PORTSMOUTH — The Aquidneck Island Land Trust (AILT) has announced the conservation of a 13-acres portion of Greenvale Vineyards off Wapping Road in partnership with the Rhode Island Agricultural Land Preservation Commission and landowners Bill and Nancy Wilson. 

The land is now under a conservation easement that will ensure it remains protected open space forever in the future. The USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service also contributed a significant grant to this easement.

“We are so pleased to have established this portion of our farm to be forever farmed and remain open space,” Nancy and Bill Wilson, owners of Greenvale Vineyards, said in a joint statement. “Open space and farming are critical to the Island’s future and an important component of our mission at Greenvale.”

After the Wilsons purchased the land in 2003 to keep it as a farm, they learned the property had been used by Aaron Lopez as a vineyard in the 1760s. 

“It is amazing to think that we are growing grapes on the same land 255 years later.Thank you to the Land Trust, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service for their support,” the Wilsons said.

The land, which has excellent farm soil, has been working farmland for generations.

While Greenvale Vineyards stretches all the way to the Sakonnet River, the conserved portion is along Wapping Road. The land is also connected to other conservation properties, adding onto the protected corridor of lands on the eastern side of Aquidneck Island, known as the Sakonnet Greenway.

“We have some of the best farming soils in the state here on Aquidneck Island, yet our farms are under tremendous development pressure. The state has lost 80 percent of its farmland since the 1940s,” said Terry Sullivan, AILT’s executive director. “Our island’s working farms are essential to our economy and community. We are thrilled to work with our partners and the Wilsons to save this important tract of farmland on scenic Wapping Road.”

"The conservation easement on this 13-acre property guarantees that it will remain protected open space for generations to come," said DEM Director Terry Gray. "The DEM is dedicated to supporting Rhode Island's working farms, especially one with such a rich history as Greenvale Vineyards. Working farms are disappearing across the country, so it’s vital that Rhode Island acknowledges and supports the essential role these farms play in our economy."

AILT is the oldest accredited land trust in Rhode Island. Since 1990, it has conserved 102 properties totaling 2,854 acres of land on Aquidneck Island, or 12 percent of the Island’s total acreage.

For more information, visit www.ailt.org.