Farm Infrastructure

Agriculture has been central to the Sunnyside landscape for centuries, and its footprint — past and current — can be found almost everywhere. Over the years, we have removed massive amounts of barbed wire and all forms of trash and junk.  At the same time, we have marveled at how wildlife have come to depend on other relic infrastructure.  Barn owls nest in the abandoned grain silo. Bears, bobcats, spotted skunks, and long-tailed weasels use stone walls as transit corridors while spotted salamanders, skinks, snakes, and rodents live within them. Old livestock watering ponds serve as vernal pools, providing essential habitat for amphibians to mate and lay their eggs. An old cistern deep within a regenerating forest retains water year-round, providing further amphibian habitat, a drinking source for birds and mammals and even a bathtub for bears. Irrigation ponds have become wildlife magnets (so much so that they’ve earned a separate category). Managing these elements to sustain and enhance their biodiversity has been a surprising aspect of our work and has influenced our thinking in regards to current farm infrastructure (barns, sheds, fences, etc.) as well.

Conservations Practices: Most of the farm’s legacy infrastructure had fallen into disrepair by  the time we arrived in 2006. Invasive plants like multiflora rose and Japanese honeysuckle had  engulfed the stone walls and old cisterns. Ailanthus trees, another harmful invasive species,  had sprouted like beanstalks in the silo. Livestock ponds would hold water in early spring but frequently dry up by June — enticing amphibians to lay their eggs but stranding tadpoles before  metamorphosis could occur. Rather than eliminating these structures, we have opted to clean up, restore and maintain them, not for their originally intended functions but to maximize their wildlife benefits. After ridding the silo of ailanthus and removing vines and other trees pressing on its exterior, we installed a barn owl box. We continue to restore old stone walls. We’ve installed a pond liner under a former livestock watering hole near the farm entrance and added branches and logs to serve as anchoring points for frogs and salamanders to attach their egg masses.  As we consider our current farm infrastructure, we’ve opted to share our barns, sheds and farm office spaces with red foxes, barn and cliff swallows, Eastern phoebes, Carolina wrens and black rat snakes. We’ve set aside space in our heated greenhouse to raise native grasses, forbs, shrubs and trees collected from seed on the property for later replanting or sale.

Indicator Species: Black bear, bobcat, red fox, Eastern spotted skunk, long-tailed weasel, Allegheny  woodrat, barn owl, barn swallow, cliff swallow, Carolina wren, spotted salamander, wood frog, fairy shrimp

Goods and Services: Sunnyside is one of Rappahannock County’s most historic properties,  and opting to preserve elements of its agricultural heritage is a way of honoring and  remembering that legacy.

Explore Other Ecosystem Features

Orchards
Production Fields & High Tunnels
Hayfields & Pastures
Relic & Existing Farm Infrastructure
Native Meadows & Savannas
Ponds
Stream Corridors & Hedgerows
Forest
Manicured Areas