Ben Wever Farm in Willsboro, NY, was recently awarded the 2024 Hugh Hammond Bennett National Producer Award in Salt Lake City at the National Association of Conservation Districts annual conference.
This award is given to farms that have exemplified outstanding service through development and implementation of sound conservation planning and other conservation techniques.
Linda Gillilland of Ben Wever Farm said the award was for 25 years of stewardship to the land.
“We strive to make soil health a priority. We are blessed with water up here,” she said.
Shaun and Linda Gillilland, together with farm agencies and other stakeholders, worked on building grazing plans and developing a grass-fed strategy, applied for government fencing and water and wildlife development and became interested in landlocked salmon restoration.
When Shaun was elected supervisor for the town of Willsboro, the Gillillands spearheaded the effort to remove a decrepit dam blocking salmon from swimming upriver on the Bouquet River for spawning.
“It took a big political push,” Shaun said. “We worked with the Fish and Wildlife Service after to help track the salmon with telemetry stations in the back of the farm.”
Through the Nature Conservancy and Land Trust, the Gillilands are trying to build conservation easements up and down the river to preserve habitat and cut down on river runoff, which decreases the nesting capabilities of salmon.
“These ideas just kept coming. We are both conservation-minded. It became our way of life on the farm,” Shaun said.
When Shaun retired after 25 years in the Navy, he came up here with his family and started a five-year transition at the Ben Wever Farm, learning what they could from owner Ben Wever. Wever eventually retired and turned ownership to the Gillilland family in 2005.
The farm had been in the Wever family for generations, originally established in 1829.
“That is one thing I really loved about Ben, his Ben-isms,” Linda said. “He said in his family each generation renamed the farm and changed the direction of it.”
For example, Wever’s grandparents named the farm Hillside Poultry Farm. They raised chickens. When Wever’s father took over, it became a dairy.
Today, the Gillillands raise beef cattle, lambs, chickens and sometimes pigs from conception to consumer with the help of their daughter Chauntel and son-in-law Pierre-Luc, a certified wild mushroom harvester. The Gillillands’ son Quentin serves in the U.S. Army and is stationed overseas.
(L – R) Pierre-Luc, Chauntel, Shaun and Linda Gillilland at their Ben Wever Farm in Willsboro, NY. Submitted photo
“Our family has taken to it. They are innovative and have taken to it,” Shaun said. “My son-in-law, an electrical engineer by day, is interested in composting. We developed composting systems for returning organic materials back to the soil.”
Chauntel has been an equestrian since she was a toddler, Linda said – one who loves children and who leads one of the biggest 4-H clubs for kids that don’t have horses.
“She gives them that experience,” she said.
Linda was a Master Gardener in five states while her husband was in the Navy. When they moved to Willsboro, she started working for Cornell Cooperative Extension and is now the executive director for CCE Clinton.
“In Essex County, where our farm is located, the soil is 4% arid. The soil is a challenge. The best crops we grow are rocks,” she joked.
The Gillillands have diversified the soil and landscape by raising a diversity of animals.
“I’ve been interested in grassland management for a long time. It is a way nature intended to rejuvenate soil,” Shaun said.
A “Ben-ism” often quoted on the farm is “If you aren’t learning something new every day on the farm, you aren’t working hard enough.”
“There are so many stressors to farming. If it isn’t working, stop, change direction, do something else. And keep learning,” Linda said. “A farmer must have a wide skill set. They might be crop farmers or livestock farmers. In the Northeast, farms are small. It doesn’t mean they are any less valuable than a large farm.”
in Hawaii, Gillilland said the most successful farm was a 2.5-acre watercress farm. In San Diego, the average farm was 10 acres.
“It is not size that matters; it’s the decisions you make of what you’re growing that matters,” she said.
The Northeast has lost a lot of dairy farms. Essex County used to be a massive dairy county, Shaun said. Now they are down to two commercial dairies.
“We have a lot of startup farms, but I worry about this a lot,” he said. “I don’t want this young new farm enthusiasm to go out because of marketing and insurance [stresses] and raising kids. I hope we can work through it and keep our agricultural community growing.”
Linda agreed. “Ultimately, farmers are servants. We are feeding people – nurturing people – who give other people experiences,” she said.
“We are proud of our whole community. We help each other whenever we can. It improves not only our farms, but the whole community,” Shaun said.
Learn more about the farm at benweverfarm.com.
by Greg Hitchcock
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