Blog

  • Annual Meeting Thursday January 29

    Annual Meeting Thursday January 29

    The Board of Directors of the Arlington Land Trust is pleased to invite you to join the 2025 Annual Meeting on Thursday, January 29, 2026 at 7 pm, in the Back Room of the Donut Villa Diner, 319 Broadway in Arlington Center. 

    This year we celebrate the 26th anniversary of the founding of the Land Trust and the 15th anniversary of the purchase of Elizabeth Island, our precious gem in Spy Pond. We will elect Board members, hear a brief Treasurer’s report, and provide updates on the proposed Thorndike Place development on the Mugar property in East Arlington, Symmes Woods and other local conservation projects. 

    Our guest speaker is Robb Johnson, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition since 2019.

    A longtime resident of Cambridge, Robb has over 30 years of non-profit program and management experience in health care, human service, and environmental organizations in Massachusetts, including The Nature Conservancy, Sudbury Valley Trustees and The Bay Circuit Alliance. He has collaborated with federal, state, local and non-profit partners to complete land conservation and habitat restoration projects in many Massachusetts communities. Robb has a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University and a Masters in Public Health from the University of Michigan.

    We look forward to hearing from Robb about “The Power of Local Land Trusts” as we face the challenges and opportunities of being a valued steward of land conservation in our community. 

    ALT will provide light refreshments starting at 6:30 pm. Please note that there is no “snow date” for this event. If Arlington schools are closed due to weather issues on January 29, the meeting will be cancelled. For more information about Land Trust activities over the past year, see the Fall 2025 ALT News. 

  • 2026 Land Trust Scholarship

    2026 Land Trust Scholarship

    The Arlington Land Trust is welcoming applications for its Land Trust Conservation Scholarship. The deadline is April 15. Download Application Form.

    To be eligible for a $1,000 scholarship, you must be a high school senior and a resident of Arlington. You may be attending Arlington High School, Arlington Catholic, Minuteman, or another public or private high school. The Land Trust seeks to support seniors who will be pursuing education, volunteer service or work in conservation, environmental protection or a related field after graduation. The award will be given to one or more Arlington residents at a time decided by their high school. View last year’s winners. 

    Send your completed application to norafrank@comcast.net by April 16, 2025. All applications will be acknowledged. When submitting your application, please name it: ALTScholarship[YOURLASTNAME] (e.g., ALTScholarshipSMITH). 

  • Mugar Update on DEP Appeal Process

    It’s been a while since we had any hard news to report, and we are still waiting. However, we do want to report on what has happened over the last several weeks.

    In brief, the Conservation Commission held its final hearing on the Notice of Intent (NOI) for Thorndike Place under the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act (WPA) on March 6. Members reviewed and discussed the wetlands permit application and concluded with a 2-2 tie vote among the four eligible members, meaning the Commission recommended ‘No Action’ on the NOI.

    On May 1, the Applicant (Arlington Land Realty LLC) filed an appeal of this vote with the Mass Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Georgia Pendergast, the environmental analyst with DEP’s Wetlands Program, accepted the appeal in accordance with the provisions of the WPA and scheduled a site visit for May 28. This inspection of the site with the respective parties and discussion of pertinent issues in the appeal is done in preparation for DEP’s issuance of a Superseding Order of Conditions (SOC). 

    The Land Trust continues to be directly involved in this ongoing review process through the hiring of water resources consultants and legal counsel to monitor the appeal case and provide additional information to DEP and the Town. Our representatives at the site visit were able to present much of their research that had been part of the Con Com hearing, along with additional data gathered since March. The Select Board has also chimed in with a strong letter expressing the members’ concerns about the environmental impacts of the Thorndike Place project. We now await DEP’s decision.

    The full records of the Con Com’s NOI hearing, including peer review and consultants’ reports, public comments, recordings of previous meetings, and the recent MassDEP appeal correspondence, are posted on the Commission’s Thorndike Place Wetlands Permit web page.  

  • Mugar Update: No News

    The Conservation Commission held its final hearing on the Notice of Intent (NOI) for Thorndike Place under the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act (WPA) on March 6. Members reviewed and discussed the wetlands permit application and concluded with a tie vote among the four eligible members, with two members approving the permit with conditions and two members denying the permit. The split vote means the Commission will take ‘No Action’ on the NOI.

    To date, there has been no news about any response from the Applicant or the state Department of Environmental Protection, which has jurisdiction over this aspect of the project. The Land Trust continues to monitor the situation and will report on next steps as they are known. Thank you for your continued interest and support.

  • Mugar Decision is ‘No Action’

    On March 6, the Conservation Commission held its final hearing on the Notice of Intent (NOI) for Thorndike Place under the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act (WPA). Members reviewed and discussed the wetlands permit application and concluded with a tie vote among the four eligible members, with two members approving the permit with conditions and two members denying the permit. The split vote means the Commission will take ‘No Action’ on the NOI.

    The Applicant can appeal to the Department of Environmental Protection for a superseding order. DEP would then decide whether the application meets the requirements of the WPA. Once a decision is made, the Commission would then need to respond accordingly at the direction of the DEP.

    The Land Trust continues to monitor these developments and will report on next steps as they are known. Thank you for your continued interest and support.