The Trustees of Reservations
The Trustees of Reservations is a non-profit land conservation and historic preservation agency dedicated to preserving natural and historical places in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The organization is headquartered in Beverly.
Mission
The mission statement of The Trustees is "[t]o preserve, for public use and enjoyment, properties of exceptional scenic, historic, and ecological value in Massachusetts."
History
The history of the Trustees can be traced to March 5, 1890 when the New England periodical Garden and Forest published a letter by Charles Eliot, a young landscape architect, titled "The Waverly Oaks". Eliot's letter proposed the immediate preservation of "special bits of scenery" still remaining "within ten miles of the State House which possess uncommon beauty and more than usual refreshing power". To this end, Eliot proposed that legislation be enacted to create a non-profit corporation to hold land for the public to enjoy "just as a Public Library holds books and an Art Museum holds pictures."
In the spring of 1891, the Massachusetts Legislature established The Trustees of Reservations "for the purposes of acquiring, holding, maintaining and opening to the public beautiful and historic places within the Commonwealth." The act was signed into law by Governor William E. Russell on May 21, 1891. Virginia Woods, in Stoneham was the first property acquired by the Trustees. (This property was conveyed to the Metropolitan District Commission in 1923 as is now a part of the Middlesex Fells Reservation.
In 1925 the Trustees joined with the Appalachian Mountain Club, Massachusetts Audubon Society, and the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities to organize an conference on "The Needs and Uses of Open Spaces". This conference led to a 1929 report emphasizing the need to protect the state's rural character and countryside and the importance of identifying and describing the qualities and characteristics of specific sites which should be preserved. Today, nearly every site listed in the report is protected by a government or non-profit conservation agency.
Properties
In addition, the Trustees of Reservations also manages the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Tully Lake Campground in Royalston.
See Also
References
- http://www.thetrustees.org/index.cfm Accessed June 29, 2006.
External Links
Category:United States non-profit organizations
This category is not in use because it has an ambiguous title.
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