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Sudbury Valley Trustees (SVT) is a regional open space land trust headquartered at Wolbach Farm in Sudbury, Massachusetts.
The SVT mission is to conserve land and protect wildlife habitat in the Concord, Assabet, and Sudbury river watersheds in eastern Massachusetts, one of the most scenic, culturally rich, and historically significant regions in the United States, for the benefit of present and future generations.
SVT pursues its mission through land acquisition, land stewardship, advocacy, and education. SVT achieves its land protection objectives by working in close collaboration with landowners, businesses, local conservation commissions and government agencies. The work is performed by an active, community-based 17 member Board, a staff of 8, and 150 volunteers.
The land acquisition objective emphasizes (1) protection of ecologically significant resources within SVT’s service area, with emphasis on priority areas, (2) protection of land possessing significant community and historic value (“flagship properties”), (3) increased acquisition of fee-simple properties, (4) increased receipt of gifts of interest in land, and (5) enhanced SVT land protection and outreach efforts.
The stewardship objective emphasizes (1) increased opportunities for positive nature-based experiences on SVT reservations, (2) implementation of best management practices for conservation restriction and fee properties, and (3) demonstrated best practices for conservation of regional biodiversity.
As of 2008, over 3,600 members supported SVT’s work in 36 different towns in the watershed. SVT is responsible for the protection and care of over 100 properties totaling more than 3,300 acres (13 km2) of diverse conservation lands that include wetlands, sensitive habitats, trails and other open spaces including major reservations. SVT has taken a significant leadership role that has been instrumental in preserving an additional 6,000 acres (24 km2) now under the permanent protection of public agencies, including the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. As of its annual meeting on September 28, 2008, SVT was nearing completion of the acquisition from the Knox Trail Council Boy Scouts of America of the development rights for the 452.6 acres (1.832 km2) comprising the Nobscot Scout Reservation.
SVT celebrated its 50th anniversary year in 2005, which culminated in its 50th annual meeting and birthday party on May 22, 2005 at Wolbach Farm in Sudbury. SVT reservations include trails for walking, bird watching, cross-country skiing and horseback riding. Those properties are open to the public free of charge.
SVT was founded in 1953. Upon returning to Wayland, Massachusetts after serving in the Marine Corps during World War II and the Korean War, Allen Morgan saw that the land he remembered being forest and farm as a child was rapidly being turned into homes and shopping malls. Realizing that the open spaces would be lost forever unless action was taken, he gathered together six friends (B. Allen Benjamin, Dr. George K. Lewis, Henry Parker, Willis B. Ryder, Richard Stackpole, and Roger P. Stokey) and founded Sudbury Valley Trustees to protect the natural resources of the area "on the theory that if we sat back and did nothing, certainly nothing would happen, and if we tried, maybe something would happen."
They mailed a form letter inviting people to become members for a fee of $3.00. SVT grew to a couple hundred members within a year or two. SVT publications emphasizing the importance of flood plain marshes led to the first flood plain zoning in the northeast. Thanks to SVT advocacy, most of the towns in the Sudbury Valley had established flood plain zones that protected upwards of 6,000 acres (24 km2) without having to spend dollars to acquire them.
SVT was an organization run purely through the efforts of volunteers until Morgan became SVT's first Executive Director in 1981. Morgan shepherded SVT's growth to a membership of just under 2,400, a staff of four full-time and four part-time employees, and nearly 60 parcels of land comprising nearly 1,200 acres (4.9 km2) of land preserved by the time of his death in 1990.
Land trusts are nonprofit organizations which own and manage land, and sometimes waters. There are three common types of land trust, distinguished from one another by the ways in which they are legally structured and by the purposes for which they are organized and operated:
The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is a state agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, situated in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. It is best known for its parks and parkways. The DCR's mission is "To protect, promote and enhance our common wealth of natural, cultural and recreational resources for the well-being of all." The agency is the largest landowner in Massachusetts.
The Trustees of Reservations is a non-profit land conservation and historic preservation organization dedicated to preserving natural and historical places in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is the oldest land conservation nonprofit organization of its kind in the world and has 140,000 dues-paying members as of 2018. In addition to land stewardship, the organization is also active in conservation partnerships, community supported agriculture (CSA), environmental and conservation education, community preservation and development, and green building. The Trustees of Reservations own title to 120 properties on 27,000 acres (11,000 ha) in Massachusetts, all of which are open to the public; it maintains conservation restrictions on over 200 additional properties. Properties include historic mansions, estates, and gardens; woodland preserves; waterfalls; mountain peaks; wetlands and riverways; coastal bluffs, beaches, and barrier islands; farmland and CSA projects; and archaeological sites.
The Forest Legacy Program was established in the 1990 Farm Bill to protect environmentally important forest lands that are threatened by conversion to nonforest uses. It provides federal funding for conservation easements and fee simple purchases.
Founded in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1987, the Greater Worcester Land Trust is a non-profit land conservation organization dedicated to the protection of important lands in Worcester and the surrounding towns. As a conservation land trust the trust's properties are managed simultaneously for wildlife habitat and passive recreation
Mount Pisgah is the highest point in Northborough, Massachusetts.
