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Summer 2009
I am thrilled to welcome you to Mass Audubon’s Land Protection e-newsletter Land: For People and Wildlife! Stay up-to-date on what’s happening in Land Protection:
Success Stories: celebrating completed projects — with images, maps, and the essence of what each project means — for people and for wildlife.
People Making a Difference: the human side, with stories about landowners, conservation partners, and supporters.
Projects that Need Your Help: when there's a chance to protect important habitat, we must act fast before the opportunity is lost. Your support makes this possible.
Project Updates: the “inside scoop” on land conservation statewide — the milestones and the challenges.
Land conservation offers people a rare opportunity to be a part of making the world a better place firsthand. We hope you find our e-newsletter interesting and inspiring.
Bob Wilber
Director of Land Protection
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 Attleboro: You might know the place for its annual holiday light spectacle, but now the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette is making news for another reason —it's the site of Mass Audubon’s newest wildlife sanctuary.
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 Spencer: A 13-acre addition to our existing Burncoat Pond Property means that only the wildlife will call this place home. Come for a visit and read more about the generous Green Family who helped make it happen. more >>
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 Marshfield: River otters, barred owls, and people are thankful for this most recent acquisition near our North River Wildlife Sanctuary, which protects the drinking water supply and the North River watershed. more >>
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Sharon: Local agriculture, the 1813 homestead of our official State heroine, and part of the Massapoag Brook ecosystem — all protected on 28 acres near Mass Audubon’s Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary. more >> |
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 Berkshires: Staying strong in the face of climate change. Find out about the latest addition to a protected forest of several thousand acres that encompasses both Upper and Lower Spectacle Ponds in western Massachusetts. more >>
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| Read more Success Stories>> |
| People Making a Difference |
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“We never intended to build ourselves an empire, we just wanted to conserve the land.”
Alan Emmet
Dick and Alan Emmet in their garden. Photo used with permission of Meredith Corporation. |
Dick and Alan Emmet - husband and wife making a difference in Westford
In 1951, Dick Emmet and his wife, Alan, moved from Cambridge to their new home on 15 wooded acres in Westford, drawn by the opportunity to enjoy peaceful nature walks right from their doorstep. Near their home and throughout Massachusetts, they saw that wildland was disappearing at an alarming rate and believed that it was imperative to do everything possible to conserve it.
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| Projects that Need Your Help |
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 When important land is on the line, we often need to respond quickly to a window of opportunity and need your help to complete the deal.
For instance, take Blackstone Woods, five acres we protected this summer next to Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary in Worcester — land that had already been approved for a ten-lot subdivision!
Development of this land would have meant the loss of habitat rated as among the top 10 percent in the state for preservation of Massachusetts’ biodiversity. We needed to quickly raise $45,000 to play a part in a group effort with the city of Worcester and the state to save the land.
Thankfully, timely support from the Fields Pond Foundation, the George H. and Jane A. Mifflin Memorial Fund, and other donors brought us most of the way there. We dipped into our reserves for the final $5,000 to clinch the deal and save the property.
But now we need your help recovering our costs.
Every dollar you give will be matched from the Mifflin Fund, so we only need to raise $2,500 to close the Campaign for Blackstone Woods. Please consider giving a gift to this campaign — the more you support our work, the more work we can do.
Donate online or send a check, payable to Mass Audubon, to Liz Albert, Mass Audubon, 208 South Great Road, Lincoln, MA, 01773. If you have any questions, e-mail lalbert@massaudubon.org or call 781-259-2104. |
| Southeastern Mass, Cape and Islands |
Great Neck Conservation Initiative: Mass Audubon has been working with several partners to protect an amazing 300+-acre mosaic of properties fronting on Buzzards Bay. We are currently awaiting final notice on nearly $2 million in federal grant funds for this exceptional land — home to the eastern box turtle and numerous other rare species.
An Eastern Box Turtle, photo by Liz Willey
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| Greater Boston and North Shore |
| Massapoag Sportsmen's Club, Sharon: Mass Audubon is currently assisting the town of Sharon to protect 90 acres of land adjacent to Mass Audubon’s Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary and town conservation land. We are providing key technical assistance and will ultimately hold conservation restrictions on the property. This project rides on the heels of the recently completed Arguimbau Farm protection project, also in Sharon. |
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| Central and Western Mass |
| More Wildland for Whetstone Wood: Agreement reached to protect 15 acres adjacent to the 2,500-acre Whetstone Wood Wildlife Sanctuary in Wendell. This sanctuary is managed as a wildland, and serves as important habitat for native species, including moose, black bear, and bobcat. |
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