“I’m just one guy,” says Ed Watroba about the fight to save the land that his family has farmed for three generations. “It’s felt like me against the world.”
by Michele Owens
Ed owns one of the last large farms in the city of Pittsfield, a piece of property that for years has been eyed by developers and politicians alike. When he told the city that he didn’t want to sell his land for an airport expansion, the city – which, like many communities in Massachusetts, is struggling to strike a balance between economic development and open space protection – threatened to seize it by eminent domain.
Ed grows vegetables and flowers that he sells locally. He is so committed to farming that after long days in his fields, he works nights as a school bus mechanic just to pay the bills. For a number of years now those bills have included attorney’s fees as he struggled to hang onto his legacy and his livelihood.
Finally, worn down, he sold the city 76 acres. “I wasn’t interested in the money,” Ed sighs. “I wanted to keep the land so I can continue farming.”
Ed immediately began exploring ways to permanently protect his remaining 114 acres and decided The Trustees were the allies who could help him. In 2007, he donated a Conservation Restriction that will help to ensure that agriculture doesn’t become a thing of the past in Pittsfield. Instead, it’s now a part of the city’s future.
Yes, Ed is just one guy. But he’s proven that just one guy, if he’s determined enough, can save both a landscape and a way of life.
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