Weston Ag Commission appoints chair to open space panel, plans fruit tree seminar

WESTON — June 9, 2025 — Weston's Agricultural Commission welcomed a new member and began charting a path back to activity after roughly a year of dormancy. Chair Kent Lundberg called the June 9 online meeting to order with three members present, including newly seated Saishaui Tang, and the commission unanimously approved overdue minutes from a March 2023 session and an April 2024 session. Lundberg was appointed on a 2-0-1 vote as the commission's representative to the town's Committee on Open Space and Recreation Plan, a six-month process to update Weston's open space and recreation plan last revised in 2017. The commission discussed seeking Chapter 61 farmland enrollment data from the conservation administrator and the assessor's office to build a map of active farmers in town, and Lundberg flagged a potential proposal to the Select Board for a small grant program — modeled on Lincoln's roughly $5,000-to-$6,000-per-year initiative — to pay local farmers to supply produce to a regional food pantry. The commission also agreed to pursue a public seminar on backyard fruit trees, with Lundberg citing a fresh outreach from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources as a possible resource for speakers.