2017: A Year for Conservation

As we ring in the new year, we would like to thank you for the conservation successes you’ve made possible in 2017.

Overlooking Great South Pond atop Pinnacle Hill at Luigi and Teotista Cortelli Preserve
Photo by Jerry Monkman

This past year, Wildlands Trust was able to add 450 acres to our protected lands portfolio, land that we will conserve and protect in perpetuity. At the very beginning of 2017, we announced the largest single acquisition in Wildlands’ 44-year history thanks to the generosity and enduring conservation ethic of donors Gerald and Maureen Sheehan. The 275-acre Luigi and Teotista Cortelli Preserve on Great South Pond in Plymouth contains globally rare habitats and is a critical link in a 19,000-acre corridor of contiguous open space in Southeastern Massachusetts. Throughout 2017, our land stewardship staff and various volunteer crews constructed a trail system at this preserve that links the Plymouth Town Forest with Myles Standish State Forest. We led a number of public hikes last year highlighting this corridor, including the two-part, 20-mile Big Ramble in June and a 6-mile hike around Great South Pond in September.

In Bridgewater, Wildlands Trust collaborated with the Mass. Deparment of Fish and Game to save an additional 62 acres along the Taunton River, expanding our Great River Preserve and the larger Taunton River Wildlife Management Area, which now encompasses a total of 570 acres. With a generous memorial gift in honor of Mark Kaetzer, our stewardship staff and volunteers began working on improvements at the entrance of Great River Preserve. We completed the new memorial gate and bench at the end of 2017, and in 2018, we will build a new handicapped parking area and a barrier free trail to provide access to the Taunton River for all people.

Stewardship volunteers and staff worked together to complete the new memorial gate at the entrance of Great River Preserve on Auburn St. in Bridgewater. Photo by Rob MacDonald.

In addition to these standout stewardship projects, our staff and volunteers completed countless improvements to Wildlands Trust trail systems across our region. In Wareham, we reestablished the trail system at Great Neck Preserve and in a collaborative effort to install a network of trails in the Mark’s Cove area, we added two miles of trails and water crossings at our Gleason Family Preserve. The trail systems of Six Ponds Preserve and Emery West Preserve, part of the Davis-Douglas Farm Conservation Area, were extended and improved for public access over a number of volunteer workdays. A new trail map for Davis-Douglas Farm is in the works.

Our new Community Stewardship Program continued to assist municipalities in our service area with trail design, construction, and mapping, grant attainment, networking, and outreach. In Brockton, we are working on the restoration of 2.4 miles of trails in the city’s 104-acre Stone Farm Conservation Area began. Once complete, this trail system will connect to Wildlands Trust’s Brockton Audubon Preserve, providing miles of hiking trails within the city. Our CSP staff are also spearheading outreach efforts for the Greening the Gateway Cities Program in Brockton, which seeks to plant 2,400 trees in the city at no cost to landowners in an effort to increase shade and reduce household energy costs by 5 to 10 percent.

The Community Conservation Barn was open for its first full year at our new headquarters at Davis-Douglas Farm in Plymouth. We offered over 70 public programs in the Barn and 126 public programs overall, attracting 1,500 people to participate in the Wildlands Trust mission through hikes, wellness workshops, presentations, trainings, meetings, and more. The new Barn and beautiful 10-acre grounds at Davis-Douglas Farm also allowed us to host our first ever OkTRAILberfest celebration in October. OkTRAILberfest attracted over 200 people and raised $11,000 for our Youth Unplugged Initiative, providing outdoor opportunities for youth of all ages.

The 2017 Green Team middle school age group volunteers at Bay Farm in Bourne

Youth Unplugged saw a boost in 2017 with the growth of both the Envirothon and Green Team programs. In addition to sponsoring and coaching the Brockton High School Envirothon team for our third consecutive year, we assisted in starting a new Envirothon team at Plymouth South High School. The summer Green Team grew from a small-group high school internship to include both middle and high school age groups in 2017, expanding our capacity to engage local youth in meaningful environmental learning and volunteerism.

