Midcoast nonprofits team up to preserve historic farmland

Two midcoast nonprofits are teaming up to preserve a historic dairy farm in Rockport — and build new affordable housing on site.

Maine Coast Heritage Trust has owned about 94 acres south of Route 90 for the last 15 years. The Erickson Fields Preserve has walking trails and a community garden, where students have learned to grow produce for nearby food banks.

Recently, the Heritage Trust secured the farm's remaining six acres across the street, where the old farmhouse and dairy barn are located.

When a family member living in the farmhouse passed away a few years ago, Aaron Englander with the Maine Coast Heritage Trust said the nonprofit began to think about how the property could be preserved for community benefit.

Housing, Englander said, emerged as a clear need. The Heritage Trust ac