R eco rd year for Brewster land pro tection

Brewster Conservation Trust
w w w. b re w s t e rc o n s e rv a t i o n t ru s t . o r g
Volume 17
Annual meeting to hear
Animal Welfare chief
Twenty-five years ago, a small
group of Brewster activists decided
that Brewster needed a conservation
trust. Such decisions are often sparked
by a controversy over some land use
proposal but that wasn’t the case here,
according to Roger O’Day, one of the
original group. “We saw the work that
trusts were doing in neighboring
communities and realized the time
had come to do likewise,” he said.
In that group beside himself, he
recalled, were Ruth and Mary
Louise Eddy, Howard Hayes and
Peter Soule. They took the steps to
forming the Brewster Conservation
Trust, and O’Day and Soule remain
active to this day, O’Day as secretary
and Soule as treasurer.
In those 25 years, BCT has protected 663 acres of open space in
Brewster – wetlands, scenic vistas,
pond shores, wildlife habitat, water
resource lands – an achievement worthy of note. And it will be noted with
champagne and birthday cake at the
annual BCT meeting on Wednesday,
Aug. 6, at 7:00 p.m. at the Cape Cod
Museum of Natural History.
The guest speaker for the occasion
will be Fred O'Regan, president of the
International Fund for Animal Welfare,
a man who has vast experience
Number 1
June 2008
in international development and
environmental protection.
The IFAW, which is headquartered at Exit 7 of the Mid-Cape
Highway, has a staff of 200 and
offices in 15 countries. O’Regan has
been in the Peace Corps (Swaziland),
in community action (Cambridge),
and headed a Rural Enterprise
Program (Kenya). He has consulted
on local economic development
programs in the U.S. and the Third
World, been a program director at
the Aspen Institute and a regional
director of the Peace Corps (Europe,
Central Asia and the Mediterranean).
He’s also been a visiting professor at the Woodrow Wilson School
of Princeton University and has
authored or co-authored numerous
papers and two books on economic
development among the poor. A
native of Winthrop, MA, he did his
undergraduate work at Marquette
University and a master’s degree at
Catholic University. He now lives in
Barnstable and remains an avid naturalist and hiker.
The public is cordially invited to
hear O’Regan’s message. The program will also feature the Brewster
Conservationist of the Year award,
and the special refreshments.
Protecting Brewster’s Water page 8
Brewster Conservation Trust
Dear Brewster Conservation Trust members and friends,
If you believe the main BCT role in Brewster is to protect lands
of high environmental or scenic value from inappropriate development, it’s understandable. That is indeed a major task of BCT and
an important one it is.
But our interests are much broader than that. Our middle name,
after all, is “conservation.” So we take a vigorous interest in the health
of the salt marshes, the purity of the ponds, the habitat of the warblers,
and much else. We can’t possibly acquire all the lands that would
assure the good environmental health of Brewster. Instead, we work to
protect these interests in other ways.
One such way is described elsewhere in this newsletter in an article about the community effort to protect its groundwater sources.
The BCT believes that effort is crucial to the community – it’s our
drinking water, after all -- and so we are doing all we can to help. We
participate as citizens in the hard decisions that must be made; we
offer our experience in land research and in public communication;
we collaborate with the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, the
Brewster Historical Society, the town Conservation Commission, the
town’s gardeners, young and old, and anyone who cares about the
Brewster environment.
These activities may not sound like high-cost items; they certainly
are not as costly as buying land. But they do take money for various
kinds of services and supplies, and so we need your contributions.
Please use the envelope stapled into this newsletter to contribute
as generously as you can, to assure that the BCT can continue its
conservation work in the broadest sense.
Sincerely,
Peter Johnson, president
Brewster Conservation Trust
2
Brewster Conservation Trust
Shed donated to the town
by BCT is ready to roll to
Upper Mill Pond, for use
as recreation department
storage. The shed, being
moved by the town DPW,
was on Rt. 6A property
given to the Trust. The
house visible at left was
also offered to any taker
but the cost of moving it
proved prohibitive.
Record year for Brewster land protection!
As Brewster Conservation Trust
celebrates its 25th anniversary year,
we need to catch our breath. The last
12 months have been the busiest
ever in terms of lands newly protected. Since our June 2007 newsletter
we have completed 13 projects, preserving almost 82 acres.
We have protected 663 acres
since BCT was chartered in 1983
and have become the largest private
landowner in Brewster. We take our
responsibility for managing that
important open space very seriously,
but we realize we must continue to
work with the land-owners of
Brewster to help protect the water
resources, the wildlife habitat and
the scenic vistas of the town.
