Land Protection

Why Haven’t You Called, Steven Spielberg?

Charlie Wyman, Senior Land Protection Specialist

When this blogger last reported on the Sibley project in Spencer (Crunch Time in Spencer, November 2011), we had a plan for protection of the magnificent 350-acre Sibley and Warner Farms property, but no funding yet and a $2.91 million goal. 

Well, a lot has happened since then!  December was a banner month, resulting in more than $2.25 million in town and state commitments. What remains is the $650,000 to be raised from the public by May 1 when we have to make a decision whether to exercise our option, which expires in June. As of today we’ve received commitments totaling $315,000, with a month to go!  Talk about crunch time…

But, oh, the prize!  Three hundred and fifty glorious acres of field, forest, and wetlands. Scenic views.  Productive soils. Trails. And if that’s not enough, our state grant will provide funding to add 225 acres to Spencer State Forest next year IF we can protect the Sibley property this year. 

So we’re pulling out all the stops and being as creative as we can in spreading the word. An appeal went out last week to more than 4,000 households in Spencer and surrounding towns.  Posters and brochure dispensers are sprouting around town like the new shoots of spring we see everywhere. “Save Sibley Farm” buttons are the fashion accessory du jour.

Our newest venture is a fundraising video, capturing people’s memories and enthusiasm for the property.  Meryl Streep doesn’t need to worry about competition from the likes of us, but we hope it moves a few people to join us in trying to protect this wonderful landscape.  Have a look at the YouTube video, and then check out the project website at www.sibleyfarm.org.

You can help. Come see the property—walks are being held every weekend this month (see the website for details).  Invite a friend.  Post the project to your Facebook page, or if you’re like me, ask your son or daughter to post it to theirs. Tweet. Wear a button (we’ll send you one). Play a role in securing another piece of the open space legacy we’re trying to create across the state, acre by acre, for our children and our wildlife.

Otters (r e johnson)

Hilltop meadow (Nathan Goshgarian)

Help needed! Patterson Property Success in Sight

Charlie Wyman, Senior Land Protection Specialist

Readers of Gaining Ground may recall our entry about the Patterson property in Barre (Thickening Around the Middle, August 2011).  That opportunity—to protect 50 critical acres surrounded on three sides by our Rutland Brook Wildlife Sanctuary—is at hand.  
Agreement with the family has been reached, “due diligence” (title, appraisal and environmental investigations) are complete, and of the total cost of $167,000 to acquire and care for the property, commitments totaling $123,000 are in hand.  The latter come thanks to a Conservation Partnership grant from the Commonwealth and a generous $45,000 contribution from a private foundation, the good news of which arrived in the last couple of months.  

If we succeed in raising the final $44,000 needed, this wonderful mix of pine/oak/hemlock uplands interspersed with swamp and marsh wetlands will be permanently protected and added to the sanctuary.  The property drains to Osgood Swamp, the magnificent swamp/marsh/fen that dominates the southern part of the sanctuary. 

With the aid of a $15,000 challenge grant that will double every contribution received, we are now in search of conservation-minded individuals who understand the importance of protecting large swaths of our natural areas and habitats. Click here to help us protect these important 50 acres.

Berkshire Bat Cave

Bob Wilber, Director of Land Protection

Some of you may have read a blog posting from me on 11/28/11 about an incredible property in northern Berkshire County that we’re trying to protect. I’m pleased to report that we continue to work in close partnership with Berkshire Natural Resources Council and the state Department of Conservation & Recreation to advance the protection of the nearly 1,300-acre gem.

Like so many of the large tracts of land in Massachusetts that have remained undeveloped to present time, this one has many complexities that will take considerable effort to sort out. And, like many of the other large undeveloped ownerships, the prospect of the compelling conservation outcome is very motivating, indeed.

In the 11/28 post, I relayed that this amazing property has so many reasons to refer to it as special. To give you a better idea what I am talking about, there are several bat caves—like the one pictured below—that are inhabited by five or six species of bats! Pretty cool, eh? The conservation partners will continue to focus on getting this spectacular property into permanent conservation. If you’d like to follow along as we head down that path, look for future updates… same bat channel!

A better protected Barnstable Harbor?

Bob Ford, Land Protection Specialist

We can’t say for sure at this point, but it’s looking promising that we’ll be permanently protecting a beautiful piece of important coastal woodland and salt marsh tidal habitat near Barnstable Harbor. The parcel of land to be protected is the last remaining piece of unprotected open land abutting our Barnstable Great Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary. Protection of this key parcel of land would complete the assemblage of the highest priority parcels that have been identified for the Sanctuary. The land also contains walking trails and serves as a home for an array of wildlife including dragonflies, butterflies, terns, and hawks. Stay tuned for more details about this exciting project! 

View of land to be protected at Barnstable Great Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary

 

Crunch Time in Spencer

Charlie Wyman, Senior Land Protection Specialist

The first two weeks of December are a critical time for our efforts to protect the 352-acre Sibley and Warner Farms.  Any day now, we are expecting word on the state grants that are a needed ingredient in the project’s success.  On December 5th, the state’s Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) Program meets to decide on our application for sale of an APR on the Sibley fields.  Three days later, Spencer Town Meeting will consider a request for a $700,000 appropriation to protect the property, an appropriation that will then go to voters the following Tuesday for approval of the debt exclusion needed under Proposition 2½.  We’ll be nervous wrecks by then!