Fundraising was strong in 2017 thanks to the generosity of our 1,400 members. Most notable was your commitment to land protection and the funding needed to make it happen. This fiscal year, our members contributed nearly $600,000 to help purchase and steward land, the foundation of our mission.

As we reflect on these successes, we are also aware that there are many challenges to conserving land in the age of intensive development pressures, shifting community needs and fiscal priorities, and unprecedented reliance on our technological devices. Our mission to conserve and permanently protect the native habitats, farmlands, and ecologically valuable and scenic landscapes of Southeastern Massachusetts feels more important than ever. 2017 was a strong year for local land conservation, but there is important work ahead in 2018 and beyond.

At Wildlands Trust, we envision a future where open land is abundant, our water is clean, and forests, farms, wetlands, fields, ponds, and coastal areas are commonplace sightings on our landscape. Thank you for sharing this vision and supporting our efforts. Together, we unlock the potential to protect even more land for the public benefit year after year. If you are not a member, please consider joining today to help us kick off 2018!

Holiday Charity Drive Report

Throughout the holiday season, you brought us food items, gift cards, and handmade hats for those in need in the Wildlands Trust service area. With your help, we were able to collect 200+ food items for the South Shore Community Action Council's Food Resource Program, which distributes to 45 pantries, soup kitchens, schools, and more throughout the South Shore, and $200+ dollars in gift cards and dozens of homemade hats to the Turning Point Shelter in Wareham, a community in which Wildlands Trust holds seven properties. 

Thank you so much to all who brought in items to donate! It truly made a difference for those in need. Please remember you can donate all year long to either of these amazing organizations. 

Towns Receive CPA Matching Funds for Open Space Projects

Multiple towns across Wildlands Trust’s coverage area, including many we actively partner with on Community Preservation Act (CPA) open space projects, recently received notification of the distributions they would receive this fiscal year from the CPA Trust Fund.  Established as part of the CPA’s enabling legislation in 2000, the Trust Fund provides for annual distributions to communities that have passed the CPA, and is funded by a surcharge levied on transactions at Registries of Deeds across the Commonwealth.  Although the percentage of matching funds varies from year to year, the matching funds are critical to complementing the funds each CPA community raises locally. 

Within the region Wildlands serves, our hometown Plymouth led the way, receiving $389,552 in matching funds. 

Plymouth's Center Hill Preserve in the winter. Photo by Jerry Monkman.

The CPA has been the most significant catalyst for locally-driven open space protection in the Commonwealth’s history, and has enabled communities to pursue a wide range of projects that would otherwise have not materialized.  A classic example of such projects we often cite is the Center Hill Preserve project in Plymouth.  Back in 2005-06, the Town acquired 78 acres, including 28 acres on Cape Cod Bay, at an initial cost of $5.7 million—but subsequently leveraged over $3 million in federal and state funds.  And there’s more--with the 1:1 Trust Fund match then prevailing, the Town’s net cost of the Center Hill Project was under $2 Million. Leveraging of this scale isn’t always feasible, but similar if less expensive examples abound of communities successfully using CPA funds to help leverage outside funds. 

One could argue that a working definition of a livable community is one that invests in all of its critical infrastructure, and not just “traditional” infrastructure (roads and bridges, utilities).  While traditional infrastructure is undeniably important and worthy of investment, the CPA focuses in part on our ecological and historical infrastructure—both often underfunded and even neglected before the advent of the Act.  

Congratulations to Plymouth and all the CPA communities in our region for adopting the Act, and working diligently to successfully implement its multiple community preservation dimensions. 

Book and Music Recommendations for the Adventurous Reader and Listener (and not just for the holidays)

By Scott MacFaden

The madness of the holiday season is now upon us, and so as a public service we at Wildlands Trust thought it appropriate to offer some suggestions to those of you who might be searching for creative gift ideas. 

All of the works referenced below explore, and in some cases enhance, the interrelatedness of people and landscape, and were created by people who have some past or present involvement with the conservation field. 
 