Here is a breakdown of our most
recent land protection actions:
Land gifts and purchases
The most visible BCT acquisition
is land on the north side of Rt. 6A,
the last Brewster property before the
Dennis town line, the gift of Daryl
Bladen in memory of her late husband Chris.
One parcel of seven acres consists of the marshy headwaters of
Brewster Conservation Trust
Quivett Creek, upstream of the
refurbished Sea Street Dike. A separate half-acre lot had a 1970s house on
it; the septic system is essentially in
the marsh. Daryl stipulated that
BCT remove the house and restore
the site to a natural setting. After
unsuccessfully offering the house to
be used as affordable housing on
another site, BCT scheduled demolition in June.
The town moved an adjacent shed
to the Middle Pond landing for use as
Recreation Department storage.
A 2.7-acre parcel of pine and oak
woods next to the Punkhorn Parklands
has been acquired from Frank and
Florence Plona for $40,000. A BCT
mailing that described conservation
options for landowners triggered the
Plonas’ decision to offer the land for
conservation. A cart path passes by
the parcel, an entry to the miles of
Punkhorn trails. The state provided
a $20,000 Conservation Partnership
grant, the third one BCT has received
in the past three years.
Tony Daniels of Mashpee and her
parents donated 2.42 acres of maple
swamp located between Main Street
Continued on Page 4
Record year for Brewster land protection!
Continued from Page 3
and Fiddlers Lane. The swamp was
once a cranberry bog but 50 years
of re-growth has made it terrific
warbler habitat, another in the
BCT’s mosaic of wildlife-rich parcels
along Lower Road.
A .69-acre lot on Spring Lane
was purchased from Fr a n c e s
Manion for $25,000. The lot is
t h i ckly wooded with oaks and
maples and drains a spring north to
Freemans Pond. The Cape Cod
Five
Cents
Savings
Bank
Charitable Foundation provided a
$5,000 grant towards the purchase.
The parcel abuts another BCT lot
and a 9-acre parcel of Town conservation land.
executive director of the Compact
of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts.
“Ordinarily the land trusts of the
Cape process about 12 or 15 CRs a
year,” Robinson said. “In 2007 we
handled 47 such transactions.”
Here are conservation restrictions
recorded by BCT at the end of 2007:
Richard and Judy Galligan protected their 7-acre woodlot between Stony
Continued on Page 5
2007: Year of the CR
Brewster landowners took good
advantage of an enhanced federal
income tax deduction for conservation restrictions (CR) last year. BCT
completed six new conservation
restrictions -- legal agreements in
which the landowner relinquishes the
right to maximize the building potential of the property. Land-owners may
claim the difference between the value
of the land without and with the CR as
an income tax deduction.
In 2007, Congress allowed
landowners to accelerate and extend
the CR deduction for up to 16 years.
The law was renewed for two years
this spring.
Across the Cape, the program
almost doubled land protection in
2007, according to Mark Robinson,
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Osprey stands guard above Paines Creek
Marsh. The woods behind is owned by the
Brewster Conservation Trust.
Brewster Conservation Trust
Record year for Brewster land protection!
Continued from Page 4
Brook and Satucket Roads which
includes an old cartpath and the
homestead site of one of Brewster’s
earliest black families. The pine
woods adjoins 20 acres of town
conservation land.
Lisa LaBrecque preserved a .68acre meadow lot along Crocker
Lane. It abuts a stream draining
My r i cks Pond to the Co n s i d i n e
D i t ch. BCT will help Ms.
LaBrecque decide how to keep
Japanese knotweed, an invasive
species, from overrunning the field.
Carmen Scherzo owns a small
waterfront lot on Cape Cod Bay in
front of his new home. While he
secured a plan for siting a house on
the .2-acre lot, he preferred to see
open space. His CR keeps the dune
habitat intact and prevents another
septic system near coastal waters.
Brent and Linda Bowers, who
live on Wild Pond in West Brewster,
put a CR on 3.68 acres around their
home to preserve part of the pondshore and the pine woods behind.
Two box turtles, found nestling in
their woods, will benefit from the
CR’s protection.
Also, BCT took a CR over 29
acres on the west side of Stony
Brook Creek, adjacent to the 10-acre
Stranahan property just purchased by
the town. It’s a hilly woodland with
important habitat and high value
for preserving the water quality in
the herring run.
