800 Acres Protected in Barre

It's official: The Hawes Hill Conservation Corridor project is complete.

More than 800 acres of connected farm fields, forests, wetlands and streams have been protected in Barre through permanent conservation restrictions. The eight properties included in this project sit within a much larger corridor of conserved land, extending from the Quabbin Reservoir to the Rutland Brook Wildlife Sanctuary, to the Prince River Wildlife Management Area.

Connected habitat is fundamental for the creation of healthy and sustainable ecosystems – a benefit that makes a project like this more than worthwhile. But the theme of connectivity extends beyond the conservation corridor that we’ve helped create. This landscape-scale was also deeply rooted in the connectivity of our community.

Without local deed holders, Select Boards, state agencies, land trusts and funders choosing to work together, these projects just don’t happen.

The Hawes Hill Conservation Corridor demonstrates that when it comes to conservation, progress is made when we pitch a big tent – a tent under which there is room for the gamut of diverse approaches to conserving land. The wide range of community members and organizations that will benefit from this conservation corridor is testament to that:

• The Carter-Stevens family protected three distinct pieces of their fifth-generation farm: a small woodlot on Sanderson Road and two large properties on Washburn Road that feature hay fields and vegetable fields on which they are now growing vegetables for the patrons of their family-run Stone Cow Brewery.
• Insight Meditation Center has protected land along Gaston Pond, where their guests enjoy taking silent retreats as they walk along the water's edge.
• The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, as well as two local families, conserved their land together to create a contiguous expanse of protected forests and fields that can be seen from the summit of Hawes Hill.
• Margo Petracone, of Westwind Farm, protected her hayfield and network of equestrian trails

While we wrap up the final fundraising push for this roughly $3M initiative, we would like to thank Mass Audubon, the Division of Water Supply Protection of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Town of Barre, East Quabbin Land Trust, the Stevens, DuBois, Petracone, and Engel families, IMS, BCBS, the MA Landscape Partnership Program, the Fields Pond Foundation, the Community Foundation of North Central Massachusetts, The Nature Conservancy, and the many individual donors and supporters who powered this initiative.