Whip's Farm Crew

Read below for an essay excerpted from 50 Remarkable Years, 50 Remarkable People, Wildlands’ 50th anniversary book honoring the partners and volunteers who have made remarkable contributions to land conservation in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Read “The Next Remarkable Chapter,” our series introduction by President Karen Grey.

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Working lands, the farms and forests that sustain livelihoods and produce human necessities like food and building materials, are disappearing across Southeastern Massachusetts. Our region has lost over 70 percent of its farms in the past 50 years as retiring farmers opt for soaring offers from commercial and residential developers for their land. Farms are integral to our communities’ economic, cultural, and ecological vitality.

Our partnership with Whip’s Farm in the Chiltonville village of Plymouth exemplifies how a land trust and an operating farm can work together for the benefit of the community.

Whip’s Farm is owned by Nuff Withington, who has lived on the land for most of his adult life. Passed down to Nuff by his grandfather, Sherman Whipple, these beautiful agricultural fields serve as the centerpiece of one of the most important agricultural corridors in the region, and certainly one of the most scenic neighborhoods in Plymouth.

Wildlands Trust owns 60 acres of farmland adjacent to Whip’s Farm, which we license to farmers who produce hay, corn, and hops for local craft beer. We rely on the crew from Whip’s Farm for the hard work, expertise, and equipment they donate to ensure that our fields are productive and well-maintained. Thank you to the Whip’s Farm crew, who do so much for Wildlands Trust: Tommy, Stephanie, Kathy, Jimmy, Nuff, Heidi, Ann, Jock, and Willa, the farm dog.

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Click through the gallery below for more photos from Whip’s Farm.

Tricia Cassady & Bill Napolitano

Read below for an essay excerpted from 50 Remarkable Years, 50 Remarkable People, Wildlands’ 50th anniversary book honoring the partners and volunteers who have made remarkable contributions to land conservation in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Read “The Next Remarkable Chapter,” our series introduction by President Karen Grey.

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For almost thirty years, Wildlands has afforded high priority to land protection in the Taunton River watershed, and particularly in communities along the river’s mainstem. Two of our valued partners in this work are Bill Napolitano and Tricia Cassady.

Recently retired from a stellar 35-year career as the Senior Environmental Planner for the regional planning agency SRPEDD (Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District), Bill has long been our first-call contact for all topics pertaining to the Taunton watershed. Always willing to share his wisdom, Bill’s vast knowledge of the region’s ecology, natural and human history, and political landscape has helped inform our work, and will continue to do so for some time to come.

Tricia Cassady serves with distinction as the Town of Middleborough’s Conservation Agent. In addition to including many miles of the Taunton River and the entirety of the 11.2-mile Nemasket River, the Town of Middleborough is the second-largest community in the state by total land area. Within that expansive geography are abundant opportunities to protect some of the region’s most ecologically significant properties and habitats. Tricia has been a catalyst for numerous successful projects in partnership with Wildlands. We rely on Tricia’s consensus-building skills, strategic acumen, and ability to see a project through to completion, as well as her steadfast professionalism and good humor.

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Briggs Family

Read below for an essay excerpted from 50 Remarkable Years, 50 Remarkable People, Wildlands’ 50th anniversary book honoring the partners and volunteers who have made remarkable contributions to land conservation in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Read “The Next Remarkable Chapter,” our series introduction by President Karen Grey.

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“He would be very pleased to see the Wildlands Trust of today,” says Rusty Briggs about his late father and longtime Wildlands Trust board member, Lebaron R. Briggs III. 

A consummate executive, Lebaron spent his free time roaming his beautiful land in South Plymouth and masterminding its protection. He stands apart as a man with a plan for his land.  

Today, Halfway Pond Conservation Area is a rare ecological gem, complete with pine barrens, wetlands, mixed-oak forests, and beautiful pond shoreline. Rare plants and wildlife abound. The property was protected through Lebaron’s extraordinary planning and leadership, which inspired his children and others to donate more land to this magnificent preserve. Halfway Pond Conservation Area stands apart as the largest and most ecologically significant parcel in the Wildlands portfolio. 

Lebaron’s children, Peggy and Rusty (pictured above), and extended family are still intimately involved with Wildlands Trust. The Briggs family legacy around land conservation will live on for generations and continue to inspire the work we do. 

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Sam Chapin & Howard Randall

Read below for an essay excerpted from 50 Remarkable Years, 50 Remarkable People, Wildlands’ 50th anniversary book honoring the partners and volunteers who have made remarkable contributions to land conservation in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Read “The Next Remarkable Chapter,” our series introduction by President Karen Grey.

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Many nonprofits assess potential board members by the depth of their pockets and the size of their Rolodex. However, Wildlands Trust considers first and foremost how a person’s experience will add a new skill or perspective to the board conversation. Our board thrives as a mixed table of farmers, accountants, biologists, lawyers, foresters, and entrepreneurs, all bound by a commitment to protecting land.  

For the past three decades, the task of managing this diverse group has fallen on the capable shoulders of the three most recent board chairs of Wildlands Trust, Sam Chapin, Howard Randall, and Doug Hart (to be featured later in this series). Yet the vast contributions of these individuals go far beyond encouraging all to speak and ensuring all are heard. 

