PORTSMOUTH — A 12-acre Portsmouth farm on East Main Road and about half a mile north of Glen Road is now protected from development in perpetuity.

The Aquidneck Land Trust (ALT) announced Thursday, Dec. 16, that its campaign to purchase and conserve Rego Farmland is complete. The property is an active hayfield with 100-percent prime soil, which ALT will continue to lease for farming.

“We sold this property to ALT so that it would remain farmland, which is disappearing on Aquidneck Island,” said Marilee Ottilige, whose family has owned the land for two generations. 

“No land, no food,” she stated, stressing the importance of protecting local agriculture. “ALT was pleasant to work with and we very happy to know that this farm has been permanently protected.”

Rego Farmland is one of two properties in ALT’s current land campaign. The second property, Jones Preserve, is a 15.38-acre site situated within a 92-acre tract of forestland. 

ALT has approximately $10,000 left to raise to conserve the Jones property, which, aside from one new residence site, will be managed as a combination of wildlife habitat and farmland protected under a conservation easement.

Both properties are situated along ALT’s Sakonnet Greenway habitat corridor, an area that includes 40 properties already protected by ALT. The corridor covers nearly 2,000 acres of conserved land on the east side of Aquidneck Island, 1,365 of which was conserved by ALT.

“Rego Farmland and Jones Preserve are two very important open spaces,” said Chuck Allott, ALT’s executive director. “We are very grateful to the island community for supporting our efforts to conserve them both. Hundreds of residents, foundations, and businesses have sent donations, proving how highly Islanders value these types of open space.

"We are grateful to the property owners for agreeing to conserve their land and we are thrilled to extend the acreage in the Sakonnet Greenway habitat corridor.”

ALT has conserved 2,678 acres on 87 properties across Aquidneck Island since its founding in 1990. The nonprofit is the first land trust in Rhode Island to have received national accreditation. For more information, visit www.ailt.org.