Bluegrass Land Conservancy

Healthy food starts with healthy land. 🌱

At Ashbourne Farms , conservation and stewardship go hand in hand. Farm Manager Toni Myers shares why protecting Kentucky farmland matters for our soils, farms, and future food.

In 2024, owner and Bluegrass Land Conservancy Emeritus Board Member Austin Musselman partnered with BLC to permanently protect a portion of Ashbourne Farms through a conservation easement. It's an investment in working lands, healthy soils, and Kentucky's agricultural future.

Watch why it matters for every table in the Bluegrass. 💚

Haymarket by Ashbourne Farms

Hard Times Farm is more than 116 acres. It's a place where wildlife thrives, cattle grazed, gardens grow, and generations connect with Kentucky's natural beauty.💚

Protected with a Bluegrass Land Conservancy conservation easement in 2022, this Nelson County farm preserves forests, river frontage, working farmland, and wildlife habitat for the future.

🎥Hear landowner Susan Perkins share why conserving Hard Times Farm was one of the most meaningful decisions she could make for the land she loves.

Every conserved acre helps protect Kentucky's farms, forests, waterways, and way of life for generations to come.

What makes the Bluegrass unforgettable?

It's the rolling horse farms, family farms, scenic backroads, forests, and streams that define our home—and inspire people from around the world to visit Kentucky.

Those landscapes are also an economic engine. In 2025, Kentucky tourism generated $14.6 billion in economic impact and supported nearly 97,000 jobs. (Kentucky Department of Tourism).

At Bluegrass Land Conservancy, we believe protecting these places means protecting our communities, our heritage, and our future.

This is where our story begins.

Stay tuned this week as you'll hear directly from the landowners who chose to conserve their land—and why protecting the Bluegrass means so much to them.💚

Community has always been at the heart of the Sisters of Loretto.💚

For generations, they've cared for the land surrounding the Loretto Motherhouse—not just as a place to live, but as a place to gather, grow, reflect, and welcome others.

By partnering with Bluegrass Land Conservancy to permanently protect their land, the Sisters are ensuring this special place will continue to serve both people and nature for generations to come.

This is what conservation looks like: protecting the places that bring us together.

Loretto Community

A conservation easement isn't the finish line. It's the beginning.🌿

Long after the paperwork is signed, BLC's Land Stewardship Team is there, caring for protected properties, working alongside landowners, and ensuring Kentucky's farms, forests, waterways, and wildlife remain protected for generations.

Because conservation is forever, and stewardship is how we keep that promise.💚

🌎 Happy World Nature Conservation Day!

Every acre protected tells a story. Whether that of family farms, healthy forests, clean waterways, thriving wildlife, or a Kentucky landscape worth preserving.

Today we're celebrating the landowners, supporters, volunteers, and community members who make conservation possible.💚

Together, we're protecting the places that make the Bluegrass home for today and always.

🌿Thank you for being part of the mission.

☀️Summer in the Bluegrass has a way of reminding us what matters.

🌳Rolling pastures. Shady forests. Winding creeks. Family farms. Wildlife finding a place to thrive.

These places don't stay this way by chance. They endure because people choose to protect them.

At Bluegrass Land Conservancy, we work alongside landowners and communities to permanently protect the farms, forests, waterways, and natural landscapes that make this region so special.

Every acre protected today is a piece of the Bluegrass preserved for tomorrow.💚