Success Stories

On the southern side of Cold Spring Road in the Town of Sandisfield, there sits seven acres of ecologically rich land recently acquired by Mass Audubon from Donald and Mary Turek.

Occasionally Mass Audubon comes across a property that is an inholding—that is, a property not owned by Mass Audubon that is virtually "within" one of our wildlife sanctuaries. In this case, a staff person identified a seven-acre property with no road frontage between the Wachusett Regional High School and the Eagle Lake Wildlife Sanctuary in Holden, MA.

A 70-acre woodland parcel adjacent to "The Mount"—Edith Wharton's home and a National Historic Landmark—is now permanently protected thanks to a Conservation Restriction generously donated to Mass Audubon by the property's owner, David Carver.

Scott and Gladys Olson generously donated their 4.9-acre property in Princeton, MA, so it could become part of Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary. While modest in size, the parcel represents a significant addition to the 1,100-acre sanctuary.

Mass Audubon and the City of Northampton worked in partnership to add one and a half acres to the conserved land known as the Rocky Hill Greenway and approximately four acres to Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary. The Greenway is an active wildlife corridor that has been the focus of protection efforts by the conservation partners for much of the last decade.

Great news—Mass Audubon just completed the purchase of 110 acres at Great Neck in Wareham with more than a mile of salt water frontage on Buzzard's Bay! A decade earlier, we worked with several partners to purchase a Conservation Restriction (CR) covering 95 acres of this property. But the CR left 15 acres of the land totally unprotected.

When no family members expressed interest in keeping a 5-acre property, Karen Faler approached Mass Audubon about donating it. The land has never been developed and directly abuts our Broad Meadow Brook Wildlife Sanctuary. Of course, we accepted her offer with enthusiasm!

Mass Audubon received a 2.5-acre property located on Cuttyhunk Island in late June 2019. But if you're not familiar with Cuttyhunk, you are in good company. The island is a little-known gem of coastal Massachusetts. Specifically, it's the last—and smallest—of the Elizabeth Island chain just northwest of Martha's Vineyard.

In early 2018, the Dorrance family presented Mass Audubon with an opportunity to acquire 25 acres of land they owned abutting Oak Knoll Wildlife Sanctuary. This addition would expand the popular urban sanctuary’s footprint by more than 50%—a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. 

Moose © USFWS

Whetstone Wood Wildlife Sanctuary—located in Wendell, Orange, and New Salem—is Mass Audubon's largest wildlife sanctuary at almost 2,500 acres. And another 118 acres have been added, land that's home to high quality forest and vernal pools.

Stone wall on the Poitras property

A new Conservation Restriction (CR) was acquired in a joint effort between the New England Forestry Foundation, Mass Audubon, and the Poitras Family. This 60-acre property joins Mass Audubon's long-term effort to knit together a large natural landscape for the benefit of Holliston and neighboring communities.

View from the School Lot in Lenox

When Mass Audubon acquired land adjacent to Lenox's Kennedy Park in 1993, the ultimate aim was to swap it for a parcel just south of Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary along the western side of West Mountain Road. This exchange as originally envisioned did not take place—but after 26 years, a slightly modified version has.

Brewster's Woods

Generosity that inspires all who hear of it has created a new wildlife sanctuary in Concord, MA. Nancy Beeuwkes has donated an astonishing 143 acres of land along the Concord River to Mass Audubon—to be preserved forever.

Cold Brook Wildlife Sanctuary

The Fischer family has generously donated their 3-acre property in Sandisfield, along the western side of Cold Brook Wildlife Sanctuary, to Mass Audubon. The donated land is located on the easterly side of Beech Plain Road and fills a gap in the protection of the wildlife sanctuary.

A Conservation Restriction (CR) adjacent to Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary was expanded to permanently protect an additional five acres. The donation was made by the Hunnewell family and it preserves a section of Glen Street in Natick from further development.

Along Loring Hill Road, 23 acres of field and forest has been permanently protected with a Conservation Restriction (CR) donated to Mass Audubon by the Sinclair family. It is one of the last steps in a project envisioned by Fraser Sinclair in 2014.

The Hubbard family

Mass Audubon purchased 60 acres—the agricultural core of Hubbard's Farm—with the intention of restricting the use of the property to agriculture through use of the state’s Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) Program and then selling the property to a local farmer. Now that transfer has taken place.

Salt marsh on the newly protected land

Mass Audubon was given a 7-acre Conservation Restriction near our Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary in South Dartmouth. This land is one of the last remaining pieces of unprotected shoreline along the sanctuary’s namesake pond. And it was protected by the children and grandchildren of the woman that first started conserving land in this area some 50 years ago.

Big news—we've completed the second and final phase of protecting the 610-acre former Tidmarsh Farms property in Plymouth! Mass Audubon acquired a permanent Conservation Restriction (CR) to ensure the perpetual conservation of “Tidmarsh West”—129 acres of land located on the west side of Beaver Dam Road.

On June 15, 2018, Mass Audubon protected a spectacular piece of land in Plainfield, MA. Adjacent to our West Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, this 110-acre property is part of a large network of significant wildlife corridors.

Congratulations—and many, many thanks—to all who helped Mass Audubon successfully complete the purchase of 450+/- acres of land in the Manomet section of Plymouth that will soon become our newest wildlife sanctuary—the Tidmarsh Wildlife Sanctuary! 

On December 23, 2016, the deed to the new Tracy Brook Wildlife Sanctuary in Richmond was recorded. Tracy Brook—which includes 21 acres of wetlands and a nature trail—was donated to Mass Audubon by Rich and Patty Levy.

Mass Audubon added a small but important 13-acre parcel to its Laughing Brook Wildlife Sanctuary in Hampden.

©Richard Johnson

On June 2, thanks to donations from scores of generous contributors, Mass Audubon purchased 53 acres for addition to our High Ledges Wildlife Sanctuary in Shelburne.

We are pleased to announce the recent addition of four parcels totaling 66 acres of rocky oak upland and forested wetlands adjacent to our Pierpont Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary in Dudley. In a profession in which no two projects are alike, this one took a particularly unusual path to its happy ending. Read More