Huzzah Creek, MO
Rachel Hopkins and her family own hundreds of agricultural acres on Huzzah Creek, where OLT and its partners have protected and provided restoration and erosion protection on well over 1,000 acres of critical Ozark lands.
In today’s world, generational farms and ranches are becoming relics of the past. As the older generations die off, the children rarely have an interest unless it consists of building another house or monetizing and subdividing the ground – what their forebearers worked their lives for. Being a farm that has been in the family for over 80 years, we wanted to stop that process before it could ever begin.
Working with OLT, we have been able to protect just under half of the family farm from future subdivision and monetizing by future generations. It can be difficult to anticipate the future needs of a working farm in a conservation easement due to its constrictive nature. However, in most cases, we feel that both our needs and OLT goals have been achieved through lengthy discussions and negotiation. Monetary compensation has always played a part in decision-making, but carrying the knowledge that development is curtailed and ground division cannot take place makes us rest easy for the future when we are not on this earth.