Partnership Among Conservation Groups and Community
Protects Historic Coastal Farm in Little Compton

LITTLE COMPTON, RI — The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) along with the Little Compton Agricultural Conservancy Trust and The Nature Conservancy have announced the conservation of 114 acres of historic and ecologically valuable Rhode Island farmland. A partnership of Ocean State land preservation groups, and state and federal agencies contributed $3.6 million to protect this portion of the 120-acre Treaty Rock Farm in Little Compton.  The conservation easements that now protect the farm ensure that Treaty Rock will remain a working farm and that coastal habitat along the Sakonnet River will be preserved.

Sisters Josie Richmond Arkins, Lawre Goodnow, and Helen Richmond Webb will retain private ownership of Treaty Rock Farm, as well as the right to build on two specified building lots on the parcel. The owner sisters currently supply wool from the farm’s sheep to the Rhody Warm blanket retailers, and sell their beef locally, enterprises which will continue. 

 “We are very excited,” said owner Josie Richmond Arkins on behalf of her sisters, about the project, which has taken over 13 years to complete. “We are very committed to maintaining a viable farm, to increasing the habitat and biodiversity on this property, and to preserving the rural and historic character of Little Compton.”  The conservation values of Treaty Rock Farm are ecological, agricultural and historical. The farm has been in this local Richmond family for over 350 years.

The Ag Trust, together with the Rhode Island Agricultural Lands Preservation Commission (RIALPC), holds the deed to development rights for agriculture on 95 acres of the farm. The Nature Conservancy (TNC), meanwhile, will hold a conservation easement over approximately 20 acres of land and tidal zone along the Sakonnet River. According to the groups involved, the $3.6 million purchase price of the easement and development rights is considered a “bargain sale” transaction due to the high value of all development rights on Treaty Rock Farm.

The NRCS Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP) provided matching funds in its commitment to help purchase development rights to keep productive farm and ranch lands in agricultural uses. “I’m pleased that NRCS has been able to contribute more than a million dollars to this project through FRPP to help protect this important piece of Rhode Island’s history and ecology,” said Roylene Rides at the Door, state conservationist for NRCS in Rhode Island. “This project fits with our agency’s mission goal of protecting working farms in Rhode Island and across the country.”

Since FRPP was first authorized in the 1996 Farm Bill, Rhode Island’s NRCS has awarded over $16 million in federal funds to purchase easements on more than 2,800 acres of farmland in Rhode Island.

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