2016 Annual Report of the Open Space Acquisition Commission

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.

 Web Page Additions: In 2016 we were able to produce a draft list of all Conservation Restrictions in Marion, and started on a description of our properties.  These will be posted on our webpage as they become final. 

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