Born and raised in Southeastern Massachusetts, Howard Randall’s connections with landowners are unsurpassed. A community leader and true champion of land protection, Howard made it his personal mission to introduce Wildlands to any and every person with important land holdings. Brockton Audubon Preserve, Great River Preserve, the Cortelli Preserves, and Striar Conservancy are just a few of the signature land protection projects that he brought to Wildlands Trust. Howard’s relationships and commitment have led to the protection of thousands of acres of invaluable land across the region. 

Sam Chapin spent his boyhood summers on the shores of Plymouth’s Lond Pond, where he lives today and where his extended family still gathers each summer. Sam, a career engineer, drove efforts to purchase Davis-Douglas Farm and establish it as the Trust’s new headquarters. As chair of the two working subcommittees focused on fundraising and construction, Sam’s leadership of the Davis-Douglas Farm campaign opened one of the most important chapters in the evolution of Wildlands Trust. Sam serves as our current board chair.

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Mary Waldron & Joyce Voorhis

Read below for an essay excerpted from 50 Remarkable Years, 50 Remarkable People, Wildlands’ 50th anniversary book honoring the partners and volunteers who have made remarkable contributions to land conservation in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Read “The Next Remarkable Chapter,” our series introduction by President Karen Grey.

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In 2012, Wildlands Trust protected and restored a 250-acre urban open space with 4.3 miles of nature trails in Brockton, the largest city in our region. Today, as part of our commitment to providing access to nature for all people, Wildlands carries a full suite of programs and services specifically designed to support this environmental justice community that falls near the bottom of state rankings for open space.  

At first, building relationships with local schools and learning to navigate Brockton politics was a daunting task. So when two prominent city leaders stepped forward to help us find our way, we felt grateful and relieved. These kind faces were Joyce Voorhis and Mary Waldron. 

Some of our earliest work in Brockton was with the public high school, where Joyce Voorhis, the science department chair, paved the way for Wildlands Trust to coach the school's Envirothon team. Over the past eight years, the Brockton team has earned some impressive accolades, including first prize for their current issue project in 2018. Joyce and her Wildlands Trust collaborators were recognized with the Secretary’s Award for Excellence in Energy and Environmental Education in both 2017 and 2019.  

Mary Waldron knows and loves her city. She abounds with enthusiasm for anything that might create a better future for the people of Brockton. As Executive Director of the Old Colony Planning Council, Mary has advocated for incorporating open space objectives in city planning. She has made important introductions for Wildlands Trust and has generously shared her long contact list with us as we lead a project to restore the beloved 800-acre D.W. Field Park, Brockton’s most important open space asset. 

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Charlotte Russell

Read below for an essay excerpted from 50 Remarkable Years, 50 Remarkable People, Wildlands’ 50th anniversary book honoring the partners and volunteers who have made remarkable contributions to land conservation in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Read “The Next Remarkable Chapter,” our series introduction by President Karen Grey.

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Big ideas often start with a small step, but that step is often clouded in uncertainty.

In 1973, Mary Emery took a chance. “She gathered us together and asked me and my brothers if we would agree to donate the property for conservation,” said Mary’s daughter and Wildlands Trustee Emeritus, Charlotte Emery Russell. With the concept of a regional land trust barely off the ground, Mary Emery and her children made a bold decision that would turn out to have enormous implications. They donated the family’s beautiful 126-acre wooded parcel in South Plymouth to the fledgling Plymouth County Wildlands Trust. Emery Preserve became Wildlands’ first property and the eventual centerpiece of the Davis-Douglas Conservation Area. This small step paved the way for others to follow, with each new parcel of protected land building momentum toward the big idea: a strong regional land trust to protect the unique lands and natural resources of Southeastern Massachusetts.

The Emery family is considered the “First Family” of Wildlands Trust. Charlotte Emery Russell, a stalwart conservationist, carries on the family’s commitment to Wildlands Trust through her many years of board leadership, including her role in raising the funds for Davis-Douglas Farm, Wildlands’ current headquarters.

Thank you to the Emery family for taking a chance on Wildlands Trust, a big idea that today protects over 350 properties in 55 towns across the region. And it all started with a small step.

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Bill Keohane & David Gould

Read below for an essay excerpted from 50 Remarkable Years, 50 Remarkable People, Wildlands’ 50th anniversary book honoring the partners and volunteers who have made remarkable contributions to land conservation in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Read “The Next Remarkable Chapter,” our series introduction by President Karen Grey.

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A fabled rock, the first Thanksgiving, and early relations between Indigenous peoples and the Pilgrims highlight the widely known cultural history of Plymouth, Massachusetts. However, there is much more to the story of America’s oldest town.

Plymouth, a high-priority town for Wildlands Trust, is the largest town in Massachusetts. Few towns anywhere can boast the natural assets of Plymouth, including 37 miles of coastline, 450 ponds, large swaths of globally rare pine barrens, and newly undammed rivers running through healthy forests and into the ocean.

