Annual Meeting

February 2022 – News Brief

The Board of Directors of the Arlington Land Trust invite you to join us for the 2021 Annual Meeting via Zoom on Monday, February 21, 2022 at 7 pm.

This year we will hold a short meeting to remember our colleague Brian Rehrig, elect Board members, hear a brief Treasurer’s report, and provide updates on the 40B comprehensive permit process for Thorndike Place/Mugar property.

Please save the date and join the meeting using the link below.

All are welcome to attend the meeting. Anyone who has made a general membership payment and/or contributed to an ALT special fund during the past year is considered a member and is eligible to vote. If you have not done so already, please renew your membership or make a contribution here.

Thank you. We look forward to seeing you on February 21.

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The Land Trust held its 20th anniversary annual meeting via Zoom on Tuesday, January 19. This recording includes the brief business meeting, reports of recent activities and board member elections (about 20 minutes).

View the January 19, 2021 Annual Meeting video

The highlight of the program is a richly illustrated talk by Bob Wilber, Director of Land Conservation at Mass Audubon. He addressed the topic “Land Conservation in the Time of Climate Change,” focusing on the dramatic freshwater ecological restoration of a former cranberry farm in Plymouth, now known as Mass Audubon’s 480-acre Tidmarsh Wildlife Sanctuary. 

The Land Trust will present its 20th anniversary annual meeting via Zoom this year on Tuesday, January 19, at 7:00 pm. The agenda will include the usual reports of recent activities and board member elections. Please save the date and sign up here to receive the Zoom link to the meeting. 

Our special guest speaker this year is Bob Wilber, Director of Land Conservation at Mass Audubon. Long-time ALT members may recall that Bob was instrumental in helping the Land Trust negotiate the purchase of Elizabeth Island in 2010.
 
He will address the topic Land Conservation in the Time of Climate Change. Land conservation has always been an important activity to protect diverse habitats for animals and plants and to provide opportunities for people to experience the wonders of the natural world firsthand. During the last decade, the immense human health benefits of spending time in natural settings have been well documented. More recently, the convergence of two other critically important issues – the need for impactful responses to climate change and the need for environmental equity and justice for all people – has elevated the priority of strategic land conservation to an altogether new level.
 
Bob Wilber has been the Director of Land Conservation for Mass Audubon since 2000. Previously, he worked in similar capacities for the Massachusetts Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, and Massachusetts State Forests and Parks. Bob is a past president of the Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition (MLTC), and currently serves on MLTC’s Board of Trustees. He lives in Stow, where he is president of the all-volunteer Stow Conservation Trust, and a member of the Town of Stow’s Open Space Committee. During his 35+ year career, Bob has been directly involved in the protection of more than 40,000 acres in Massachusetts.

Report on the ALT Annual Meeting on January 21, 2020

Many thanks to Professor Richard Primack for a fascinating presentation on Henry David Thoreau as a climate change scientist. Thoreau set a valuable research standard by documenting his observations of plants and animals in and around Concord during the 1850s. 

Those records are now being used as a baseline for measuring a vast array of data on the current environment, including the dates when wildflowers bloom, when native trees such as oaks and maples begin showing leaves, and when various bird species migrate into the area. Some of the changes over the past century are startling: many plants have gone extinct locally; others have become much less abundant while some invasive species have increased in distribution; and many birds and insects are changing their behavior as well. Following the meeting, Dr. Primack sold and signed copies of his book, Walden Warming: Climate Change Comes to Thoreau’s Woods.

More than 70 members and guests attended this Annual Meeting for the year 2019, led by President Christopher Leich. ALT Treasurer Brian Rehrig presented a summary financial report for the past year, and Arlington Conservation Agent Emily Sullivan provided updates on monitoring and enforcement of the conservation restrictions at Arlington 360 (still known as the Symmes site) and on bank improvement projects at Spy Pond Park that have affected the water level in the pond. Leich also addressed the current status of the Zoning Board of Appeals hearings on the proposed 40B housing development on the Mugar land. Finally, he conducted the annual election of ALT board members. Three members were reelected unanimously: John F. Page, Bancroft Poor, and Clarissa Rowe.