Upcoming Events

Annual Meeting 

Please join us at our annual meeting which will be held at the Franklin Public Library, 118 Main Street, Franklin

Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. See Program and Annual Report.

 

Special Presentation by Kate Langwig

Bats in peril: The Uncertain Future of North America's Winged Mammals

Kate Langwig is a second year graduate student in the PhD program in Ecology, Behavior, and
Evolution. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from Union College, and has worked
for the Albany Pine Bush Preserve, The Nature Conservancy, and New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation. For the past three years she has been studying the recently emerged
infectious disease of bats, white-nose syndrome. She is a co-author on three papers on the disease,
including an article projecting regional extinction of the little brown myotis which appeared in the
journal Science in 2010. Her primary research is focused on investigating white-nose syndrome
transmission dynamics in multiple bat species.

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Metacomet Land Trust is now on Facebook!

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News

From the Telgram and Gazette (by Susan Spencer): June 9, 2011 SUTTON – Ann Hanscom’s 18th-century Uxbridge home sits surrounded by the history of the Blanchard and Taft families that inhabited it for generations, as well as the monarch butterflies, wood ducks and barred owls that currently share the 30-acre property. It’s land she wants to preserve forever.

With farms and homesteads like the Hanscoms’ being sold more and more for subdivisions, Ms. Hanscom has taken a proactive approach to protect her land and meet her family’s financial goals.

She met with the Metacomet Land Trust, a private, nonprofit land conservation organization, and ultimately the Hanscoms donated a conservation restriction on all 30 acres to the trust, which prohibits development on the land forever. The family received significant tax breaks for their gift.

“I lived in a community that became very rapidly suburbanized, and saw the destruction of habitat,” Ms. Hanscom said. “This was very important to me to protect the interests of creatures other than myself.”

Ms. Hanscom was one of two landowners who shared their preservation stories, along with a legal overview from Robert Levite, an estate-planning attorney, and Lisa Mosczynski of Douglas, president of the Metacomet Land Trust, at a workshop titled “Your Land, Your Legacy,” held June 2 at the Dudley-Gendron American Legion Post 414 in Sutton. About 20 landowners, members of town conservation commissions and open-space committees, and representatives of land trusts attended.

“(Land) can be one of the more complicated assets to figure out what you want to do with,” said Jay Rasku, coordinator of the North Quabbin Regional Landscape Partnership, who spearheaded the workshop. But it’s also a flexible asset that lends itself to creative solutions to achieving multiple goals. “The key word is planning — many of us push this off.”

Ms. Mosczynski said it’s important for land trusts, landowners and conservation commissions to talk about potential conservation parcels early in the process, so the optimal environmental habitats can be preserved.

Grafton Land Trust Vice President Kenneth Holberger, who attended the workshop, said the Land Trust looks at priority areas with the town’s open space plan in mind, identifying in particular wildlife corridors and watershed land, and works with landowners over time so that they’ll be there when the owner makes decisions about his or her land.

William Rose of Phillipston, the other landowner who spoke at the program, sold an agricultural preservation restriction based on the development value of his farmland (similar to a conservation restriction but requiring continued agricultural use) to the state Department of Agricultural Resources and donated a conservation restriction to a land trust as a way to preserve much of his family’s 241-acre Red Apple Farm.

He said that he responds to people who hesitate to use such tools because they don’t want the government involved with use of private land, “This is a conservation restriction: You decide what goes on your property.” For instance, his conservation restriction allows snowmobiling and hunting with permission.

Besides conservation restrictions, other land protection tools include donating or selling the land to the town or a land trust; a bargain sale of land; bequests; reserved life estates in which the landowner retains ownership for a specified time; and limited development, in which houses are clustered on smaller lots surrounded by preserved open space. The landowner receives federal and state tax benefits in exchange for most of these options, particularly on income and estate taxes, as well as lower property taxes, Mr. Levite said.

“If you really want to protect your land, you have to take time and get into it, and you need a good tax attorney,” Mr. Rose said.

Ms. Hanscom said it’s worth the effort: “To be able to provide the circumstances in which barred owls continue to nest; that’s what it was about for us.”

 

MLT Acquires New Preserve is Sutton

In December, 2010 Metacomet accepted the donation of a 9.3 acre parcel on Manchaug Rd in Sutton from Gretchen Richards and Robert Ferragamo. The beautiful wooded parcel overlooks Manchaug Pond and features impressive stands of mountain laurel and rocky outcrops.

Sweetwilliam Farm, Upton

At a January 11 Special Town Meeting Upton voted to preserve Sweetwilliam Farm.

Sweetwilliam Farm is a 92 acre working farm preserving what little remains of Upton’s agricultural history. Farmed by the Whitney Family for 140 years it still retains the characteristics of a farm from the mid 1700’s.  The farmhouse, built by an uncle of Eli Whitney, dates back to this period.  The current owners are running a successful Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) enterprise, sell local produce at the farmstand, and hold events throughout the year.

The importance of this land lies not only in its history and the spectacular view from North Street, but in its value as a trail corridor connecting Upton State Forest to the east, and the Warren Brook Conservation Area to the west.  These areas in turn connect to open space parcels in Grafton and Hopkinton.  Conserving Sweetwilliam Farm will make it part of a complex of over 2,000 acres of protected land and link an extensive trail network used by horseback riders, hikers, cyclists, skiers, birders and others who enjoy the outdoors. 

The Sudbury Valley Trustees, Upton Open Space Committee, and Metacomet Land Trust have been working with the owners of Sweetwilliam Farm for several years to try to protect this ecologic and historic resource. 

The preservation plan incldues raising $94,000 from grants and private donations. To date about $50,000 has been raised. Contributions can be made by sending a check to Metacoemt Land Trust, attention Sweetwilliam Farm Project. More information about the farm is available on the Town of Upton webpage.

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Asian Longhorned Beetle Update

The regulated Asian Longhorned Beetle area in Greater Worcester has been expanded to include a portion of Auburn, due to recent finds in the southern tip of Worcester, for a total of 98 square miles. Click here for the latest information.

The beetle is large - about 0.75-1.25 inches long with very long black and white antennae. The body is glossy black with irregular white spots.

Signs of infestation include pencil sized diameter holes in the trunk, oozing sap, sawdust deposits, and wilting leaves. See Fact Sheet for photograhs of typical damage.