Our annual summer benefit was spread out over four consecutive nights at Ashakomaksett Farm, thanks to the generosity of Ellen and Ed Harley, as well as all our event sponsors, which include Sara Piazza, Big Sky Tent, Jardin Mahoney and Paul Mahoney, and Bad Martha’s Brewery. The Summer Benefit Committee and Development Associate Susan Hughes worked tirelessly planning this event during complicated times. The weather cooperated and the mood was festive as we reconnected with one another after more than a year of relative isolation. Below are edited remarks that were made each of the four nights by Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation Executive Director Adam Moore and SMF Board President Peter Getsinger.
Adam Moore:
We have just concluded an extraordinary year in the history of Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation. The conservation lands that Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation has protected provided sanctuary for people throughout the pandemic. They walked the trails and safely breathed in the air, and enjoyed the company of others, on the lands that we have protected, and that we have maintained with your support.
We were re-accredited by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission for an additional five-year term. We worked diligently with our partners at the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation and at Natural Heritage to resolve trail permitting issues in the State Forest, and we reached an agreement in May. We opened a new trailhead and restroom facility at Cedar Tree Neck Sanctuary, and opened the rugged new Elinor Moore Irvin Trail. We adopted an excellent Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Plan for Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation and are hard at work at implementing the plan. We launched a five-year, comprehensive strategic planning effort.
And last year, with your generous support, with our partner, the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank Commission, and with Caroline Kennedy and Ed Schlossberg and their family, we saved 304 acres at Red Gate Farm in Our annual summer benefit was spread out over four consecutive nights at Ashakomaksett Farm, thanks to the generosity of Ellen and Ed Harley, as well as all our event sponsors, which include Sara Piazza, Big Sky Tent, Jardin Mahoney and Paul Mahoney, and Bad Martha’s Brewery. The Summer Benefit Committee and Development Associate Susan Hughes worked tirelessly planning this event during complicated times. The weather cooperated and the mood was festive as we reconnected with one another after more than a year of relative isolation. Below are edited remarks that were made each of the four nights by Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation Executive Director Adam Moore and SMF Board President Peter Getsinger, as well as a sonnet that Adam was encouraged to write by SMF Board member Chris Alley. Aquinnah and created Squibnocket Pond Reservation. This is the largest land acquisition in the history of Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, and achieved a goal that we had hoped to achieve since Henry Hough wrote to the Hornblowers about this property in 1976.
In the field of conservation, you can do things that truly leave a legacy. Squibnocket Pond Reservation has been a natural, beautiful, rural landscape for thousands of years, and now it will remain that way, for thousands of years to come.
Our lives may be short, but in setting aside this land, we can glimpse eternity. Squibnocket Pond Reservation will always be protected. It will never be developed. And it will be there for all future generations to enjoy, forever. With your contributions that ranged from $10 to $1.5 million, you made the conservation of Squibnocket Pond Reservation possible. Your support makes possible all the work of Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation. And your support means a great deal to me, personally. From all of us here at Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, I thank you.
Peter Getsinger
Thank you, Adam, for your introduction, what you do for Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, and for all you and your family do for the Islands of Martha’s Vineyard—and Chappaquiddick. Your leadership over the last thirteen years has been exemplary, never more so than during this past year when Sheriff’s Meadow and the Land Bank partnered to purchase and preserve over 300 acres of Red Gate Farm creating Squibnocket Preserve.
Thank you, Ellen and Ed, for graciously hosting us at this magnificent farm tonight and for the balance of this week. It is so good to be together again. Also, we thank you both for all that you have done and do for this organization.
I think one of the enduring strengths of Sheriff’s Meadow is the quality of our board and its members, their commitment to the simplicity of our mission statement— “Conserving the natural, beautiful, rural landscape and character of Martha’s Vineyard.” We seek a balance, drawing board members from each of the Island’s six towns, and keeping in mind the balance between those that live, work, and raise families here and seasonal residents. In any case both groups have a multi-generational attachment to these islands.
It is important to thank three individuals that completed their terms this year, Phil Regan served on the board for ten years, chaired the Buildings Committee, served on the nominating and Master Plan Committee, and led the effort to restore the Hancock Mitchell House at Quansoo.
Bill Howell served on the board for nine years, was Assistant Treasurer for a number of years, served on the Nominating Committee, Land Trust Accreditation, the Executive Committee, and others. Bill and Nina hosted a lovely reception at their home several years ago, and regularly connected the organization to the Island community.
Walt Looney served on the board for ten years, served as our Treasurer, and multiple other committees. Walt is an expert birder and enthusiastic walker of Sheriff’s Meadow properties. His oversight has always given the board confidence in our finances, and Walt was an integral part of making Red Gate happen from a legal and practical standpoint.
It is important to recognize new board members, Sevda Kleinman, Wanda Moreis, and Barbie Cole—a fellow Chappaquiddicker. Each bring different and valuable attributes to the organization, and we look forward to receiving their input.
Finally, I want to thank Bill Bridwell for his many years of service to Sheriff’s Meadow. At our board meeting last week, we voted unanimously to name a trail after Bill at Cedar Tree Neck, something we do not do too frequently.
My family’s involvement with this organization began some 37 years ago when we decided to make the first of two gifts of family property on Chappaquiddick, it was an effort to give something back to the Island, and the desire to make a small contribution toward conservation. There were other conservancy groups that had significantly more visibility at the time–the Nature Conservancy which had national recognition, and the Trustees of Reservations, the oldest land trust in the state and in the country. Either would have been an obvious choice. However, Sheriff’s Meadow demonstrated flexibility, patience, and listened well to the complex issues of our families’ decision to gift property in perpetuity.
On a much larger scale, Caroline Kennedy, Ed Schlossberg, and their children – after some five years of discussion, took the decision to work with our organization and the Land Bank toward the conservation of the vast majority of their pristine property. What an incredible undertaking and incredible gift to the Island’s well being and preservation.
Given the volume of people here this summer, it is easy to worry about the Island’s future, but the more things seem to change on these fragile islands, the more some things stay the same. Each of the major properties now owned by Sheriff’s Meadow, Cedar Tree Neck, Quansoo, Caroline Tuthill, and now Squibnocket Preserve have resulted from multi-generational contact, and a multi-generational family decisions to give something back toward the conservation of the rural and pastoral landscape of where we live.
At Sheriff’s Meadow we now have approximately 3,300 acres under conservation. The island is approximately 60,000 acres, and of that approximately 40% of the island, or 24,000 acres have been conserved. While the acquisition of Red Gate, as noted by Adam earlier, was the largest in our 63 year history, we still have much work to do. Tess Bramhall, mother of Emily Bramhall, a former chair of this organization, was quoted this week in the Gazette saying we needed to get to the magical number of 50%. That would imply conserving another 6,000 acres of the available land for development. So we and you have a lot of work to do to comfortably know that the character of these islands will be intact for future generations.
In closing, thank you all for being here this evening, for your commitment, what you do for this organization, and your contribution toward preserving the pastoral character of Martha’s Vineyard, and oh yes, Chappaquiddick