East Horseneck Road  With their extensive frontage on Horseneck and Division Roads, the sweeping fields of the 28-acre Gifford Hilltop Farm form a vital part of the Allen’s Neck farm area within Westport and Dartmouth, much of which has already been protected. Eager to see their beautiful property protected, Gus and Ila Gonet, the farm’s nonagenarian owners, sold a conservation restriction to the land trust and the Town at less than half its market value. One of the Town’s oldest operating farms, the property was fi rst owned by Mrs. Gonet’s grandfather, Jonathan Gifford, and a portion of the farmhouse dates from the early 1800’s. Wetlands and a pond in the corner of the farm feed a tributary of Allen’s Pond, a wildlife-rich coastal pond largely protected by the Massachusetts Audubon Society.

Gifford Road  This 78-acre farm is significant as one of the few remaining commercial dairy farms in the region. It also borders Bread and Cheese Brook and constitutes an important piece of the mosaic of land at the Head of Westport, the first area to be settled in Westport where the remains of several mills and other historic sites exist. In 2005, 73 acres of farmland was protected by an agricultural preservation restriction funded by the Commonwealth, the Town, our Westport Land Conservation Partnership (of the WLCT and The Trustees of Reservations) and a generous bargain sale from the landowners. The Trustees of Reservations also purchased five wooded acres adjacent to sixty acres of undisturbed woodland owned by the City of Fall River along Bread and Cheese Brook.

Pine Hill Road  The 90-acre Chapin White Farm, with its 3,250 feet of tidal marsh frontage on the East Branch of the Westport River and adjacent upland, is a critical environment for birds (including migratory ducks and osprey), shellfish and other marine organisms. Recognizing its great ecological importance, the North American Wetland Conservation Act (NAWCA) program committed $1 million toward the purchase of a conservation restriction to be held jointly by the WLCT and The Trustees of Reservations on this beautiful farm. The grant was supplemented by a very generous bargain sale by the Whites. The White property is also a lynchpin in the larger program to protect the East Branch of the Westport River, an effort funded by Westport donors and by a second grant from NAWCA.

River Road  A small but highly significant parcel with approximately 800 feet of shoreline on Cockeast Pond in Westport Harbor was protected thanks to the generous donation of Lucy Metcalf and the Metcalf family. A permanent conservation restriction eliminates a potential house site on this scenic and ecologically important 3.3-acre parcel on a high quality coastal barrier pond and Great Pond.

Horseneck Road  The former Zodiac Farm on Horseneck Road was to be subdivided into multiple lots before the Westport Land Conservation Partnership entered into an agreement to protect 18 acres of farmland by purchasing a conservation restriction held by The Trustees of Reservations. This important parcel encompasses large fields and lies within a block of over 500 acres of previously protected, agricultural land in the Allen’s Neck area.

East Beach Road  In 2005, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts purchased a 14-acre parcel located on the inlet of the East Branch of the Westport River. This island-type property was the remaining piece in the Horseneck Beach Reservation properties owned by the Commonwealth. The land trust was able to support this acquisition by underwriting the removal of the three, unused buildings on the property.