The Trustees of Reservations is appealing to south Berkshire Monument Mountain lovers. They’ve recently reimbursed the town for its share of the purchase of a conservation restriction on forest and orchard on the lower slopes of the mountain, and they are raising the money to fund that purchase.
The Trustees owns the Monument Mountain Reservation.
The state provided 60 percent of the $140,000 purchase with a self-help grant, requiring a local 40 percent match. The Trustees offered to make that match, and they’ve already paid the town $56,000, says Trustees of Reservations Regional Director, Steve McMahon. They are hoping to raise a total of $80,000 to cover that cost and legal and survey fees.
The 34 acre piece of land is owned by Stephen Root, owner of Root Orchards. Back in 1985, when the beauty of the reservation was threatened by the construction of a 110 unit condominium complex on an abutting ridge line, the town raised money to stop the development and purchased the abutting land. Root, at that time, sold an adjoining parcel well below market value, says McMahon, to the Trustees of Reservations. Now, 15 years later, he has offered to sell a conservation restriction, again well below market, on 34 acres on the lower slopes of the mountain. Trustees Western Regional Director Steve McMahon says this piece of land will pretty much take care of the reservation, protecting abutting property where it’s needed.
Over the years other nearby and adjoining parcels have come under some sort of protection. According to a map distributed by the Trustees, in an appeal to residents by both that organization and the Great Barrington Land Conservancy, much of the land along Route 7 near the Reservation is protected property. Along Route 183, which forms a V- shape with Route 7 around the reservation, there appears to be much unprotected land, but McMahon says this land is either owned by the Root family or is already developed with single family houses.
Root doesn’t want to see the orchard developed, and he offered the conservation restriction deal which would allow him to farm the orchard during his lifetime, and then the property would become part of the Reservation. The Trustees say that this land will act as a “critical buffer†against development on the western side of the property.
The Trustees of Reservations — with the town of Gt. Barrington — went to the state for what is called a self-help grant. The state agreed to pay for 60 percent of the conservation restriction. The Trustees are raising the remaining 40 percent money on behalf of the town; the town approved the conservation restriction at the last annual town meeting, said McMahon.
The Trustees paid the town from a revolving fund and are now recouping that amount. They also hope to appeal to Stockbridge residents since they think of that mountain as theirs, said McMahon.
With the conservation restriction McMahon says nobody can develop that land or a nearby seven acre parcel which was also given by Root as a gift. The land in between the two pieces of land is owned by members of his family. McMahon says the land is worth much more than the $140,000 paid for it, perhaps as much as $400,000.
The state agency that administers this Self-Help grant is the Division of Conservation Services, which is under the Office of Environmental Affairs. Monument Mountain became part of the Trustees of Reservations in 1899, just eight years after the Trustees of Reservations was formed. The original acreage was given by Helen C. Butler. Small land swaps and conservation restrictions on abutting and nearby property have enlarged the reservation.
The Trustees of Reservations owns 91 properties statewide, totally more than 22,000 acres, including Bartholomew’s Cobble.
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