Of the $13 million that the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs recently doled out to protect landscapes and create parks across Massachusetts, $922,750 will further conservation in Franklin County and the North Quabbin region.
“These investments mean more parks, cleaner water and safer neighborhoods for people across Massachusetts,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement. “We’re making it easier for families to get outside, for kids to play and for everyone to enjoy what makes our state unique. This is about improving daily life for our residents and making our communities stronger.”
David Santomenna, a senior director of land conservation with the Massachusetts Audubon Society, said the $400,000 that the nonprofit received was put toward acquiring property that connects the Whetstone Wood Wildlife Sanctuary, which is already owned by Mass Audubon, and the Wendell State Forest. Approximately 212 acres will be conserved.
“It will [account for] a very significant portion of the funds we need to purchase the property in Wendell,” Santomenna said of the grant. “We’re assembling a variety of sources, but that state funding is really sort of the keystone of the funding puzzle for this project.”
Santomenna said the land is heavily wooded with some wetlands, and that all forms of passive recreation will be authorized. What really excites him, and Mass Audubon, is the connection that the nonprofit now has between its own land and state-owned land.
“Broadly, it’ll be accessible to the public for all the purposes that a typical Audubon property is,” Santomenna said. “The way that it fits in between our Whetstone Wood Wildlife Sanctuary and then the state’s Wendell State Forest … it really is kind of a linkage piece in our regional corridor.”
Through this grant program, the conservation restriction must be held by two parties, with Mass Audubon and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) partnering on the Wendell project. Santomenna noted that DCR was another state entity that helped fund the project.
“We’re really happy to be working with them,” Santomenna said of DCR. “It makes a lot of sense for them, in that their Wendell State Forest property is immediately adjacent, so it’s a good way for them to expand that base of protected land.”
On Bug Hill Road in Ashfield, approximately 171 acres will be permanently conserved after the Franklin Land Trust received $72,250 for the purpose of placing a conservation restriction on the land. Also carried out by Franklin Land Trust, 99 acres at Shirkshire Farm in Conway was permanently protected after the organization got $215,050 for the purpose of purchasing the land and placing the conservation restriction on it.
Liam Cregan, a land conservation specialist with the Franklin Land Trust, said that without these two grants, acquisition of the two properties would not be possible.
“We wouldn’t really be able to do these projects without the funding from the Conservation Partnership Grant Program, so we’re really excited to move forward with them thanks to that funding,” Cregan said. “It’s incredibly important, because it allows us to protect land. … It helps people get some equity out of their land, to continue doing what they’re doing, and not have to consider development as an alternative.”
Part of the Conservation Partnership Grant Program is a requirement that there must be some public access on the newly conserved property, which is the case in both Ashfield and Conway. At the Bug Hill Road property in Ashfield, the current landowner, Katharine Nylen, will not have her house and some acreage around it be used for public access, but the rest of the property will be open.
“A portion of the [conservation restriction] is going to allow public access. They’re going to be creating a new trail in collaboration with Ashfield Trails,” Cregan said. “There’s going to be a new trailhead on Bug Hill Road that will feature an out-and-back/lollipop loop, where there’ll be views of these two beaver ponds that have been created.”
Cregan said rare, native species of fish have been identified in the waterways protruding from the beaver dam, and that the primary purpose of the conservation restriction is to protect those species and the surrounding woodlands.
It’s a similar tale in Conway, although 16 of the 99 conserved acres will continue to be used for agricultural purposes. Similar to Ashfield, this property will include public access on footpaths, with the end of the trail leading to a view of Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire.
“That property, we’re protecting it particularly because of its agricultural resources,” Cregan said. Referencing the current owners, he added, “The Goddard family, I think since the [1970s], have been in the process of restoring … some of the pasture and hayfield that was growing back to forest when they purchased the property.”
The 16 acres that will continue to be used for agricultural purposes was roughly half that size when the Goddards first purchased the property. It will continue to be hayed.
“This grant program in particular is excellent because it does require a public access component and collaboration,” Cregan mentioned. “In both cases, we’re co-holding the [conservation restriction] with town conservation commissions, so there’s a collaborative aspect as well. It keeps the land in private ownership, prevents it from being developed while also opening up access. So, I think it’s a lovely grant program.”
In Orange, that same state funding program helped Mount Grace Land Trust acquire 48 acres along Lake Rohunta, expanding an existing 200-acre conservation area. The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs awarded the land trust $235,450.
“It really is going to enhance the footprint of this conservation area,” said Dave Small, the project manager for the land acquisition. “It’s a pretty interesting habitat, so we’re excited about this addition of acreage to our conservation area.”
According to Small, there’s a variety of landscapes and wildlife that populate the now-conserved property. He said the habitat is a combination of a barren, gravelly soil, along with hemlocks and “quite a bit of wetland” that is a draw for ducks and other waterfowl.
“It’s going to have a pretty diverse amount of wildlife there,” Small said. “It will be open for hunting, fishing, birdwatching [and] general natural history exploration at all times, and we’re looking at the potential of an accessible trail that will also get us out to the edge of the lake.”
Mount Grace Land Trust will co-hold the conservation restriction with another entity. Small said the land trust is still looking for a partner, and the organization is working with the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game to find one.
Small added that grant programs like this “are very important” in helping the Mount Grace Land Trust afford to protect these properties for the future.
