Callicoon's Official Farm Plan Shows a Working-Landscape Town

Callicoon’s farm plan gives the town a story with dirt under its shoes. The Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plan treats agriculture as a working landscape that helps maintain rural character. When the plan was prepared, it documented 12,625 farmed acres on 303 parcels.

The number matters because it is attached to daily work. The plan describes dairy, hay and field cropland, cattle, and other livestock as the dominant farm uses, with smaller horse and sheep operations mixed in. Farming also shows up as economy, open space, views, recreation, and community character.

That keeps Callicoon from feeling like empty countryside. The land is doing something. Fields, barns, rented acres, road views, and farm succession all sit inside the town’s identity. A pretty hillside may also be a worksite, a family question, a soil question, and a piece of the local economy. Even a quiet road view can be part of that working pattern.

That is the sturdy part of Callicoon’s rural feel. The farm plan does not turn the town into nostalgia. It shows a living landscape where scenery and work are tied together.