Brewster Conservation Trust
We noted two CRs, at Stony
Brook and on Tubman Road, in our
last newsletter. All told, 48.5 acres
were protected under private conservation restrictions over the past year.
In addition, the Town has
assigned CRs on three parcels to
BCT, at Walkers Pond, Betty’s Curve
Park, and the new Stony Brook
Preserve. The Land Bank Act and
Community Preservation Act laws
require the town to convey CRs on
parcels bought with these funds to a
local land trust or state agency. BCT
is happy to provide this extra layer
of protection to town lands.
Annual Meeting
Brewster
Conservation Trust
Wednesday,
Aug. 6, 7 p.m.
Cape Cod Museum
of Natural History
Speaker: Fred O’Regan, IFAW
All are welcome.
5
The rich Brewster legacy of John and Kristi Hay
By Beth Finch
John and Kristi Hay, Brewster residents from 1945 until their retirement to Maine in 2004, contributed
their talents to the town for nearly 60
years. John, co-founder of the Cape
Cod Museum of Natural History and
its president for 25 years, is a prizewinning writer of books on nature,
including “The Run,” which celebrates the remarkable life story of the
alewives that make an heroic annual
journey up the herring run to spawn
in Brewster ponds. By studying one
species in depth and with appreciation, he conveys its uniqueness and
yet shows how all nature is interconnected, a theme carried further in his
subsequent books.
To a generation of former
Brewster Elementary School students,
he may also be known as the husband
of Kristi Hay. Kristi’s love of children
and books, her dedication to the
Brewster Ladies’ Library and its
Children’s Room, made her the logical choice to be the first librarian for
the Brewster Elementary School,
where she developed a collection, created educational programs and
instilled a love of reading.
The Town has honored their work
by naming the new trail in the recently-purchased Stranahan parcel, next
to the museum’s Stony Brook
Preserve, the John and Kristi Hay
Trail. A dedication was being planned
for this summer.
John was an early member of the
Brewster Conservation Commission
and led the movement to protect the
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John Hay and the late Kristi Hay at their
Maine home.
Brewster Conservation Trust
John and Kristi Hay
Continued from Page 4
Brewster marshes around Quivett and
Paines Creeks in the west of Town
and along Namskaket Creek in the
east, the first purchases for conservation made by the Town.
Some 20 years later John and
Kristi donated six acres of land on
Red Top Road to the town, and in
1992 they used a conservation
restriction held by the Brewster
Conservation Trust to protect another 53 acres around their home. The
land in part had been purchased
with John’s army pay: $25 an acre
for “10 acres more or less.” The first
tax bill (for $4) defined the size of
the $250 purchase more precisely as
18 acres.
The land they protected in West
Brewster is a vital link in a wildlife
corridor connecting the De n n i s
watershed with the Pu n k h o r n
Parklands and preserves habitat for
box turtles, lady slippers and, yes,
coyotes. John Hay’s writings show a
way for each of us to find a deeper
connection to our own nature and to
the natural world around us. The
legacy of John and Kristi Hay
enriches all Brewster residents.
John’s understanding that the
marshes are the nursery of life
brought about the purchase of the
Brewster marshes. His deep connection to the land, the beach and
the water led to the founding of the
Museum to, as he said, bring the
indoors out: to show visitors and
residents the intricacy and splendor
of this fragile peninsula. With a goal
to reestablish a relationship between
humankind and all other living
beings, John, Kristi and their family
have preserved a legacy of ideas, of
education, and land so all Brewster
residents, those with scales or
shells, with roots or wings, as well
as those with two feet, can have a
home of their own.
Check
it out
This is what a
$500,000 check
looks like when
the state hands it
out. It was a state
grant to help the
town buy the
Shanahan property beside Stony
Brook. From left are Elizabeth Taylor, chair of the town open space committee; Elliott Carr, chair
of the town community preservation committee, Selectman Ed Lewis and Ian Bowles, Secretary of
Energy and the Environment.
Brewster Conservation Trust
7
Better protection for underground water
Whether you get your water
from the town’s wells or your own
well, you depend on clean water
from underground – just like all
Cape Codders. We don’t have big
surface reservoirs that store water;
all we have is groundwater. We
don’t dare let it get polluted.
So far, Brewster has been fortunate – its municipal water sources
are in the far corners of Town
where development has been held
at bay. But that’s changing, and several recent experiences have
demonstrated the weakness of our
protective measures.
Town volunteers and staff have
been struggling to strengthen them,
but it’s complex and difficult work.
