Category: Other News

  • 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). 

  • ALT Scholarship Winners 2024

    ALT Scholarship Winners 2024

    The Arlington Land Trust established the Arlington Land Trust Conservation Scholarship for graduating seniors at Arlington High School in 2024. The response was excellent, and we decided to award not one but three $1,000 scholarships to students who will be pursuing education, volunteer service and work in conservation, environmental protection or a related field.

    We are pleased to recognize these three winners of the inaugural ALT scholarship program:

    Tatem Kerr participated in an internship at Mass Audubon’s Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary taking care of resident goats, learning and utilizing best practices for composting, and teaching community service groups and school children about the environment. She plans to major in marine science and work to protect ocean wildlife from plastic waste, and may later explore becoming an environmental lawyer.

    Miriam Oliveri-Schneider co-founded Full Circle Compost Service, a student-run, free and accessible food waste reduction service program. She also pursued an internship at Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm Wildlife Care Center, where she worked with injured animals and researched the causes. That experience influenced her goal to become a conservation biologist to study the effects of human pollution and environmental degradation on wildlife.

    Clara Schneider has been actively involved in the Remembrance of Climate Futures Arlington project, which promotes climate resilience and advocacy, as well as in other internships to promote sustainable waste management and combat extreme heat. Her advocacy for various aspects of environmental preservation and experience on Arlington’s Debate Team have led to her goal of becoming an environmental lawyer.

    We congratulate these students on their significant contributions to environmental issues in Arlington and wish them well in their future educational and career endeavors.

    As a part of our conservation and education mission, we intend to open up the Scholarship application process to all Arlington-based high school seniors in 2025. We are grateful for the generosity of our members who make these awards possible. Thank you.

  • Restore Dark Skies Recording

    Restore Dark Skies Recording

    The Arlington Land Trust presented a Zoom program, Restore Dark Skies for Arlington, on Tuesday, May 14, and we are pleased to share this recording for those unable to attend the meeting. Kelly Beatty, senior editor at Sky & Telescope Magazine, explained how light pollution disrupts wildlife, impacts human health, wastes money and energy, contributes to climate change, and blocks our view of the universe. Hear his suggestions and participants’ questions about how we in Arlington can take action to limit light pollution and reclaim the night sky.