Pat Loring and Lorrie Hall Honored

Lorrie Hall and Pat Loring.

On September 28, the Town of Duxbury honored Pat Loring and Lorrie Hall for their exceptional contributions to local and regional conservation.

About 30 municipal and nonprofit partners gathered at the Duxbury Senior Center to express their gratitude for Pat and Lorrie’s decades-long commitment to open space preservation. In Pat and Lorrie’s honor, commemorative benches will be installed at Historic O’Neil Farm.

Wildlands Trust has benefited greatly from the devotion of these two conservation champions. Pat, a Wildlands board member, has led Duxbury’s open space efforts for 30 years through roles with various local committees. Lorrie’s foresight and generosity facilitated the permanent protection of Hoyt-Hall Preserve in Marshfield, Historic O’Neil Farm in Duxbury, and other irreplaceable natural areas.

Never one to take credit for her many successes, Pat expressed gratitude for her conservation partners. “It takes all of us, and I’m so happy to be part of all of your teams,” she said. “It’s very nice to be honored, but we do it together, and it’s a fabulous town to be doing it in. So thank you.”

At the ceremony, Director of Field Operations Erik Boyer relayed comments from President Karen Grey and Director of Land Protection Scott MacFaden about Pat and Lorrie’s collective impact on the Wildlands mission. Read on to see what Karen and Scott had to say.

Karen Grey on Pat Loring

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 epitomizes the local leadership we rely upon to do our work. She is a true hero 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.

Click here to hear from Pat Loring herself as part of our “50 Years, 50 people” video series.

Pat Loring and Erik Boyer.

Scott MacFaden on Lorrie Hall

As a nonprofit organization, Wildlands Trust’s success in pursuing our land conservation mission is heavily dependent upon the generosity of those who financially support our work. Duxbury resident Lorrie Hall is one of those donors who have made an indelible contribution to our work and to her community of Duxbury.

Lorrie’s philanthropy is a continuation of a cherished family tradition. Among other interests, her parents were ardent supporters of the Duxbury Bay Maritime School, a Duxbury institution that thrives to this day. Lorrie learned early on that all philanthropy is valuable, but local philanthropy can often witness the most tangible results.

Lorrie’s profound commitment to the betterment of her community through open space preservation is manifested across the Duxbury landscape. Most particularly, Lorrie was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the Historic O’Neil Farm preservation project, which culminated in the permanent preservation of Duxbury’s last dairy farm, and one of the town’s most significant open space assemblages. Lorrie’s substantial commitment provided the nascent project with a vital fundraising base, and just as importantly, credibility. Without Lorrie’s initial leadership, it is very unlikely that O’Neil Farm would today benefit from permanent conservation protection.

In a time when Americans seem more rootless than ever and nurturing community connections is yet more challenging, Lorrie stands out for her unwavering belief in and support for her community of Duxbury. She has provided a bright shining example for others to emulate in the years ahead.

Erik Boyer addresses ceremony attendees.

Thank you, Pat and Lorrie, for your selfless dedication to land conservation in Duxbury and beyond! We are grateful to have you on our team, and excited to continue working with you both!

Crystal Spring Preserve is Open!

By Thomas Patti, Communications Coordinator

Crystal Spring Preserve in Plainville.

Crystal Spring Preserve, our first property in Plainville, is officially OPEN! 

Wildlands Trust’s acquisition of this special place came in late 2022 after a 20-year partnership with the land’s previous caretakers, the Crystal Spring Center for Ecology, Spirituality, and Earth Education. Learn more about the preserve’s rich human and natural history at our property webpage here. 

TRAIL MAP AND PROPERTY DESCRIPTION: CLICK HERE 

Crystal Spring Preserve.

Preparing the property for public access took the sustained effort of our extended stewardship team, including staff and faithful volunteers. Between February and May, three volunteer workdays moved the preserve incrementally closer to its current accessible state. Thank you to all the volunteers who came out to help us take this huge step in expanding our regional land conservation portfolio! 

