The Dean Farm is a 90.2 acre property located within the Township of Guelph-Eramosa near the rapidly expanding municipality of Guelph. Threats of urban sprawl, non-agricultural development, and the desire to maintain the region’s rural character spurred easement donor, Kathryn Dean, to partner with OFT and register an easement on the property.
The class 1 farmland produces black currants and beef cattle. The farm is also home to a number of important ecological features, including forests, hedgerows, and a part of the Speed Lutteral Swan Creek Provincially Significant Wetland Complex, which provide habitat to a number of species at risk. The bobolink, barn swallow, snapping turtle, Eastern meadowlark, and monarch butterfly call this farm home.
As beautiful and productive as this farm is, it’s also in the path of nearby housing developments, which are coming closer every year. So I consider it my duty and privilege to save this farm forever.
Kathryn Dean, Easement Donor
Easement donor, Kathryn Dean, loves this land. While she lived on the farm, she nurtured a community of young farmers and helped them get their start in growing vegetables and raising grass-fed beef. Then, when it was time to sell the farm, she wanted to be able to preserve this important acreage and all the work she had put into stewarding the land and the community. She has now passed along this beautiful farm to two young farmers who will continue to steward and maintain the land, in farming, forever.