To get a time-out, the Town successfully petitioned the Cape Cod
Commission to establish a District
of Critical Planning Concern,
which fends off most development
activities in the district for a year
while the rule-writing goes forward.
We’ll hear a lot on the subject in
coming months.
The source of water
The Monomoy Lens of groundwater lies under a large swath of the
Cape – Brewster, Orleans, Harwich,
Chatham and Dennis. Water for 95
percent of the Town comes from
wells off Freeman’s Way, in an
industrial zone in the southeast end
of Town, and in the Punkhorn in the
southwest corner. The other towns
tap the lens also.
8
The Town and the Brewster
Conservation Trust, with the help
of the Compact of Cape Co d
Conservation Trusts, have acquired
considerable acreage near the wells,
in the so-called “zones of contribution” and beyond, but most of the
land over the Monomoy Lens
remains in private hands.
To protect groundwater from
being tainted by above-ground
activities, a Groundwater Protection
District was created and the Water
Quality Review Committee was
established in 1994. In the district,
which covers the zones of contribution, many activities are prohibited:
dumping, landfilling, storage of pesticides and manure, etc. Other activities are allowed with a special permit.
But pre-existing uses are grandfathered. The Town’s DCPC application
describes fires, illegal dumping,
“storage and burying of unknown
materials, breaches of groundwater,” sediment and erosion from
land-clearing
and
excavation.
Animal waste disposal and the use of
fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides,
all grave threats to groundwater, are
essentially unmonitored.
Threats unknown
What is taking place on those
lands that might harm the underground water? We don’t know and
we badly need to know. Clearly,
monitoring and enforcement must
be intensified.
Brewster Conservation Trust
The District of Critical Planning Concern covers the zones of contribution above the
underground sources of Brewster water supply.
But enforcement of what? The protective net over our precious groundwater, the bylaws and regulations, has
many gaping holes. Consequently,
much revising and rewriting is
underway. One goal is to give the
Water Quality Review Committee
more authority. Another goal is to
bring land-clearing and earth excavation activities under greater scrutiny.
Here’s a telling example: currently,
sand and gravel can be stripped to
within four feet of historic high
groundwater levels. Four feet of soil
that is little more than sand is not
much of a barrier to errant spills of fuel
or herbicide. A proposed new bylaw
would require 10 feet of separation.
Brewster Conservation Trust
But a more basic problem is that
zoning regulations are poor instruments to protect us from health hazards. That’s the job of the Board of
Health, which has authority to
investigate activities that other
boards do not, and it too must play
a more vigorous role.
Of course, Brewster can’t go it
alone in this effort. Close collaboration with Orleans, Harwich and
Dennis are necessary to fully protect
our water supply. The Cape Cod
Water Collaborative exists to promote joint protection efforts here
and throughout the Cape.
9
Scouting the Spotted Salamander . . .
By Debra Ann Johnson
Here we are in summertime,
searching for the outdoor classroom
that was used two months earlier to
teach us how to identify a vernal pool.
But all we can find is a depression in
the ground, where once the frogs loudly made their presence known.
However, we know that an
amazing variety of little critters call
it home, which is why vernal pools
fill an important niche in the environment and why it’s important to
protect them.
That’s what drew 20 volunteers to
the Cape Cod Museum of Natural
History on April 8 to kick off the
Vernal Pools Certification project
jointly sponsored by the Museum and
the Brewster Conservation Trust. Jo
Ann Muramoto, senior scientist of
the Association to Preserve Cape
Cod (APCC) and Massachusetts
Bays Program Coordinator, was the
instructor.
The program is patterned after
one in Harwich which in two years
has certified or is certifying 36 vernal
pools. Jim Van Baalen, a CCMNH
volunteer, and Don Keeran, a BCT
trustee and APCC assistant director,
are the “go-to people” for the
Brewster group. The plan is to focus
on possible vernal pool sites on BCT,
town, and state properties during
their short lifespan, about three
months each spring.
Dr. Jo Ann Muramoto, at left, senior scientist at the Association to Preserve Cape Cod,
describes the elusive denizens of the vernal pool.
10
Brewster Conservation Trust
. . . that proves it’s a vernal pool
Already, the effort has found
five vernal pools to be offered for
certification, and two “probables,”
Keeran reports.
Vernal pools, Jo Ann explained
in her training session, are a unique
and increasingly vulnerable type of
wetland, home to many species,
some of which are totally dependent
on the vernal pool ecosystem.
While some vernal pools may contain water year round, they must
b e free of fish to be certified.
Amphibians such as the wood frog
and some salamanders can breed
successfully in these pools only
because there are no fish to eat the
eggs they lay.