As is the case for many of our properties, “stewardship” at Crystal Spring Preserve goes far beyond clearing trails and removing debris. In addition, we are entrusted with less tangible, though equally critical, resources—a story we hope to carry on, and a vision we strive to sustain. Sister Barbara Harrington, Sister Chris Loughlin, and the entire Crystal Spring Center team saw the property as a place for both children and adults to get in touch with their spiritual connection to nature. Evidence of this philosophy can be found throughout the preserve, as well as in the passionate words of all who engaged with the Crystal Spring Center. Preserving these stories is paramount to our effective stewardship of the land. 

Volunteers at our April workday explore the Meditation Circle, a former education site of the Crystal Spring Center for Ecology, Spirituality, and Earth Education.

“[The Crystal Spring Center] invited Wildlands Trust into a dream,” said Sister Barbara. “It became a mutually enhancing relationship. We then became part of your dream, too. And something new and really quite wonderful has ensued.” (Watch Sister Barbara and Kathy McGrath speak about Crystal Spring Preserve for our 50 Years, 50 People series here.) 

During our April volunteer day, the stewardship team came across several trail signs from the property’s Crystal Spring Center era. After sitting on the forest floor for years, these painted wooden planks and stumps had seen better days. But the care and devotion that had been spent on their production were instantly clear. “Insects have searched for sacred spaces on Earth for 395 million years,” reads one sign adorned with ants, bees, and butterflies. The Wildlands team brought these signs back to our Plymouth headquarters to restore them to their former glory before returning them to the Crystal Spring trails. 

Sister Barbara Harrington (fourth from right) and the Wildlands stewardship team display well-worn trail signs at Crystal Spring Preserve.

This project and others will help us uphold our obligation to holistically preserve the land—trees, ponds, stories, and signs alike. Stay tuned for updates. 

See you on the trails! 

Spring 2023 Land Acquisitions Update

By Scott MacFaden, Director of Land Protection

The Lake Street CR includes frontage on Jones River Brook, a tributary of the Jones River (pictured). Photo by Jimmy Powell of Jones River Landing.

Thus far in 2023, we’ve completed several projects that protect a diverse array of habitats and conservation values, and in one case further strengthen a long-standing collaboration with one of our municipal partners. 

Lake Street CR, Plympton 

In January, we completed a 31-acre Conservation Restriction in northeast Plympton near the Kingston line. The CR area is part of a larger privately owned property that will include a solar energy installation. Because the proposed project site is within mapped habitat for the Eastern Box Turtle, a species of “Special Concern” as identified by the Commonwealth’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP), the project proponents were required to grant the CR. 

The CR protects land identified by NHESP as containing significant wildlife habitat, including “Priority Habitat of Rare Species” and “Estimated Habitats of Rare Wildlife.”  The CR land includes frontage on Jones River Brook, a tributary of the Jones River.   

As solar projects continue to proliferate across Southeastern Massachusetts, those that are proposed within areas subject to NHESP’s regulatory purview typically require the granting of a CR. We are actively evaluating several other solar project-associated CR’s across the region, and expect we will be offered more projects of this type in the future.   

McCarthy Farm Conservation Area CR, Rockland 

In March, we secured a Conservation Restriction (CR) on 36 acres in southwest Rockland. The Town of Rockland acquired the parcel in late 2021 using Community Preservation Act and other state funds. To learn more about the history and natural profile of the property, click here. 

Sleeper Conservation Area CR, Hanson 

The Bay Circuit Trail, a 200-mile hiking path that lies near the Sleeper Conservation Area in Hanson. By John Phelan, CC BY 3.0

In April, we completed a 12-acre Community Preservation Act (CPA) CR on the Town of Hanson’s Sleeper Conservation Area. Acquired by the Town in 2022 with a combination of CPA funds and a Local Acquisitions for Natural Diversity (LAND) grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Sleeper Conservation Area primarily comprises forested upland, punctuated by several isolated pockets of wooded deciduous wetland. 

