Annual Conference - Keynote Address and Plenary Discussion

Cows, Countryside, and Community:
Can the Working Landscape of Rural New England Be Saved?
Steve Taylor, Dairyman and Former Commissioner of Agriculture, Markets & Food, State of New Hampshire

New England’s rural landscape is like a three-legged stool—one leg being the forest, the second the built environment, and the third the inventory of open land inherited from generations of agricultural activity. Today the stool threatens to topple due to the weakness in that third leg. Development pressures, combined with low economic returns from farming, imperil thousands of acres of fields, meadows, and pastures that afford views, ambience, and a way of life that have long been taken for granted.

As a farmer, writer, and longtime public official, Steve Taylor has observed and participated in various strategies that attempt to arrest the loss of New England’s open land. Agricultural, conservation, and preservation communities continue to seek ways to save New England’s cleared land from development or reversion to forest. Mr. Taylor will discuss what is working and what more can be done to preserve New England’s rural landscape and the delicate balance of forest, farms, and development.

Steve Taylor and his family operate a dairy and maple farm in Meriden, New Hampshire, and he recently retired after serving 25 years as his state’s Commissioner of Agriculture, Markets & Food. He has worked as a reporter and editor on daily newspapers, held several local elected offices, and was the founding executive director of the New Hampshire Humanities Council. Mr. Taylor writes and speaks frequently on agriculture, rural life, conservation, and related public issues. He maintains a special interest in the geography and cultural history of New England and presently serves on the board of the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance.

The Keynote Address is sponsored by Roger Williams University School of Architecture, Art and Historic Preservation.

Plenary Discussion
Ken Ayars, Chief, Division of Agriculture, RI-DEM
Sheila Brush, Director of Programs, Grow Smart Rhode Island
Edward F. Sanderson, Executive Director, RIHPHC
Senator V. Susan Sosnowski, (D-South Kingstown, New Shoreham), Farmer
Steve Taylor, Dairyman and Former Commissioner of Agriculture, Markets & Food, State of New Hampshire

Panelists will draw upon themes of the Keynote Address and relate them to local trends in agriculture, historic preservation, land conservation, and smart growth.