To learn more about the Sibley and Warner Farms project, visit the partnership’s website at www.sibleyfarm.org and check the blog for the latest news.  Come explore the property without leaving the comfort of your living room: a recent blog entry has You Tube links to an introduction to the natural history of the property with Mass Audubon’s Chris Leahy, or you can join a recent walking tour led by yours truly.  Watch your step crossing the stream!

 

 

An Amazing Berkshire Opportunity Coming Into Focus

Bob Wilber, Director of Land Protection

So what is it that makes a given property important to protect?  It is often a relatively short list that make it compelling for conservation – the property contains great habitat, is the home of rare species, or is located near already conserved land, as examples.  Not surprisingly, the number of reasons to pursue legal protections for a given tract of land is often related to the size of the property – the bigger it is, the greater number of special aspects present. 

Occasionally, one gets introduced to a property with a nearly endless list of special qualities.  That is the case for a property in northern Berkshire County that we have been quietly working on recently with conservation partners, the Berkshire Natural Resources Council and the state Department of Conservation & Recreation.  The property contains extensive limestone geology (botanical diversity), an array of amazing habitats, large numbers of rare species, spectacular vistas, cold water streams, caves inhabited by a number of species of bats, and a sizeable waterfall.  Perhaps most significantly, if protected the 1,000-acre+ property would link two designated Habitat Reserves.  Habitat Reserves, as you may recall, represent the top ten most intact forested landscapes remaining in Massachusetts.  They are the places where plants and animals are projected to have the greatest resilience, as the impacts of Climate Change become more pronounced.

While it is relatively early in the life of this project, I wanted you to be aware of it sooner rather than later.  This is simply one of the most compelling land conservation opportunities existing in this state. Stay tuned for more information regarding this very special place in the coming months.


Photo of scenic vista from property in Northern Berkshire County

Two Chili Dogs with Fried Dough and Land Protection on the Side, Please

Charlie Wyman, Senior Land Protection Specialist

Labor Day weekend saw the 123^rd annual edition of the Spencer Fair, billed as the largest fair in central Massachusetts. Those of us who are part of the conservation partnership trying to save the 350-acre Sibley and Warner farms in Spencer (see previous post, An Exciting Opportunity in Spencer) manned a booth to raise awareness and support for the project. It provided a weekend of great conversations and a fascinating perspective on the world.

We were tucked between the toddler’s play-tent and the tent where the dancing girls prepared for the main stage. The stage itself was just a few feet away, not a bad place to be when the entertainment was good, though the children’s karaoke, while cute, was a little painful. Across from us were trailers serving up Lemon Slush, Fried Dough, and Chili Cheese Fries. (Dr. Oz wouldn’t have approved, but thankfully I don’t park my weak resolve near such places year-round or my wife would be collecting my life insurance by now.) A tractor pull, demolition derby, and heart-stopping amusement rides provided the background soundtrack. Our thanks to Jimmy, who let us stash our literature and posters each night at the back of his Singing Vegetables trailer two doors down.

Over the course of four days we talked to hundreds of people, from all walks of life. What was gratifying was that not a single one told us they’d rather see the property developed. While people differed in their preferences for how the land should be used and managed (hunting? farming? wildlife sanctuary? horses? snowmobiles?), they all preferred open space uses to private development. Many related experiences of the property growing up: how they hunted the land, or visited the farm with a school group, or still cherish a Sibley milk bottle they have on the shelf, a remnant of the farm’s dairy past.

This slice of public sentiment augurs well for our prospects. We will need an appropriation from Spencer Town Meeting and a strong grass-roots fundraising campaign to succeed. The partnership is hard at work exploring options and trying to fit the pieces together in a way that does well by the land, its wildlife, and the people who care for it.  We continue to work building awareness and support. Walks of the property are scheduled for the fall (e-mail me at cwyman@massaudubon.org if you’d like details). With enough good will, creative thinking and hard work, we hope the pieces will fall into place. Like rings falling on a milk bottle in a booth on the midway, but the prize we hope for is too big to carry home tucked under one arm.

 
Land Protection Specialist Charlie Wyman with project poster and cheeseburger. 

Thickening Around the Middle

Charlie Wyman, Senior Land Protection Specialist

Who among us (of which yours truly is surely one) hasn’t run across an old pair of jeans at the back of the closet and thought “I used to fit into those?!?!” That extra inch or two (or three) around the middle seems as inevitable as the relentless march of time itself.

Today I rise whole-heartedly in praise of “thickening around the middle”, at least as far as land conservation is concerned. Out at Mass Audubon’s gem of a property in Barre and Petersham known as Rutland Brook Wildlife Sanctuary, some much hoped for thickening is lining up to take shape. At 1,874 acres the sanctuary is one of Mass Audubon’s largest, and one of its many virtues is that it contains large blocks of unbroken habitat, which the ecologists tell us are particularly valuable in maximizing the diversity of species that a particular refuge can support.

