By Vicki Smith
~Upper Valley Community Planner~
Greetings.
I work as a community planner, currently for the town of Hanover and live on a beautiful south facing hillside where Spring has arrived.
I was asked to talk about the early days of the Upper Valley Land Trust, a regional land trust, started here in the Upper Valley 15 years ago with Dana leading the charge. I also want to talk about community and love for Dana.
Although I was one of Dana’s environmental studies students here at Dartmouth, I didn’t know Dana well until I had been away to graduate school and had returned to work here at the regional planning commission. Then I got to know Dana at her farm. Ultimately, we talked livestock. My husband and I bought politically correct lambs, including Dark Star, a particularly memorable independent ewe who hated fences and gates. Thanks Dana.
It was during those days in 1986 that I got to know Dana as a ring leader.
The spark for the Land Trust was kindled by Fran Field. Fran describes she and Dana as “real kindred spirits”; they were organic farmers and visited each others’ farms and both wondered about the future of their properties. They worried about the changes taking place in our community as the Upper Valley was transforming-leaving its agricultural identity behind for a more suburban one. Fran heard about land trusts through the national press, shared this information with Dana and they knew immediately that a community land trust was exactly what was needed here in our community.
They came to me for help and I was able to give them my time. …but the inspiration had to come from somewhere- it was from Dana and Fran caring deeply about their community.
The Upper Valley is an ideal place for land trust work. There are incredibly beautiful places, rich in natural wonders. There is intense development pressure. And there are many people who care enough about their community to do something about it- give time, donate money and give away development rights. Dana sensed this community of people existed and created the opportunity for them to come together.
She and Fran had insisted that the land trust start not just as a land trust to conserve open space but as a community land trust- Dana and Fran had both hoped that there would be a perpetually affordable housing component to the land trust. Even though this is not how the UVLT evolved, Dana was one who felt it important to keep “community” in the name because that is what the land trust was about- strengthening community. Lot of us working together to conserve the land, its creatures, its plants and its other natural qualities.
Dana was a bright light. She not only provided guidance and leadership (she was the land trust’s chairperson for two years), she also brought energy and joy to our group. Clearly she added legitimacy, but she also had a way of looking you in the eye and making every one responsible for the trust.
She had an unending supply of enthusiasm and her enthusiasm was infectious. She was an eloquent spokesperson for the fledging land trust- she helped people understand what out land trust was created to do, she recruited members, she cajoled people into serving as board members, she gave and raised money.
In 1991, in an article commemorating the Land Trust’s Fifth Birthday, Dana wrote: The single most necessary ingredient without which nothing would have happened was the supportive community.(That’s you folks. Take a bow).
The work of the Upper Valley Land Trust is a testament to her vision. In 15 years, the Upper Valley Land Trust has worked with more than 200 land owners on over 220 projects to protect more than 20,000 acres of property in the Upper Valley. WOW.
You should know that Dana and Dennis’ Foundation Farm is one of those projects. Dana was a woman of words and action. She was passionate about protecting her farm. She threatened for years to do it and in 1992 I was lucky enough to work with her to develop the conservation easement. It was the highest complement she could pay the land she loved, so- the place where she, many friends, her sheep and her beloved garden thrived.
I was also lucky to speak to Dana the last week in January after not much direct communication with her for some time. I was headed for a week away. I shared with her my excitement about my trip and my excitement about all that she had done and that many of her dreams- Sustainability Institute and Cobb Hill -were coming true. She had been so patient and hard working and I realized here she was again creating community.
I want to share with you some more of Dana’s words. They help me understand how Dana saw the world, why she felt so passionate and connected and why community building was a logical extension of her world view.
This was written by Dana in 1991 and I have excerpted just a few lines.
The earth was formed whole and continuous in the universe without lines.
The human mind arose in the universe needing lines, boundaries, distinctions.
Here and not there. This and not that. Mine and not yours.
That is sea and this is land and here is the line between them. See? It’s very clear on the map…Between me and not me there is surely a line, a clear distinction, or so it seems.
But now that I look, where is that line?
This fresh apple, still cold and crisp, from the morning dew, is not-me only until I eat it. When I eat it, I eat the soil that nourished the apple. When I drink, the waters of the earth become me. With every breath, I take in, I draw in not-me and make it me. With every breath out, I exhale me into not-me.If the air and the waters and the soils are poisoned, I am poisoned.
Only if I believe the fiction of the lines more than the truth of the lineless planet will I poison the earth, which is myself.
This is the earth’s day to celebrate Dana. This is our day to celebrate Dana and the earth. In her life, Dana celebrated the earth and her connection to the earth and she built community. Last year, Dana wrote about Earth Day from the Earth’s perspective: “Earth Day, Shmearth Day” the planet must be thinking, “Are you folks ever going to take me seriously?”
She wrote that Earth Day was beginning to remind her of Mother’s Day, a ceremonial occasion. Then noted ” All mothers have their breaking points. Mother Earth does not soften hers with patience, foregiveness or sentimentality.”
When I returned to the Upper Valley from my trip Dana was in a coma. Dana’s community was holding vigils and around the world there was prayer. Her roots and caring extended well beyond the Upper Valley. We who live here are lucky to have the Upper Valley Land Trust as part of her legacy of community building.
Each one of us can act in ways to take the earth seriously. To remember that not-me is really me. This is the best way I know to show respect to Dana and her good work.
In 1996 at the Land Trust’s 10th Birthday, Dana was the featured speaker and this Barbara Holdens Yeoman’s quote was the theme of the celebration: “Men and women die but the land and love live on.”
Now that the woman, Dana has died, we see that the land lives on, and clearly the love for Dana lives on. Thank you all for coming her today to show your love for Dana.