The Sleeper Conservation Area’s position within the broader landscape bolsters its conservation impact. It directly abuts the Town of Hanson’s Camp Kiwanee, a long-cherished community asset on Maquan Pond, as well as the Town’s Alton J. Smith Preserve and the neighboring Town of Pembroke’s Town Forest. The preservation of the Sleeper Conservation Area thus strengthens the landscape connectivity between these two municipally owned open space assemblages. 

A section of the Bay Circuit Trail, the premier long-distance hiking trail in Eastern Massachusetts, runs just to the west of the conservation area. Preserving this parcel helps protect the scenic integrity of the trail’s corridor and maintain the recreational value of this regionally and historically significant footpath, a chronological contemporary of the Appalachian Trail.   

In addition to its favorable landscape context, significance for wildlife corridor connectivity, and proximity to the Bay Circuit Trail, the Sleeper Conservation Area also contributes to water resources protection. The parcel lies within multiple areas identified by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection as significant for drinking water and aquifer protection, and sits near Great Sandy Bottom Pond, which provides drinking water for the neighboring towns of Rockland and Abington.   

The LAND grant award was critical to obtaining the support of Hanson Town Meeting voters for the project. The award provided almost two-thirds of the project’s funding, with CPA funds providing the balance. As part of our ongoing partnership with the Town of Hanson, Wildlands staff helped prepare the LAND grant application and provided additional assistance as needed. Many thanks to Hanson Conservation Commission Chair Phil Clemons, whose indefatigable efforts ensured the project’s success. Phil has served as our primary contact person in Hanson for decades, and is a true champion of all things conservation. 

Upcoming Projects 

We’re working to close more acquisitions over the next several months, including projects in Middleboro, Bridgewater, and Rehoboth. Stay tuned! 

Get Involved

Hoping to protect your property’s natural and cultural heritage for generations to come? Learn about Conservation Restrictions, Deed Restrictions, land donations, and more on our Conserve Your Land page.

Late Summer Land Acquisitions Update

By Scott MacFaden, Director of Land Protection

Thus far in 2022, we’ve completed a variety of projects across our coverage area that protect a diverse array of habitats and conservation values, including properties on two of the region’s major rivers.

In February, we completed the first two phases of a long-contemplated project that will create our first preserve in Plainville. These first two steps involved adding another two acres to the 33.5-acre Conservation Restriction (CR) we’ve held on lands of the Crystal Spring Center for Ecology, Spirituality, and Earth Education Inc., since 2008, and then assigning the expanded CR to another qualified nonprofit conservation organization—the Attleboro Land Trust. With those steps concluded, the third and final step will transfer the “fee simple,” or outright ownership of the property, from Crystal Spring to Wildlands Trust. We expect that final transfer to occur before year’s end.

A drone's view of Sylvester Field and the Indian Head River in Hanover. Photo by Jerry Monkman.

In June, we acquired five acres in Norwell along the North River that protects important habitat for marsh wrens. Donated by the Estate of Clayton Robinson, the parcel represents the culmination of the Sylvester Field Preservation Project, through which we previously protected 20 contiguous acres along the Third Herring Brook in nearby Hanover.

In late July, we purchased 30 acres on Halfway Pond in Plymouth that was the largest remaining unprotected parcel on the pond’s west shore, and consequently one of our longest-standing preservation priorities. The property includes pockets of Pine Barrens, a globally rare natural community, and directly abuts and expands our Halfway Pond Conservation Area, now over 460 acres in extent and one of the crown jewels of our protected lands portfolio.

Most recently, in the waning days of August we protected 11.7 acres in Lakeville along the upper Nemasket River through the combination of a deed restriction and a two-acre land donation. This hybrid project protects over 900 feet of linear frontage along the Nemasket, a major tributary of the federally designated Wild and Scenic Taunton River.

Morning fog on Halfway Pond in Plymouth. Photo by Jerry Monkman.

We’re working to close more projects by year’s end, including the third and final phase of the Plainville project, and projects in Bridgewater, Scituate, Rockland, and Hanson.   

Watch this space!