119 Acres in Springfield, VT - $159,000
Carley Brook Forest
This undisturbed forest has been held by the same ownership since 1987. Over the decades, the landowner has focused on recreational pursuits and low-impact forest management.
Property highlights include gently-sloping terrain with western aspect and easily-developed homesite near its town-maintained road frontage where electric power/telephone service are located. This quiet location is just minutes by car from Springfield's business district. The forest resource has attractive aesthetics with a maturing, highly-stocked timber resource offering long-term value appreciation and enhanced recreational opportunities.
The property is located just two miles from downtown Springfield. While it's a short drive to Main Street's business district, the land sits in a rural area where homes are widely scattered along a town road that ends not far beyond the land, resulting in minimal traffic noise...
The property is located just two miles from downtown Springfield. While it's a short drive to Main Street's business district, the land sits in a rural area where homes are widely scattered along a town road that ends not far beyond the land, resulting in minimal traffic noise. The landscape north and east of the land is mostly forested with a patchwork of agricultural areas, including an adjacent apple orchard.
Springfield has a population of 9,300 with a vibrant downtown and business district. All services are available nearby including large box stores, a regional hospital and airport, technical learning center and satellite college campuses. Historically, Springfield was one of the county's premier machine tool industrial areas in the 1800S through the mid-1900s, originally centered along the Black River and its falls. Large mill-style buildings remain as part of the town's old and new architectural makeup.
The land is located 6 miles from I-91 (Exit 7), 2.25 hours' drive from Boston to the southeast, 2 hours' drive from Hartford, CT to the south, and a 25-minute drive west to Okemo Ski Resort in Ludlow.
Access is via Carley Road, a Class 3, town-maintained road which ends a half mile beyond the land. Carley Road branches off Route 106 less then a mile from the property, making it easy traveling to town and points beyond. Electric power and telephone services are available along the road frontage.
Terrain along the road frontage is gently sloping, with a brook running along two-thirds of the frontage. The balance of the frontage offers easy driveway access into the land.
Additional access is via a right-of-way at the sharp curve along Carley Road which runs roughly between the parallel stone walls of an ancient town road.
An internal woods trail comes off the road frontage and leads to the center of the property. Other old trails are evident throughout the land.
One of the property's attractive attributes is its gentle slopes and deep soils across most of the property. This allows for easy driveway, home and other development options. Well-drained soils predominate with occasional more poorly-drained pockets along seeps at the land's central area, an ideal location for pond development. Aspect is most commonly to the west.
This region of Vermont has hundreds of years of land use history of which this property offers an outstanding example in its significant stone walls which delineate old pastures, cropland, roadways and foundations.
The land gently slopes uphill from the town road with elevation along the road at 580' ASL (above sea level), rising to 1,000' ASL along the eastern boundary. This slight change in elevation indicates a mostly level property with little topographical relief from one end of the land to the other. The center of the land is nearly level, with modest slopes as the land rises in the east to nearby Pudding Hill.
Carley Brook has a modest watershed that originates several miles to the east. The brook runs year round and is roughly 3-4 feet wide along its course.
From various potential building sites nice views to the west are possible with tree clearing.
The land has been in the seller's ownership since 1987, with their primary goal over this period being recreation. No commercial timber harvesting has occurred during the seller's tenure, providing overstocked forest conditions with a maturing timber resource. In some areas the dense overstory has limited regeneration, producing a mostly clean understory, allowing for ease of walking through these woods.
The western third of the forest consists of mixed wood species with tall white pine, hemlock and mixed hardwoods. A small red pine plantation (vintage 1950S) sits along an old town road that crosses the mid-section of the forest. The town has abandoned the road and no longer maintains it. The upper, rectangularly-shaped section of the property, east of a drainage, exists as maturing hardwoods with red oak, maple, beech and ash.
Heavy use by white-tailed deer was noted on the property during late fall of 2019, activity likely from the abundant red oak and beech mast.
There is no forest management plan available for the property.
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