By Lisa Romano

Nina and Ron Coler would have made great pioneers; fitting that they live in the Pioneer Valley. These 13 year residents of Ashfield have found a way to live off the grid and off the land, while preserving a modern way of life.

Thirteen years ago, after growing tired of watching the loss of their favorite places to sprawl in Norwell, MA, the Colers decided to head west, seeking an area that still had large tracts of open space and hoping to be closer to the homes where they grew up. They landed in Ashfield, on a wooded, approximately 130-acre piece of land at the end of a dirt road.

The land, however, was missing a house and so they set to work designing their future home. The property was also missing a connection to “the Grid”, that mythical beast that delivers electricity, phone, and cable to our doorsteps. Presented with their options, the Colers considered the costs and potential consequences of extending power and phone lines to their property; it would require $15,000 and the possibility that extending the grid would promote development around their new home. On the other hand, they realized they had a second option . . . to produce their own power and avoid having to bring it to their homestead.

Already a conservation-minded couple (Nina was chairman of the recycling committee in Norwell), the Colers decided to take advantage of their unique opportunity: to design a fully self-sustainable, off-the-grid home from scratch, and to do so for the same price of what the power lines would have cost them. Ron Coler, an engineer with a firm based in Norwell, along with the help of an electrician friend, managed to do most of the work involved in designing and installing their solar electric system, the primary system involved in keeping the family off the grid. At the same time, Nina, an artist and lover of the traditional New England Cape, designed their home in a way that was in keeping with tradition yet maximized its efficiency. The result is a beautiful home that is warmed in the winter with one centrally located wood stove, that runs off solar-generated electricity about 350 days per year, and that is lived in by two people who have become only more aware of the footprint they leave on the land.

The Colers experience much of the value of their land in terms of the sustainability it provides them. Like the pioneers, they gather their energy from the sun, feed themselves from their large gardens, and warm themselves with the wood they gather. Of course, the pioneers may not have felt that chopping and splitting wood was “a vacation away from work,” as Nina explained Ron’s feeling for it, nor is it likely they had time to make their own beer and wine, enough to fill a large cellar, but in the 21st century “living with a smaller footprint doesn’t have to mean living in a tent,” says Ron. “We both grew up around here making things from scratch,” explains Nina, “and so now that we have the ability to really live that way is nice.”

The Colers are stewards of their land and woods, beyond their doorstep. While not currently in a management plan, Ron, who earned a masters degree in forestry from UMass Amherst, is knowledgeable about good forestry techniques, which he puts into practice when he collects the five cords of wood it takes them to stay warm throughout the winter. “What I’m trying to do,” Ron says, “is reverse the trend of selective cutting on this property over the last 200 years.” Their goal is to be surrounded by healthy forest that serves wildlife as well as it serves them. They also see the value in their land as a community resource and have happily opened their trails up to snowmobilers, skiers, hikers, and horses.

In the interest of ensuring their land remains open, they gifted most of their development rights to the Franklin Land Trust so that no development outside of a small area near their house and the road can occur anytime in the future. After having seen development run rampant in Norwell, it was important to them to do what they could to protect their corner of Ashfield. “You can’t fault people for selling their land if they need the money and have to,” Nina says, “but that’s where it’s nice to have the land trust that can step in and maybe keep the land open.” Nina sits on the board of the Franklin Land Trust and Green Ashfield committee and serves as chairman of the parks commission, all in order to help protect the other corners of Franklin County as well. The Colers also have a habit of opening up their home to environmental groups for educational purposes and are more than happy to share their experience of living untethered from the grid with anyone who will listen; they are certainly strong advocates for sustainability.

The Colers are not just concerned with their own property and they have become heavily invested in preserving the character of Ashfield. In the interest of avoiding new development near the Edge Hill Golf Course in Ashfield, they rallied their neighbors and managed to raise a hefty amount of funding in order to put the land in question under conservation restriction with the land trust. And they recently secured permission to have green burial sites for themselves and their immediate family on their property; they plan on remaining on their land until it’s time to make use of this permission. Like pioneers of the past, the Colers will live off their land until they return to it. And thanks to the conservation efforts they have made, that land will remain in its open state in perpetuity.