The Trustees of Reservations

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The Trustees of Reservations (TTOR) is a non-profit land conservation and historic preservation organization dedicated to preserving natural and historical places in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. TTOR is the oldest regional land trust in the world and has about 42,000 dues-paying members.

TTOR has 96 properties in Massachusetts, all of which are open to the public. Two of its best know reservations are Cape Poge Wildlife Refuge on Martha's Vineyard and World's End in Hingham. East Over Reservation in Rochester and Little Tom Mountain in Holyoke are some of its most recent acquisitions.

The organization has offices in Beverly, Leominster and Sharon. In June 2006, TTOR received a gold level certification from the US Green Building Council for its Doyle Conservation Center in Leominster.

On September 16, 2006, The Trustees of Reservations announced its permanent affiliation with the Boston Natural Areas Network.

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[edit] Mission

The mission statement of The Trustees is to "preserve, for public use and enjoyment, properties of exceptional scenic, historic, and ecological value in Massachusetts."

[edit] Properties

As of September 2006, The Trustees own 96 sites outright with 23,697 acres (96 km²), and aided by other means in the conservation of a further 431 sites with approximately 30,000 acres (121 km²). Sixteen of the properties contain historic buildings, including nine historic house museums and two lighthouses open to the public.

Name Location Year Acquired
Agassiz Rock Manchester-by-the-Sea 1957
Appleton Farms Hamilton / Ipswich 1998
Appleton Farms Grass Rides Hamilton 1970
Ashintully Gardens Tyringham 1996
Colonel John Ashley House Sheffield 1972
Bartholomew's Cobble Sheffield 1946
Bear's Den New Salem 1968
Bear Swamp Ashfield 1968
Francis William Bird Park Walpole 2003
Eleanor Cabot Bradley Estate Canton 1991
Bridge Island Meadows Millis 1974
Brooks Wildlife Preserve Petersham 1975
William Cullen Bryant Homestead Cummington 1927
Cape Poge Wildlife Refuge Edgartown 1959
Castle Hill Ipswich 1949
Chapelbrook Ashfield 1964
Charles River Peninsula Needham 1960
Chase Woodlands Dover 1993
Chesterfield Gorge Chesterfield 1929
Coolidge Reservation Manchester-by-the-Sea 1990
Copicut Woods Fall River 2002
Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge Nantucket 1974
Crane Beach Ipswich 1945
Crane Wildlife Refuge Essex 1974
Crowninsheild Island Marblehead 1955
Dexter Drumlin Lancaster 1999
Dinosaur Footprints Holyoke 1935
Doane's Falls Royalston 1959
Doyle Reservation Leominster 1981
Dry Hill New Marlborough 2000
East Over Reservation Rochester 2005
Elliott Laurel Phillipston 1941
Field Farm Williamstown 1984
Fork Factory Brook Medfield 1966
Glendale Falls Middlefield 1964
Goose Pond Reservation Lee 1986
Greenwood Farm Ipswich 1975
Halibut Point Reservation Rockport 1934
Hamlin Reservation Ipswich 1993
Holmes Reservation Plymouth 1944
Governor Hutchinson's Field Milton 1898
Jacobs Hill Royalston 1975
Little Tom Mountain Holyoke 2002
Long Hill Beverly 1979
Long Point Wildlife Refuge West Tisbury 1979
Lowell Holly Mashpee / Sandwich 1942
Lyman Reserve Bourne / Plymouth / Wareham 2001
Malcolm Preserve Carlisle 1998
Mashpee River Reservation Mashpee 1959
McLennan Reservation Otis / Tyringham 1976
Medfield Meadow Lots Medfield 1968
Medfield Rhododendrons Medfield 1934
Menemsha Hills Chilmark 1966
Misery Islands Salem 1935
Mission House Stockbridge 1948
Monument Mountain Great Barrington 1899
Mount Ann Park Gloucester 1897
Mountain Meadow Preserve Williamstown / Pownal, VT 1998
Mytoi Edgartown 1976
Naumkeag Stockbridge 1959
Noanet Woodlands Dover 1984
Noon Hill Medfield 1959
Norris Reservation Norwell 1970
North Common Meadow Petersham 1975
Notchview Windsor 1965
Old Manse Concord 1939
Old Town Hill Newbury 1952
Peaked Mountain Monson 1999
Pegan Hill Dover / Natick 1956
Peters Reservation Dover 1988
Petticoat Hill Williamsburg 1905
Pierce Reservation Milton 1957
Pine and Hemlock Knoll Wenham 1936
Questing New Marlborough 1996
Quinebaug Woods Holland 2001
Ravenswood Park Gloucester 1993
Redemption Rock Princeton 1953
Rock House Reservation West Brookfield 1993
Rocky Narrows Sherborn 1897
Rocky Woods Medfield 1942
Royalston Falls Royalston 1951
Shattuck Reservation Medfield 1970
Slocum's River Reserve Dartmouth 2000
Stavros Reservation Essex 1982
The Stevens-Coolidge Place North Andover 1962
Swift River Reservation Petersham 1983
Tantiusques Sturbridge 1962
Two Mile Farm Marshfield 1993
Tyringham Cobble Tyringham 1963
Ward Reservation Andover / North Andover 1940
Wasque Edgartown 1967
Weir Hill North Andover 1968
Weir River Farm Hingham 1999
Whitney and Thayer Woods Cohasset / Hingham 1933
World's End Hingham 1967

In addition, the Trustees of Reservations manages the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Tully Lake Campground in Royalston. They also manage the Norton Point Beach in Edgartown, which is owned by the county government of Dukes County.

[edit] History

The history of the Trustees is traced to 1890 when the New England periodical Garden and Forest published a letter by young landscape architect Charles Eliot entitled "The Waverly Oaks". Eliot's letter proposed the immediate preservation of "special bits of scenery" still remaining "within ten miles of the State House which possess uncommon beauty and more than usual refreshing power". To this end, Eliot proposed that legislation be enacted to create a non-profit corporation to hold land for the public to enjoy "just as a Public Library holds books and an Art Museum holds pictures."

In the spring of 1891, the Massachusetts Legislature established The Trustees of Public Reservations "for the purposes of acquiring, holding, maintaining and opening to the public beautiful and historic places within the Commonwealth." The act was signed into law by Governor William E. Russell on May 21, 1891. The word "Public" was dropped from the organization's name in 1954 to avoid confusion with government-owned land.

Virginia Woods in Stoneham was the first property acquired by the Trustees. This property was conveyed to the Metropolitan District Commission in 1923 as is now a part of the Middlesex Fells Reservation. Waverly Oaks itself was included in the Beaver Brook Reservation, in Belmont, established in 1893.

In 1925, the Trustees joined with the Appalachian Mountain Club, Massachusetts Audubon Society, and the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities to organize a conference on "The Needs and Uses of Open Spaces". This conference led to a 1929 report emphasizing the need to protect the state's rural character and countryside and the importance of identifying and describing the qualities and characteristics of specific sites which should be preserved. Today, nearly every site listed in the report is protected by a government or non-profit conservation agency.

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