Bartholomew's Cobble is a 329-acre (1.33 km2) National Natural Landmark, open space preserve, agricultural preserve, and bio-reserve located in southwest Massachusetts in the village of Ashley Falls abutting Canaan, Connecticut. The preserve contains over 800 plant species, including North America's greatest diversity of ferns and the greatest overall biodiversity in Berkshire County, Massachusetts; it also contains Massachusetts' highest populations of ground nesting bobolinks. It was declared a National Natural Landmark in October 1971
The Brooks Woodland Preserve is a 558-acre (226 ha) open space preserve located in Petersham, Massachusetts. The property, named after industrialist and diplomat James Wilson Brooks, is managed by the land conservation non-profit organization The Trustees of Reservations and offers 13 miles (21 km) of trails and primitive woods roads available for hiking, horseback riding, and cross country skiing. Second growth forest, overgrown farm fields, granite ledges, historic stone walls, creeks, and rolling hills characterize the preserve.
The Mount Tom Range is a traprock mountain range located in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts. It is part of the Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven, Connecticut, north through the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts to nearly the Vermont border. A popular outdoor recreation resource, the range is known for its continuous west facing cliffs and its rugged, scenic character. It is also notable for its unique microclimate ecosystems and rare plant communities, as well as significant historic sites, such as the ruins of the 18th century Eyrie House located on Mount Nonotuck.
Royalston Falls is a 50 foot (15 m) waterfall and granite gorge located in Royalston, Massachusetts along Falls Brook, a tributary of the Tully River which in turn is a tributary of the Millers River. The falls are part of a 217-acre (88 ha) open space preserve acquired in 1951 by the land conservation non-profit organization The Trustees of Reservations. The 22-mile (35 km) Tully Trail and the 110-mile (180 km) Metacomet-Monadnock Trail, a National Recreation Trail, pass through the property.
The Bay Circuit Trail and Greenway or Bay Circuit is a Massachusetts rail trail and greenway connecting the outlying suburbs of Boston from Plum Island in Newburyport to Kingston Bay in Duxbury, a distance of 200 miles (320 km).
Allen Hungerford Morgan was an ornithologist, environmental advocate, and founder of Sudbury Valley Trustees.
Dexter Drumlin, formerly known as Kilbourn Hill, is a 311-foot (95 m) drumlin and a 38-acre open space reservation in Lancaster, Massachusetts. The reservation includes a small tributary of the Nashua River and is managed by The Trustees of Reservations. It is characterized by managed, open fields and offers scenic views of surrounding rural Lancaster.
Jacobs Hill is a 173-acre (70 ha) open space preserve in Royalston, Massachusetts acquired in 1975 by the land conservation non-profit organization The Trustees of Reservations. The preserve includes scenic vistas, ledges, woodlands, a northern bog, and Spirit Falls, a 30 foot (9.1 m) waterfall. The 22-mile (35 km) Tully Trail passes through the property. Views from the ledges include the Berkshires as well as nearby Long Pond and the Tully River Valley, Tully Mountain, and Mount Grace.
The Swift River Reservation is a 439-acre (178 ha) open space preserve located in Petersham, Massachusetts, United States. The property, named after the East Branch of the Swift River, is managed by the land conservation non-profit organization The Trustees of Reservations and offers 7 miles (11 km) of trails available for hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, and cross country skiing. Ledges, river corridor, woodlands, scenic vistas, and wetlands characterize the preserve.
Tully Lake, of Royalston, Massachusetts, is a 1,262-acre (511 ha) reservoir and flood control project constructed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in 1949 for 1.6 million dollars. The project prevents flooding of the greater Connecticut River and Millers River valleys and provides a variety of recreational opportunities, including a campground operated by The Trustees of Reservations. Tully Lake is an important link in the 22-mile (35 km) Tully Trail.
Cormier Woods is a 175-acre (71 ha) open space preserve and historic 18th-century farm complex in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, USA, within the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor. The property is named for James Cormier, the former owner of the property. It was acquired in 2008 by the land conservation non-profit organization The Trustees of Reservations.
Westport Town Farm is a 40-acre (16 ha) open space preserve and historic farm complex located in Westport, Massachusetts along the bracken East Branch of the Westport River. The property, owned by the town of Westport and managed by the land conservation non-profit organization The Trustees of Reservations through contract since 2007, was once the town's poor farm and local infirmary.
Nobscot Hill is a USGS name for a high point in Middlesex County, Massachusetts with many public hiking trails, and the hill is located in Framingham and Sudbury. At the summit are various radio towers and a fire tower. Below the summit of Nobscot Hill is the Nobscot Scout Reservation which includes Tippling Rock, a popular viewing location. Surrounding the hill are other large parks and parcels of conservation land, including the Nobscot Conservation Land, Callahan State Park, the Sudbury Weisblatt Conservation Land, and Wittenborg Woods, which are connected by various hiking trails, including the Bay Circuit Trail.
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