In 2010, John Dunn and his children implemented an Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) with support from the Alford Land Trust. The farm has been in the Dunn family since 1896 when John’s grandfather acquired it. For decades it was a dairy farm. Today the main farm product is high-quality hay, particularly sought after as feed for horses. The open fields along both sides of the road offer scenic views of a classic New England working landscape.

The Dunn house and most of the farm buildings are just a few feet over the state line in Hillsdale, New York. However, the family conserved 154.6 acres of productive hay fields, pasture, forest, and wooded wetlands in adjacent Alford. Some of the forest and wetland area is state-designated as “biocore” habitat, meaning it has characteristics likely to support rare species. The area abuts Alford Springs, 884 acres of conserved forest land.