Bates Lane Conservation Area in Scituate.
By Scott MacFaden, Director of Land Protection
Editor’s Note: This land protection update first appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of Wildlands News, our biannual print newsletter for Wildlands Trust members. Be the first to hear about Wildlands projects and events by becoming a member today at wildlandstrust.org/membership.
Another Duxbury CPA CR in Hand
In November 2024, we completed the DeLorenzo Community Preservation Act (CPA) Conservation Restriction (CR) in Duxbury.
The 27-acre DeLorenzo property was a priority for preservation primarily because of its direct proximity to the northern portion of the Historic O’Neil Farm, potential to support agricultural activities, wildlife habitat value in the form of two potential vernal pools, and location within a Zone II Wellhead Protection Area.
Duxbury residents approved the purchase of the property at the Annual Town Meeting in March 2018, and the Town closed on the land in October 2018. The Town used CPA funds to acquire the Property. The Town is granting the CR to Wildlands to comply with the CPA’s requirement that every CPA-funded open space acquisition be protected with a CR running to a qualified third-party entity.
The DeLorenzo property in Duxbury, along its boundary with the O’Neil Farm.
The DeLorenzo parcel is irregularly shaped and includes two non-contiguous areas of road frontage on Route 53. Apart from a cleared area in its center and a rectangular strip of open field running parallel to its southern boundary line with the O’Neil Farm, the property is primarily wooded. It includes two distinct areas of mixed deciduous/coniferous wooded wetland, with the largest such area extending southwesterly into the O’Neil Farm. Topography is mostly level.
A local farmer licenses a portion of the DeLorenzo property from the Town to raise sheep, goats, and chickens, and maintain beehives. The farmer’s future plans include constructing hoop houses to grow produce and establishing a seasonal farmstand.
Wildlands Accepts Assignment of Two CRs in Scituate and Cohasset
On May 1, in the latest of a series of partnerships with local land trusts in our service area, we accepted an assignment of two CRs comprising 98.4 acres, mostly in Scituate and partially in Cohasset, from the Maxwell Conservation Trust. Formed in 1997, the Scituate-based all-volunteer land trust is legally dissolving and identified Wildlands as a qualified entity to accept the CR assignments.
Over the past two decades, we have collaborated with several all-volunteer land trusts that determined their most prudent option was to transfer their assets and then dissolve, including the Swansea Land Trust, the Milton Land Conservation Trust, and the Brockton Audubon Society.
Bates Lane Conservation Area in Scituate.
Both CRs protect land owned by the Town of Scituate and located within a 330-acre expanse of Town conservation land known as the Bates Lane Conservation Area.
Completed in 2007, the Moncy CR protects 45.3 acres along the north side of Bates Lane and two smaller contiguous parcels situated approximately 1,000 feet to the north. All three parcels are primarily wooded upland but include pockets of wetlands. The Moncy CR is situated within areas the Commonwealth’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP) identifies as significant wildlife habitats.
Completed in 2011, the Wheelwright-Bjorklund CR protects 53 total acres—51.1 acres in Scituate and 2 acres just over the municipal boundary in Cohasset. The land protected by this CR is primarily wooded and mostly upland, with variable topography. The Wheelwright-Bjorklund CR is also situated within multiple areas NHESP identifies as significant wildlife habitats.
The CRs represent our first acquisitions of any kind in Scituate and Cohasset.
We thank the Maxwell Conservation Trust for its years of dedication to preserving land, and for entrusting these CRs to our stewardship.