Category: Other News

The Land Trust is pleased to announce that Carol Kowalski was elected President and Bancroft (Banks) Poor was elected Vice President at a recent Board meeting. Continuing officers are Nora Frank as Treasurer and Ann LeRoyer as Clerk. While all Board members are elected by ALT members at the Annual Meeting, the officers are elected by the Board members themselves.

We extend our great thanks and deep appreciation to Chris Leich who served as President since 2019, and to Clarissa Rowe who is a founding member of ALT and has served as President or Vice President for many terms over the past 26 years. Both of them are remaining members of the Board and will continue to share their valuable knowledge and expertise in our work. 

Carol Kowalski is also a founding member of ALT and a long-time Arlington resident. She served as the Town’s Director of Planning and Community Development from 2009 until 2016 and is now Assistant Town Manager for Development in Lexington. Banks Poor, also a long-time resident of Arlington and ALT Board member, recently retired after many years as Assistant Treasurer at Mass Audubon.

The Land Trust held its 2025 Annual Meeting with a review of the past year’s highlights on January 29, 2026. President Chris Leich presented a short slide show to accompany the business meeting, including the re-election of Board members and a Treasurer’s report by Nora Frank. He then recognized retiring Board members John Page and Ted Siegan. He gave a brief history of the acquisition of Elizabeth Island just over 15 years ago, recounted various stewardship activities on the island, and provided updates on our advocacy for conservation of the Mugar property in East Arlington and our monitoring of the conservation restriction on eight acres at Arlington 360, the former Symmes Hospital site.

Guest speaker Robb Johnson, executive director of the Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition, described his work with more than 140 land trusts across the state and talked about the power they hold to advocate for land conservation both locally and more broadly. He described MLTC’s commitment to collaborate with Indigenous groups on conservation efforts and its other organizational priorities. View Robb’s slide show.

Robb outlined the policies and goals behind the Nature for Massachusetts campaign and how local land trusts and individuals can get involved. MLTC is holding its annual Land Conservation Conference on Friday, March 13 at UMass Amherst

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:

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.