Modeling the Importance of Protecting Farms

Eleanor, Bob, and Ben Crothers are siblings in their late 70s who live together on the 84-acre Crothers Farms raising cattle and growing most of their own vegetables. Housing developments have sprouted on the land surrounding their farm since their parents, Glenn and Marie, first started buying land for their farm in 1943.

The Crothers family does not yet know who will take over their farm in the future, but they do know that the land will stay undivided and forever farmland. They received a grant from American Farmland Trust’s Owen and Ellen Love Family Farmland Protection Fund to protect it.

AFT partnered with Little Traverse Conservancy in the project, and the Crothers family received additional support from The Americana Foundation, Cherry Republic, and Walloon Lake Trust and Conservancy.

Crothers Farm is the first farm protected through a township-based PDR project in the five-county area where Little Traverse Conservancy operates and provides services.