Northampton residents are passionate about conserving and stewarding forests, plant and animal habitat, wetlands and rivers, and farmland from our most urban to our most rural landscapes. These shared efforts enrich our quality of life, strengthen our neighborhoods and urban villages, increase our ability to adapt to climate change, and advance our community sustainability.
For three decades working for the city of Northampton, I had the privilege of helping support this work, quadrupling the amount of protected land. While some projects I worked on for the city sparked debate, preservation of open space has consistently united Northampton. Protecting our landscape has always been a shared value.
All of our land protection has been essential to maintaining diverse plant and animal habitats and safeguarding current and future migration patterns in the face of climate change. We have conserved extensive forest land, thousands of acres that protect us from flooding, form the backdrop to our views, and provide us places to walk and explore. We have protected miles of rich rivers and streams and their remarkably diverse habitats. We have preserved wetlands and floodplains, which offer some of our most effective carbon sequestration and flood control. And we have protected the farmland that feeds us and defines the “Meadow City,” often keeping it in private hands but protected forever.
It has also always been a community effort. Armand and Rosel LaPalme (Mineral Hills), Doug Kohl (Mineral Hills), Charles Jasinski (Meadows), Richard Abuza (Broad Brook), Lane Construction (Connecticut River), Virginia Hayssen (Burts Bog), the Gutowski family (Burts Bog), and many others donated or bargain sold their land. Hundreds more residents contributed with private donations. Public support from the Community Preservation Act combined with partnerships with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the Kestrel Land Trust, Massachusetts Audubon Society, The Trustees, the Broad Brook Coalition, the Meadows City Conservation Coalition, and others have been essential.
Over 27% of Northampton’s beautiful landscape is permanently protected as open space. These scenic trails, wetlands, vistas, habitats, parks, trails, and recreation areas are safeguarded for current and future generations. While future city councils, planning boards, and conservation commissions will determine the balance between protected land and land available for future development, there is still plenty available for both purposes. At this time, some of our most important open space resources remain vulnerable to development that is incompatible with the values expressed by citizens. It is likely that Northampton will surpass the commonwealth’s goal that 30% of the land base is protected by 2030. This requires that more critical open space be preserved.
To preserve more open space and steward what we have, we need the reliable funding for stewardship and acquisition expenses that fall outside of what grants and city resources can cover. Funding gaps always exist. This is where the Northampton Conservation Endowment plays a crucial role.
The Northampton Conservation Endowment is hosted by the Community of Western Massachusetts, independent from the city of Northampton. Each year it provides funding to the city to steward and expand our open spaces beyond what public and grants funding can alone accomplish, while preserving the principal forever and growing it with inflation.
Thanks to generous residents and businesses, the Northampton Conservation Endowment is now just over $1 million. This supports the Conservation Commission’s goal of $200 per acre of protected land in a permanent endowment, based on eventually having at least 5,000 acres of open space.
Major supporters, including Kevin Lake, Conservation Commission chair, and Sallie Deans Lake, Brian Adams, CPA chair, and Morey Phippen, Jack Horner and Ron Skinn, Bobert Jonas and Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, Bob and Lee Sproull, Doug Kohl, Kathleen Hibshman, one anonymous donor, and my family, have each contributed $25,000 or more. Many others have made gifts of all sizes, including donations in appreciated securities, legacy gifts, annuity principals, and retirement fund required minimum distributions.
Most recently, Bob Fazzi and Diana Buckley generously offered a $25,000 challenge gift, to provide a dollar-for-dollar match for gifts.
Please consider helping meet this goal, while your tax-deductible donation will be doubled. Donations can be made at https://tinyurl.com/HampOpen or by check to the Community Foundation, noting Northampton Conservation Endowment in the memo field, at 333 Bridge Street, Springfield, MA 01103.
Wayne Feiden is director of the UMass Center for Resilient Metro-Regions and former director of Northampton Planning and Sustainability.