Mormon Hollow Project Brings a New "Teaching Forest" to Wendell

UMass professor Kristina Stinson is Mount Grace's newest conservation partner.

Stinson protected 54 acres of mostly wooded land behind her Wendell home with a conservation restriction this spring. A professor with the Department of Environmental Conservation at UMass, she has frequently used her land as a natural lab for ecology research.

The conservation restriction, which will be co-held by Mount Grace and the Town of Wendell, encourages continued educational use of the land, and Kristina is interested in making her forest a "teaching forest" and creating further opportunities for scientific research to study biodiversity and ecosystem function on the land.  

Stinson is one of 10 neighbors in Wendell and Montague who are protecting their land together through Mount Grace's Mormon Hollow Working Lands Partnership.

"I'm so happy to have been part of the Mormon Hollow project," says Stinson. "Protecting the woods is something I've wanted to do since I bought the land. These woods link other conservation lands to the State Forest, so they are an important wildlife corridor and a great example of an oak-dominated forest."