Imagine these fields filled with fifty houses instead of hay. Another hundred cars sitting in traffic on Charlestown Road. Thanks to the Epstein Family, Charlestown Township, and French & Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust, you don’t have to.

This land, the view, and its natural resources are now protected in perpetuity for everyone to enjoy today and for our children to enjoy tomorrow. The 118 acres of Hailand Farm—”hai” meaning “life” in Hebrew—will remain as open space, allowing for plant and animal life to thrive and expanding the conservation corridor through Charlestown Township.

“We are proud to immortalize our parents’ values by placing the farm under a conservation easement with the French & Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust and Charlestown Township,” said siblings Charles Epstein and Barbara Epstein Sivan, whose parents purchased the farm in the early 1970s. “Instead of a large development of 50 homes, residents will continue to enjoy a beautiful viewshed in historic Charlestown.”

Working with landowners and public and private partners, this new easement adds to the 1,100 acres French & Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust has permanently preserved in Charlestown Township.