Following the introductory lesson,
Jo Ann and the volunteers trooped
off to a vernal pool that was identified
last spring on BCT land. Tara Nye,
APCC staff biologist, used a GPS
instrument to mark the location,
making the point that vernal pools
must be pin-pointed on a USGS topographic map to be certified.
Jo Ann sent the volunteers
searching for “obligate species” -amphibians and invertebrates that
need vernal pools for all or a portion
of their life cycle. Examples are
wood frogs and spotted salamanders. At least one such species must
be found in order to certify a vernal
pool. It didn’t take long for people to
find spotted salamander egg masses
and a fairy shrimp, which was
scooped up in a white enamel pan
and passed around for all to observe.
Brewster Conservation Trust
The group was also on the lookout
for “facultative species,” which use
vernal pools for all or a portion of their
life cycle but can survive in other
water bodies. Examples are spring
peeper frogs and dragonfly nymphs.
Listening to the croaking of the
wood frogs, Jo Ann noted that a
recording of the frog breeding chorus could also be used to identify a
vernal pool!
The Massachusetts Na t u r a l
Heritage and Endangered Species
Program (NHESP) administers the
certification program. Certification
requires proof that a confined basin
provides wildlife habitat with the
criteria listed in the “Guidelines for
the Certification of Vernal Pool
Habitat.” The observer submits a
report to the NHESP, which assesses it and then certifies the pool.
The observer, the local conservation commission, the regional
office of the Department of
Environmental Protection and the
landowner (in this case, the BCT)
are all notified of the certification,
and the pool is plotted on NHESP’s
“Estimated Habitats of Rare
Wetlands Wildlife and Ce r t i f i e d
Vernal Pools.” The process takes
time, but adds a layer of protection
to this unique habitat.
If you are interested in working
on the vernal pool project, call Don
at 508-362-4226 or Jim at 508-8969048. Join the group that’s waiting
to put our new-found knowledge to
the test next spring.
11
Best time ever for preserving your land
By Mark H. Robinson
If you have ever thought about
preserving your land, now is the
time to act. Congress has renewed a
remarkable program that enables
owners of important natural
resources to get tax benefits for
donating permanent conservation
restrictions (CRs) on their properties.
But it’s temporary: landowners must
complete the CR before the end of
2009 to qualify.
A landowner can deduct the difference in land value before and after
donating a CR. Before 2006, donors
could deduct only up to 30 percent
of their income each year for six
years. For low-income taxpayers,
the deduction might have been too
large to use up in six years.
Then a new law allowed donors to
deduct 50 percent of their income
each year for 16 years. Under those
terms, few donors will leave any
deduction “on the table.” That law
expired at the end of 2007; it was
renewed this spring.
One example: a landowner with
annual income of $100,000 has a property worth $1,000,000. She donates a
CR on the property to the local land
trust. She keeps title and privacy and
management control, but extinguishes
certain development rights, such as
subdivision potential. The property
still has some value as part of her
estate, say $200,000. The difference of
$800,000 is the charitable deduction
for federal income taxes. Under the
old rule, this deduction would reduce
income tax $45,000 over six years.
12
With the new rule, she will save
$200,000 over 16 years.
A primer on conservation
restrictions: you do not give up title
to the land. You still own it; you can
sell it or give it to heirs. You agree
to relinquish the right to build houses on it, or to preserve resource
areas. You negotiate the CR terms
to retain your customary uses or
future needs. You may or may not
allow public access.
To receive the tax benefits, the
CR must be permanent. An outside
entity, such as a land trust or a town
conservation commission, must
hold the CR, with the right to monitor the land annually and enforce
the terms.
The town benefits in several
ways. The community gets the benefit
of the open space without buying it
and without being responsible for
maintaining the land and its costs.
For a confidential consultation to
see if a CR works for you and your
Cape Cod property, contact Mark
Robinson at the Compact’s email:
c o m p a c t @ c a p e . c o m or call him at
508-362-2565.
Robinson has served as executive
director of The Compact of Cape Cod
Conservation Trusts since 1986. He has
guided more than 150 conservation
restrictions to completion. eb
Wsite
w w w. c o m p a c t. c a p e . c o m
has more
information on local land trusts,RC
s
and the new tax law.
Brewster Conservation Trust
Students learning about Cape Cod nature
The children of grades K-2 in Stony Brook Elementary
School, 233 in all, enjoyed an introduction to environmental education at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural
History in April. An awesome time was had by both pupils
and staff, as the faces show.