The Wild Places
The Old Ways
Robert MacFarlane, Author

Mr. MacFarlane is a fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, England, and the author of multiple books exploring the connections between cultures, landscapes, and language.  

The Wild Places has as its basis a seemingly simple question:  are there any places left in Scotland, Ireland, England, and environs that could possibly qualify as a “wild” place, acknowledging that defining “wild” is a wholly subjective enterprise?  MacFarlane explores this question with a profound curiosity, good humor, and a keen eye for detail, and his conclusions may surprise you.  While the book has a particular geographic focus, it also speaks to universal themes that transcend the limitations of that focus.  At the same time, if you have ever been to or wish to visit any of the places MacFarlane explores, you will appreciate this book all the more. 

While primarily centered on the British Isles, in the Old Ways MacFarlane expands his geographic focus this time around to encompass Spain, the Middle East, and the Himalayas. 

Ever the active and enthusiastic participant and never a mere observer, he sets boots to ground to explore a fascinating variety of “old ways”, including the “Broomway” in southeast coastal England, a muddy but somewhat walkable path at low tide which transforms to a very dangerous trek indeed at high tide.  For the Broomway and all the other places MacFarlane explores on his journey, he educates us about their history while also affirming their contemporary relevance. 

In addition to his authorial and pedagogical pursuits, Mr. MacFarlane is a founding trustee of Action for Conservation, a UK-based group that works to connect youth with the outdoors. 
 

The Year of the Turtle
Trout Reflections
Swampwalker’s Journal
David Carroll, Author and Illustrator

Moving much closer to home, this trio of books by acclaimed naturalist, fervent wetlands advocate, author, and illustrator David Carroll comprises a so-called “wet sneaker trilogy”.  Based in New Hampshire but at one time a resident of the South Shore, Carroll brings to his explorations a scientist’s rigor and eye for detail and an artist’s passion and enthusiasm—an unusual and invigorating combination.

You will almost certainly see and experience wetland ecosystems differently, and more acutely and appreciatively, after reading these books and engaging with their many vivid illustrations. 

Mr. Carroll has worked with public conservation entities on a variety of initiatives, including conducting ecological assessments for the endangered species programs of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. 
 

Become Ocean
Inuksuit
John Luther Adams, Composer

Prior to crafting his nearly forty-year career as one of America’s most creative and free-thinking composers, Mr. Adams was one of us—yes, a practicing environmental professional in Alaska.  Among other pursuits, he was the Executive Director of the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, and was involved in advocating for the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which expanded the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  While his departure from our field was a loss, he has more than made up for that with his contributions to America’s musical canon. 

Mr. Adams’ works are informed by and reflect his deep environmental ethic.  He has said that “my music is a way of making us more present in the world”.    While we would wholeheartedly recommend any of the works in his now-expansive oeuvre, for now we direct your attention to two recent works—Become Ocean and Inuksuit. 

Become Ocean is a grand-scale symphonic composition that won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2014, and is a powerful and compelling musical meditation on how humans are affecting the planet’s ecosystems, particularly oceans.  The Seattle Symphony recorded the work, and it has been widely performed across the United States.   

Inuksuit is a very different type of composition—a percussion-based piece for anywhere from 9 to 99 percussion instruments/ensembles, dispersed across the given performance space.  The exact number of percussion pieces is left to the discretion of the performance’s sponsors and performers. 

Most interestingly, Inuksuit is intended to be performed outside, with whatever ambient conditions then prevailing becoming part of that particular performance.  The piece has been performed across the United States and in Canada and Australia, and in 2016 Arnold Arboretum hosted a performance of the work to considerable acclaim.  We at the Trust have great interest in possibly sponsoring a local performance at some point in the next few years. 

Wildlands Merch for Sale!

Looking for a holiday gift for a friend or loved one? We’ve got you covered! We will be selling official Wildlands Trust t-shirts and hats at all public programs held at Davis-Douglas Farm throughout the holiday season. Stop in and show your support for local land conservation today! Hats on sale for $17 for the holidays, shirts for $15!