Open Field Foundation
Mission statement:
The Open Field Foundation was created to protect and sustain the unique and diverse ecology associated with open land, and to explore alternative uses for productive agricultural acreage. The Foundation was created in 1996 by Gordon Thorne and Anne Woodhull who are currently its principal Officers.
The Founders believe that the encouragement and support of our connection to the productive capacity of open land is essential to any learning process. The Founders also believe that Open Land has an inherent value independent of its usefulness to human kind. Therefore, land-based experiential education, in the broadest sense, defines the organization’s underlying mission.
The Founders acknowledge that economic forces make traditional agricultural enterprises less viable than they once were, and The Foundation does not seek to battle with forces it cannot change. Instead it seeks to help in the development of new models for the small farm, which will allow a land based way of life and the ecology of the open field to sustain themselves indefinitely.
The Founders recognize that new land uses that emerge will be diverse and organic in nature, changing and adapting to the skills and interests of those who contribute their efforts to the endeavor. Nevertheless, OFF will require that every proposed use of its land, and every project which seeks its support, meet some or all of the following criteria:
•To generate educational opportunities, which will encourage the public to gain a greater understanding of the increasingly unique value of open space, as well as the importance of agricultural endeavor.
•To protect and encourage the natural diversity of fertile soil.
•To not allow the productive use of open land to be shaped primarily by business, economics or human need.
•To create structures and programs which strive to be economically self sufficient, esthetically adventurous, and environmentally sustainable.
•To always encourage patience and stimulate curiosity.
For more information contact:
The Open Field Foundation
593 South Pleasant Street
Amherst MA 01002
Phone 413-586-6819