Featuring significant tracts of open land and located within driving distance of Boston, Plymouth has a lot at stake. No one understands this better than Wildlands partners Bill Keohane, Chair of the Plymouth Community Preservation Committee, and David Gould, Director of the Plymouth Department of Marine and Environmental Affairs. Bill has worked with Wildlands on dozens of land protection projects. Few are as committed or as adept as Bill at finding land, negotiating with landowners, and shepherding projects through town meetings for approval.

Leading with dedication and expertise, David is among the most respected municipal natural resource managers in the country. His work on ambitious dam removal projects and large-scale wetland restorations spearheads the collaborative effort to reverse environmental degradation in Plymouth.

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Bob Bird

Read below for an essay excerpted from 50 Remarkable Years, 50 Remarkable People, Wildlands’ 50th anniversary book honoring the partners and volunteers who have made remarkable contributions to land conservation in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Read “The Next Remarkable Chapter,” our series introduction by President Karen Grey.

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For many years, Wildlands Trust coveted a handful of private parcels abutting our Halfway Pond Conservation Area. Methodically, we worked with landowners and funders to protect three of them, while a fourth parcel, a 36-acre gem featuring a 12,000-square-foot hillside estate, seemed out of reach.  

Bob Bird spent his childhood summers in that big house on the hill. It was built in the 1920s by his grandfather Lebaron Russell Barker, an early leader in the cranberry industry. After living in Los Angeles for much of his adult life, Bob retired to Plymouth with his wife Marjorie and built a home on Halfway Pond, across from his grandfather’s former estate. With a strong interest in the natural heritage of the area, he got involved with Wildlands Trust and soon became a valued member of the board and finance committee. 

As a principal architect of the Stewardship Training Center, Bob was inspired to establish a dedicated site to train and engage more people in the care of conservation land. It was an added benefit that the project could lead to the protection of his grandfather’s estate. Bob worked side-by-side with Wildlands staff to develop the concept, the business model, and the funding plan for this newly launched initiative, which sits on 18,000 acres of public open space, the largest such expanse in Eastern Massachusetts. 

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Pat Loring & Gary Langenbach

Read below for an essay excerpted from 50 Remarkable Years, 50 Remarkable People, Wildlands’ 50th anniversary book honoring the partners and volunteers who have made remarkable contributions to land conservation in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Read “The Next Remarkable Chapter,” our series introduction by President Karen Grey.

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Wildlands Trust serves 55 towns in a vast 1,700-square-mile area of Southeastern Massachusetts that nearly one-third of the state’s residents call home. We advance our mission by working hand-in-glove with local conservation leaders who understand the open space objectives of their towns, grasp the political landscape, and are familiar with important landowners, who are often their friends and neighbors. Pat Loring and Gary Langenbach epitomize the local leadership we rely upon to do our work. They are true heroes of land conservation in our region.

The conservation ethic in the town of Duxbury runs deep. As one of the first towns in Massachusetts to designate conservation land, Duxbury is stunning, with healthy forests, unspoiled barrier beaches, and bountiful salt marshes. Its natural beauty is the result of visionary leadership that worked to protect all that makes the town special. Over the past 30 years, Pat Loring has led that charge. She is responsible for the protection of cranberry bogs, forests, religious lands, coastal properties, and the town’s historic dairy farm. Her land preservation instincts and skills are second to none.

Duxbury’s neighbor to the south, the town of Kingston, has received similar benefits from the leadership of Gary Langenbach, a long-time member and chair of the Kingston Conservation Commission. A native of the region, Gary has spent a lifetime exploring the remote corners of Southeastern Massachusetts. He has a wealth of knowledge about open lands and served for two decades as the chair of the Wildlands Trust Lands Committee, which visits and vets each parcel of land we consider for protection.

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Malcolm MacGregor

Read below for an essay excerpted from 50 Remarkable Years, 50 Remarkable People, Wildlands’ 50th anniversary book honoring the partners and volunteers who have made remarkable contributions to land conservation in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Read “The Next Remarkable Chapter,” our series introduction by President Karen Grey.

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Hiking is the most popular outdoor activity in the U.S. today, with nearly 60 million Americans identifying as trail users. The human health benefits of nature are significant, and creating access for all people to enjoy conservation land is a priority for Wildlands Trust.  

In 2013, Malcolm MacGregor, a long-time resident of Plymouth, was exploring options for how to spend his time during an impending one-year sabbatical from his job as a GIS professor. An avid hiker and expert mapmaker, Malcolm reached out to Wildlands and offered his services as a volunteer. Without a moment of hesitation, we accepted his proposal and quickly put Malcolm to work, side-by side with our staff, in an office he would occupy for the next ten years.  

Hundreds of miles of hiking trails weave through Plymouth, and Malcolm knows every inch of them. From Myles Standish State Forest to Wildlands Trust preserves to town conservation lands, Malcolm has explored them all, and has spent the last decade introducing these trails to the public. Working with Wildlands programming staff, Malcolm leads monthly guided hikes to help people of all backgrounds enjoy our protected lands. He has both developed nascent hikers and encouraged seasoned trail veterans to go farther, earning him the moniker “Trail Guy.” 

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