Photos by Ray Jasinski
The visit was
funded by a
grant from
the Brewster
Conservation
Trust.
Brewster Conservation Trust
13
Contributions to BCT . . .
In memory of
Philip W. Anastasia
Grace L. Anastasia
Jennifer K. Baringer
Nancy & Charles Baringer
Jasper Blanchard
William & Linda Mills
Ursula Gainty
Dick & Donna Curtis
Darthea W. Bulwidas
Jack & Karen Bulwidas
Betty Eldredge
Daniel Eldredge
Ida Ellis
Jane & Rich Jesser
Joan Haney
Joan & Timothy Hogan
William C. Harvey
Lorraine C. Harvey
Michael C. Hawley
Winnifred H. Hawley
Kristi Hay
Richard & Marsha Deperro
Jonathan Jorge
Anne M. Walther Hayes
Margaret Kamarck
Elliott & Sue Carr
Jeffrey Donn
Cindy & Howie Graham
Sally Gunning
Martin & Elaine Kamarck
M.J. McDonald
Nancy Mutty
Arthur & Pamela Praetsch
John Latham
Betty H. Latham
Richard Lazarus
Ellen & Leonard Farwell
Helen Mehne
Brian & Brooke Shea
Frances Michaels
Robert & Ann Michaels
Madelyne Norton
Deborah A. Norton
Our Parents
Brian R. & Donna S. Murphy
Joan Paine
Charles Davis
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James B. Pond
Harry Anderson
Peter & Sandy Brooks
Mr. & Mrs. Matthew Couzens
Sarah Doyle
Howard & Lucinda Graham
John & Earlyn Harvey
Chippy & Mac Holladay
The Kapp Companies, Inc.
Andrew & Margaret Kamarck
Lillian McCarthy
Cornelia Montgomery & David Engman
Herb & Sue Montgomery
Nancy Mutty
Anthony Pond
Robert C, Pond
Dan Leahy & Julia Rabin
Bill Secor
Alice & John Sparks
Priscilla & Dick Stahl
Betsy Van Sant
Mr. & Mrs. Christopher Wallace
Mary Jane & Randy Williams
Norman Robinson
Ellie & Peter Johnson
Jean & Roy Smith
Natalie Robinson
Eleanor Smith Rogers
Crispin & Christine Fletcher
Marian Schloemer
Clare Neuman
Herbert Smith
Mr. & Mrs. T.P. Heuchling
Herbert & May Smith
Christine Johnson & Derek Halberg
John J. Sullivan
Hilary S. Hickok
Jane Wagoner
Cal & Karen Mutti
David S. Wexler
Madelin Wexler
Brewster Conservation Trust
In honor of
Beautiful Brewster
Kit Reynolds & Mike Schwimmer
Beth Finch
Mary Haynes & Doug Wilcox
Harold & Penny Goldman
Barry & Nancy Rosen
The Johnson Family
Carroll & Jane Johnson
Debra Johnson
JoAnn & Dwight Ritter
Ellie & Peter Johnson
Jon Miskowski & Mary Sarnowski
Keith Johnson Family
Leonard & Pat Johnson
Judy McCarthy
Liz Gordon & Tavia Ossola
Chip & Sandi Weisel
Roberta G. Weisel
Memorials and bequests
What could be a more appropriate way to honor the memory of a loved
one who has passed on than to give a donation to the Brewster Conservation
Trust “in lieu of flowers”? It’s a gift that never wilts, a gift that will help protect
lands of special beauty or environmental value in Brewster. The BCT welcomes
such memorials and records them in our next newsletter. The address to be
used for that purpose is PO Box 268, Brewster, MA, 02631.
We also welcome bequests, which may be made in several ways. Mark
Robinson of The Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts is available at 508362-2565 or e-mail: [email protected] for guidance on planning a bequest or gift.
How the garden grows!
As landowner of the community
garden on Lower Road, the Brewster
Conservation Trust became concerned
this spring about the waiting list of 33
would-be gardeners. There was plenty
of untilled land in the field so the solution was obvious: expand the garden.
The fence came down on the south
side of the garden, new fence went up
and sod was broken. The garden grew
Brewster Conservation Trust
from an acre
to an acre and
a half; the number of individual
20x20-foot plots grew from 44 to 65.
And now the waiting list is pretty
much wiped out, reports Denise Rego
at the Council on Aging, which administers the garden for BCT. Trustees
Debra Johnson and Peter Herrmann
managed the expansion for BCT.
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