But Rutland Brook has a narrow waist, leaving it vulnerable to development pressure from its edges. We now have an opportunity to thicken its waist, thanks to the conservation commitment of the family of the late Harold and Hazel Patterson. When Mrs. Patterson passed away last fall, two of her children expressed interest to our friends at the East Quabbin Land Trust in selling the property for conservation, and the land trust put them in touch with us. With assistance from an appraiser and surveyor, we have now reached agreement with the family on the purchase of approximately 50 acres on the east side of the sanctuary’s “waist”. 

The property has much to recommend it.  Its topography ranges from steep, boulder-strewn slopes, through gently rolling terrain, to level flats.  The forested uplands are a mix of white pine, red maple, red oak, and eastern hemlock. Wetlands in the valleys include a hemlock/yellow birch swamp, another dominated by red maple, an abandoned beaver meadow, and small areas of shrub swamp that may provide breeding habitat for vernal pool-associated amphibians. The property drains to nearby Osgood Swamp, the magnificent swamp/marsh/fen that dominates the southern part of the sanctuary. 

We are currently working our way through title and other so-called “due diligence” items and plotting funding strategies, with hopes that we can add this wonderful land to the sanctuary sometime this winter or spring. Stay tuned.
 
Above map shows Rutland Brook Wildlife Sanctuary blue and the land to be added in red.

 
Above photo taken on the Patterson land, which will be added to Rutland Brook Wildlife Sanctuary 

An Exciting Opportunity in Spencer!

Charlie Wyman, Senior Land Protection Specialist

Last week Mass Audubon announced an exciting conservation opportunity: protection of the 350-acre former Sibley and Warner farms on Route 9 in Spencer, just five miles west of the Worcester city limits.

This large property consists of farm fields, woodlands, ponds, streams and wet meadows and abuts Mass Audubon’s Burncoat Pond Wildlife Sanctuary.  It had been purchased in 2002-2005 by a developer who obtained permits for 304 condominium units and a 240,000-square-foot retail shopping center. But potential buyers evaporated with the economic downturn, and the bank holding the mortgage foreclosed last year, opening a window of opportunity for conservation.

We have now taken the first critical step towards seizing this opportunity.  In late June Mass Audubon reached agreement in principle with DCU (Digital Federal Credit Union), the new owner, on a one-year option to purchase the property for $2.3 million. 

This is wonderful land, with scenic views across hayfields from Route 9, a large central wetlands complex (with beaver meadows, wooded swamps, ponds and streams) that feeds into Burncoat Pond, and a drumlin with old pasture and hayfields offering distant vistas and good bird habitat.  The MidState Trail passes through the property, and part of it was recently designated by the state as among the most important for preservation of the state’s biodiversity.

Unfortunately, we can’t just write a check to purchase the property, as much as we wish we could.  To be successful will require a coalition of conservation partners, including the town, state agencies, other non-profit land trusts, and individuals.  Both public funds and private donations will be needed.

The town’s SelectBoard and Conservation Commission have expressed support and agreed to submit an application to the state LAND grant program that could provide up to $500,000 towards the purchase.  Two local land trusts, the Greater Worcester Land Trust and the Common Ground Land Trust, a young trust working to protect the open spaces of Spencer and Leicester, have also voiced their support.  Help will be sought from the state’s Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) Program and Conservation Partnership Program. 

But even with lots of help, the majority of funds will need to come from the town of Spencer and private fundraising.  Over the next few weeks, Mass Audubon will engage town boards and other interested parties in an open public discussion to assess the breadth and depth of support for the project, and to map out the details of a protection plan. 

We are not seeking funds at this stage – we are still evaluating the feasibility of the project and discussing with potential conservation partners how best to proceed.  Stay tuned!  If you have questions or suggestions, or would like to get on our mailing list for updates, please contact Senior Land Protection Specialist Charlie Wyman at cwyman@massaudubon.org or 781-259-2174.  Thank you!

 
 

 

 

Conservation begets conservation

Bob Ford, Land Protection Specialist

As an old Greek proverb says, kindness begets kindness. Similarly, conservation often begets conservation. 

Such is the case with our recent efforts to purchase and preserve 75 ecologically sensitive acres in the Rowley Great Marsh owned by the Oak Knoll Realty Trust. Our activity on this conservation initiative in Rowley has begotten more conservation activity! (See our webpage for information on the progress we’ve made and the challenge we face during the home stretch of this critically important conservation project.)  

A landowner that abuts the Oak Knoll Realty Trust land is now working with Mass Audubon to donate their 10 acres to the cause, which will increase the total amount of salt marsh to be protected through our efforts to 85 acres! The enlarged scope of what was already a significant salt marsh conservation project will provide an enormous protective benefit to the salt marsh ecosystem of the Rowley Great Marsh, now and forever. We hope to receive this gift around the same time as we hope to close on the Oak Knoll land, which we currently anticipate to take place in September 2011.