Forever Farms exhibit at Maine Farmland Trust Gallery
Belfast – This month through March, starting February 24th, Maine Farmland Trust Gallery will be showcasing the Trust’s recently launched Forever Farms program through an exhibit of farm photographs by Lily Piel – a Maine-based photographer with a great eye for detail, who is able to find the unique in the rituals of everyday.
"The Forever Farm Program celebrates the growing success of farmland protection efforts in Maine and recognizes the farms that are part of this movement. This includes the fact that more and more farmland owners see the value of permanently protecting their land and their legacy," says John Piotti, executive director of Maine Farmland Trust.
Over a hundred Maine farms have now been permanently protected with agricultural easements. These easements prevent subdivision and non-farm development, but provide the flexibility needed to enable the land to be actively farmed. Agricultural easements are voluntary restrictions that farmland owners place on their property because they want to ensure that their farmland remains as farmland forever.
Each agricultural easement involves a partnership between the landowner and an entity that “holds” the easement. In Maine, most easements are held by either Maine Farmland Trust or by one of dozens of local or regional land trusts.
.jpg)
Protecting farmland is critical for the future of farming in Maine. After years of decline, Maine agriculture is growing and poised to grow more. But at the same time, farming faces a huge challenge, because the ownership of so much of Maine’s best farmland will be in transition in the next five years. Protecting farmland with a well-crafted agricultural easement ensures that good farmland stays available for farming—that it will not transition to non-farm uses.
Many of Maine’s protected farms are now identified as “Forever Farms.” The owners of these farms have agreed to have their properties listed on the Forever Farms website (www.foreverfarms.org), in an effort help spread word about the importance of farmland protection.
The images in the Forever Farms show were captured by photographer Lily Piel. Raised in Vermont, and a graduate of Bates College, Lily returned to Maine in 2001 to study film-making at Maine Media Workshops. She discovered a love for still photography and local food systems, taking pictures of farmer friends in the fields while working on their Community Supported Agriculture farm. For the last eight years she has been photographing for magazines and private clients. Her favorite subjects are agriculture, community, and people, especially those considered "other."
Lily is a 2010 graduate of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Photography.