WHITE CREEK -- History, art and farmland preservation came together Friday when the landscape that inspired Grandma Moses' paintings of rural life was permanently protected from development.

"She would approve,'' Carl Moses said of his grandmother, who died in 1961.
It was the fourth generation of the Moses family that preserved the historic farm in White Creek and neighboring Hoosick.

Grandma Moses' great-grandson Rich Moses and his wife, Kathy, began working with the Agricultural Stewardship Association in 2005 to ensure their vegetable farm would not be overrun by development.

"There are some properties we need to protect. Everything, the sense of the whole program is similar to protecting Yellowstone,'' Rich Moses said, drawing a comparison to 19th-century efforts to preserve the Western landscape.

The development rights for the 171-acre Moses family farm were turned over to the Agricultural Stewardship Association for $424,140, supplied by a variety of government and private funds.

Working with local farmers, governments and the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, the stewardship association has preserved about 10,000 acres of farmland in Rensselaer and Washington counties. The association is working with farmers to permanently protect another 4,582 acres from development.

The Moses farm may be the one property the association has preserved that is known worldwide. Grandma Moses's full name was Anna Mary Robertson Moses.

"This is a beautiful farm. It's a famous farm because it was owned by a famous person, Grandma Moses,'' said Teri Ptacek, association executive director.

Situated along the Hoosic River and the Owl Kill, the Moses Farm includes productive soil straddling the boundary of Rensselaer and Washington counties.

"This spot is historic,'' state Sen. Betty Little, R-Queensbury, said. "Wouldn't it be a shame for someone to come here and see a huge development?''

The cost to procure the development rights to the Moses Farm on Grandma Moses Road off Route 67 was $424,140. The state provided $317,265 in farmland protection funds; the Castanea Foundation of Montpelier, Vt, supplied $56,394 through Agricultural Stewardship Association; the Moses family contributed $47,898 in easements; and the remaining $2,583 came from Washington County.


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