Littleton Select Board holds public forum on Nagog Hill Orchard lease proposal

LITTLETON — February 12, 2025 — Littleton Select Board fields community questions on proposed Nagog Hill Orchard lease with arborist John Bransfield. The February 12 forum, which the board described as a chance to question Bransfield on his management plan rather than relitigate the selection process, drew more than a dozen residents who pressed on lease monitoring, state agricultural compliance, and the land's significance to the Nipmuc Praying Indians. Bransfield outlined a native tree farm using air-pot container technology, targeting ecologically scarce species like American chestnuts and sourwood without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, at what he described as a personal investment of roughly half a million dollars. Select Board member Matthew Lowney acknowledged the board's prior monitoring failures bluntly — "it's a lousy excuse, but it is the way it is" — and said he intends to bring a proposal to fund independent professional lease monitoring. The property's Agricultural Preservation Restriction requires evidence of $3,500 in agricultural sales for the 2025 growing season to avoid a second year of non-compliance with the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources; Bransfield said he would meet that threshold. A community meeting on full lease terms is scheduled for March 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the Reuben Hoar Library.