Island, which is why they’re endangered. A big batch of frogs were found in a ditch, and they were raised into semi maturity, and then we brought them back to the site. We built shallow pools at one of our fee properties, a complicated and delicate process. We had hundreds of volunteers. Almost every nature conservation organization in South Kingstown had some sort of hand in the process. This past August, we had our first delivery of Spadefoot toad babies. You can see how the habitats have matured over time and how we continue to maintain them while keeping them natural. It’s a really cool project that shows the value of the land trust: The actual work we do, the partnerships we have, and where our fundraising goes.

It's amazing how many people came together to achieve this goal. Tell us more about how volunteers make a difference at SKLT.

Matt: Our volunteer group began as a few hardy, retired gentlemen who had some time on their hands. They’d work in the woods clearing invasive plants, rebuilding stone walls, and other various projects. Since then, that small volunteer program has grown to over 110 people on our volunteer list. The projects have become more complicated, the equipment we’ve been able to provide those volunteers has improved, and the amount we’ve been able to accomplish has greatly increased. In terms of land stewardship, that's exactly what you need: A group of people that are willing to help.

Julia: It really takes a lot on the backend to make sure you have good projects, good equipment, the right resources and education so you can accomplish all that you want to accomplish.

You mentioned more ‘complicated’ projects. What projects are you referring to, exactly?

Matt: A good example of this would be Robinson Farm: A property that was leased for many years as a grassland habitat.

Julia: Before Robinson Farm was gifted to us, the landowner sold the development rights and enrolled it in the grassland reserve program, which means it can either be farmed with livestock or just for hay. The problem was that the gentleman who owned it was farming it with livestock, but basically using it as a feedlot. Not only was this in violation of the program but it also significantly degraded the quality of the grasslands, the surrounding habitat, and the water quality. Because of that, our SKLT volunteers have been focusing their efforts here.

How does the work you’re doing with local habitats connect to the larger picture—the environment as a whole?

Julia: If I had to pick one thing, it would be water quality. Water quality is critical. I recently had a conversation with a friend who had literally zero concept of where his water came from when he turned on his spigot. People don't understand that this is the same amount of water as here as when the dinosaurs were here: It’s just how we're treating it and where it's going. We live in a community where the water is sole source aquifer. We need protected, open spaces so the water can naturally fall in the ground, naturally filter, and refill the aquifer.

And then there’s climate change. We have dramatic, violent precipitation events now without having adequate open space to naturally absorb the stormwater. There's no longer a place for the water to go. So for us to be intentional about places for water to go, it makes such a difference to quality of life.

You mentioned earlier that part of the conserved land is allocated to farmers. Tell us more about what that means.

We work with lots of farmers. SKLT stewards land with conservation easements on property that are very restrictive and organic. As well as farms that have a conservation easement through the state of Rhode Island, they tend to be very liberal in what they allow farmers in terms of pesticides, herbicides and land management. Commercial agricultural practices have been geared towards cost to the consumer. A lot of those practices are very short term in their site line for land management in terms of how it treats the soil and what the nutrients of produce that you're able to take off the land.

However, this can be really abusive to the environment. It's been fun because the United States Department of Agriculture, USDA has been working in a much more intentional and concerted way to try and have farmers doing regenerative soil practices. There’s much greater understanding about turning that around and making people aware of it and making it financially viable.

We work with a lot of young farmers whom we lease to, and we get to help introduce them to various resources and practices on the farmland. SKLT works with both as there's value in corn that costs a dollar, and there's value in corn that costs five dollars a year, we need both.

What does SKLT hope to achieve in the coming years?

Julia: One thing will be making our trails more intentionally accessible for different user groups with disabilities—be it mobility, sensory or auditory. We want to be much more intentional about how we make outside available to people. The second area we’re focusing on is the community we’re living in. Right now, one-third of the town land is protected, one-third of it is developed, and the last third could go either way. We feel we have an opportunity to protect some more land. In most cases, we’re focusing our efforts on large blocks of forest, connecting pieces of habitat and trail systems.

The final area we’re focusing our efforts is on the fact that there is such a strong indigenous population in this part of the country. Members of the Narragansett Tribe are actually working with the University of Rhode Island to open a museum. We’ve been trying to work more with this community, because we are currently stewarding the lands that indigenous families have been stewarding for generations.

Matt: One project that comes to mind when I think about the future is the Yawgoo Pond Trail. We have a three-mile loop trail beside Yawgoo Pond in Kingston, and we’ve been able to protect three-quarters of its surrounding coastline, which is really important for water quality, runoff pollution, carbon sequestration et cetera. The protection of this trail is a great way to show exactly how our operating funds and fundraising makes a direct impact on the community. What began as a small sliver of land is now becoming a much larger effort. There’s a three-mile loop beside the pond, but the only way to access it from the parking area is to go over the wetlands. We’ve been working for years to get the permits to create access to this trail, so the public can access it and enjoy it. It’s one of the simplest things we do, but it’s also the most important. We even have monthly donors specifically contributing to this, all so folks can have a pleasant experience out in nature. It’s so important for our mental health, and for the younger generation to have a meaningful connection to nature. We have plans to start construction on long boardwalks that will go over the wetlands. Personally, I’m excited because I’ll have a really good birdwatching opportunity from the edge of the boardwalk into the wetland. Hopefully a lot of folks will too. I know many people, especially in that neighborhood, who are jonesing to get out there.

What is most important about the work SKLT accomplishes?

Julia: Our work is experiencing the macrocosm through the microcosm. For us, it’s making that personal connection with individuals. It’s making sure they have a quality experience—be it the farmer, or the hiker, or the six-year-old. I believe that’s why we’ve been successful. And I think that’s why people enjoy our land. They leave here and carry it forward. And I think that’s important.

As told to Justine Baldwin

The South Kingstown Land Trust offers membership programs and volunteer opportunities as a way to support their cause. They host guided hikes, nature events and other activities throughout the year, all open to the public. To learn more, visit www.sklt.org.

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