Eastbayri.com

SAKONNET AREA — Land preservation efforts in Tiverton and Portsmouth are among the beneficiaries of open space grants announced last Wednesday.

Governor Lincoln Chafee and Department of Environmental Management Director Janet Coit identified $4.3 million in local matching grants to 15 communities, land trusts, and conservation organizations that will protect 900 acres of open space and farmland throughout the state. 

Funding comes from the 2004 $70 million Open Space, Recreation, Bay and Watershed Protection Bond, supplemented by $1 million from the 2008 open space grants. The state grants will be matched by local bond funds and federal grants. 

St. Mary’s land  

The Aquidneck Land Trust received $400,000 grant toward its effort to save the St. Mary’s Church Land. With this money, the Trust has raised about $2.6 million toward its goal of $3 million needed to conserve the land located between East Main Road and the St. Mary’s Pond Reservoir.

 Under an agreement with St. Mary’s Church and the Trustees of the Sarah Gibbs Trust, the ALT has until May 24, 2013 to raise over $3 million for the purchase. The church is using the money to build its new parish house while ALT is helping protect the reservoir, and preserve farmland and open space views.

The land lies within the Center Island Greenway contiguous to three previously conserved properties (Saint Mary’s Pond, Oakland Forest and Meadow Preserve, and Three S Corporation Farmland parcel).

A new way to Ft. Barton

The Tiverton Land Trust (TLT) was awarded $187,500 to acquire the 16-acre Clark parcel on Highland Road, directly adjacent to the Fort Barton Revolutionary War redoubt and Fort Barton Woods. The TLT has agreed to acquire the property from the family of the late Virginia Clark, a long-time resident of Tiverton.

“The Land Trust’s purchase of this important property enhances an incredible historical legacy for the town of Tiverton,” said Constance Lima, President of the TLT. “We will now work on a management plan, in consultation with the Tiverton Open Space Commission, to improve public access to this historic site. We are grateful to the Clark family for their cooperation in preserving such a significant property.”

Public access to the Fort Barton redoubt is now by a steep walkway up from the Highland Road entrance. A new entrance on the land being purchased by the Land Trust would provide easier access to both the historic site and the trails of Fort Barton, especially for the elderly and disabled. Improved parking and a kiosk with maps, brochures, and interpretive displays to explain the natural, historic, and archaeological features of the Fort Barton site are also planned.

The majority of the eastern part of the property is coastal oak-holly forest, which exists in only four states and is considered “globally uncommon to rare” by the Nature Conservancy. Most of the property is within the Sin and Flesh Brook Rare Species Habitat Area as designated by the DEM.

23-acre Baier property

The Tiverton Open Space Commission received $81,250 to acquire the 23-acre Baier property.

Brian Janes of the Open Space Commission said the 50 percent matching grant will enable the commission to buy the woodlands from the Baier family which will continue to own a house on adjacent land. The transaction has moved to the purchase and sales stage.

The property is located on the northern portion of the Pocasset Ridge area bounded by Lafayette Road to the south and Bulgarmarsh Road to the north (it is east of 8 Rod Way). The closest road is Thomas Street (off Furey Avenue and Brayton Road).

Mr. Janes said the acquisition is part of ongoing town and state efforts “to preserve this important ecosystem that includes holly and oak forest and Borden Brook.”

It has high and dry land to the east and west bisected by Borden Brook which flows south toward and through Weetamoo Woods. He said there are no structures other than stone walls on the property.

Although the land will be publicly held, “there are no plans at present to develop parking or trails there.” The Pocasset Ridge lands have been protected primarily as open space and a haven for wildlife, while the trails network is in the Weetamoo Woods area.

A partnership consisting of the Tiverton Open Space Commission, the Tiverton Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy have been successful in preserving over 300 acres of Pocasset-area land to date.