Our Task: The
primary task of the Open Space Acquisition Commission is to acquire open space. These purchases must fit some stated need and
respect the financial contribution that has been made by the taxpayers. We will not buy just anything, and we will
not waste your money by overpaying.
Our Strategy: We
try to form a financial partnership on larger purchases to get more value for
your dollars. This could mean direct
grants to the town, participation with other conservation groups, or a bargain
sale. Since the creation of the Open
Space Acquisition Commission in 1999, we have partnered with the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts, United States Department of Agriculture, Sippican Lands Trust
and The Trustees (formerly the Trustees of Reservations.) Since we first started working with other
groups, we have received more than $1,000,000 in grants to help reduce the cost
of open space purchases to the town. In 2016 we received a grant for over
$10,000 for work at Grassi Bog (described below).
Current Open Space Status: When we talk about permanently protected
open space, we are talking about land
owned by private, public and nonprofit owners that has been dedicated to such
uses as conservation or recreational use by deed. Also included is
land owned by a non-profit land trust; or if the town received federal or state
assistance for the purchase or improvement of the property. Today, of
the 9,007 acres of land in Marion, 3,476 are permanently protected open space.
Marion ownership of permanently protected open space is
quite diverse. Those groups managing/owning open space include:
Board of Selectmen
Charles Washburn Memorial Trust
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
(Division of Fish and Game)
Conservation Commission
Marine Resources Commission
Open Space Acquisition Commission
Recreation Commission
Sippican Lands Trust
The Trustees (formerly The
Trustees of Reservations)
Water & Sewer Commission
Private land is considered protected if it has a deed
restriction in perpetuity, if an Agriculture Preservation Restriction (none in
Marion) has been placed on it, or a Conservation Restriction has been placed on
it. Conservation Restrictions in Marion are held by an equally eclectic group
of organizations (listed below):
Buzzards Bay Coalition
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
(DEP)
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
(DFW)
Conservation Commission
Debt for Nature (United States Department
of Agriculture)
Open Space Acquisition Commission
Sippican Lands Trust
The Trustees (formerly The
Trustees of Reservations)
Wildlands Trust
The Open Space Acquisition Commission holds title to 629
acres. The largest parcel is the 282 acre Hales Brook Reservation which is managed by The Trustees at no cost to the Town. The next largest, and perhaps busiest, parcel
is the Washburn Park Conservation Area (97 acres), which is used heavily buy
the dog walking community.
Links to trail maps for those and other open space parcels
can be found online at http://www.marionma.gov/pages/marionma_bcomm/openspace.
Financial: The Open Space Acquisition Commission administers the
Marion Land Bank Fund on behalf of the town.
This fund is dedicated by state statute to costs associated with the
acquisition of land. Any expenditure out of this fund to purchase land must be
approved by Town Meeting. Currently, the
Fund holds $377,567. We have been following the status of several high end
properties that would require funds in excess of $1,000,000 to acquire. These are multi –partnership endeavors that
require some “seed money” to have these projects succeed. Marion’s $377,567 can be used to leverage a $443,230 state grant.
This amount encourages the participation of the non-profit community.
An example of the type of
property, among others, that we are tracking is a 300 acre parcel on Route 6.
Preservation of the property would reduce nitrogen inputs into Aucoot Cove, create
a 1700 foot green strip along southern entrance to Marion, and protect endangered
species. The property also lends itself
to improve public access as it provides a link to existing trails on the west,
east, and north sides of the property and has an existing parking access.
Projects:
Goldavitz Bog:
In 2016, the Board of Selectmen asked us to do the day to day management
of the Goldavitz Bog. This property is located on Old Marion Trail, adjacent to
the Sippican Lands Trust Aucoot Woods complex.
We were able to partner with the Sippican Lands Trust to improve the
perimeter trails around the abandoned cranberry bog and thin out the old
blueberry patch. The site has adequate parking
and a trail map is available at here.
Grassi Bog: This
property is located off of Mill Street (Route Six) just north of Sparrow Lane. An
unexpected upstream release of water washed out most of the newly installed
water control structures in 2014. 2016 was spent finalizing designs and
pursuing grants to get the repair work done at no cost to the taxpayers. We were successful in getting grants totaling
over $70,000 to get the repairs done in 2017. (Thanks to Emmanuel da Costa and
Amanda Chase for grant writing assistance on the Buzzards Bay National Estuary
Program grant.) This site has adequate parking and bridges over the flumes will
be installed in 2017 to make it easier to walk the loop trail.
Bike Path:
Although the Open Space Acquisition Commission is not actively involved in the
planning and engineering for the bike path (see report of the Pathway
Committee), we are pleased that the years of quiet acquisition of the many
parts of the bike path route has finally been completed. We look forward to completion of the bike path
as it will provide easy to use access to over 1500 acres of permanently
protected open space.
Planning: We anticipated sending out an Open Space Community Survey
in 2016. Due to requests and comments by Planning Board Master Plan members we
will delay this survey to 2017.
We also made a draft of a “Flora and Fauna” list for Marion.
As we would like this to be used to report sightings, we have not yet decided
on the correct web platform for this.
If you have any questions about anything related to open
space please feel free to email us at openspace@marionma.gov,
or email/call one of the individual members.
Respectfully
submitted,
John
Rockwell, Chairman
Joseph
Keogh
Jeffery
Oakes
Randy
Parker
Alan Harris
