SMF resumes Tuthill Preserve work
The Sheriff's Meadow Foundation (SMF) began work last week to restore an open meadow and create several acres of pitch pine savanna at the organization's Caroline Tuthill Preserve in Edgartown.
The Tuthill Preserve is located on Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road near the busy Triangle intersection. The goal is to create valuable wildlife habitat as well as an attractive roadside meadow and scenic view along one of the Vineyard's most well traveled roadways, said Adam Moore, SMF executive director.
Enhancing the meadow view is a goal at the Caroline Tuthill Preserve in Edgartown.
Photo by Steve Myrick
In many respects the work is a resumption of a project cut short last spring when the private conservation nonprofit allowed Oakleaf Landscaping to remove mature pitch pines and do other work without proper permit review by the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, which is responsible for enforcing the state Endangered Species Act.
Mr. Moore said the Tuthill work is being conducted in accordance with the foundation's habitat management and restoration plan, which was approved by Natural Heritage and the Edgartown Conservation Commission.
Sheriff's Meadow is the largest private conservation organization on Martha's Vineyard and owns or manages some 2,637 acres. Mr. Moore, a Yale-trained forester, joined SMF last spring just as a controversy erupted over the removal of plants and trees from the 61-acre Priscilla Hancock Meadow, off South Road in Chilmark, and the 150-acre Tuthill Preserve.
At the Hancock Meadow, the goal was to expand the native grasslands. Trees were removed from the Tuthill Preserve as part of a longstanding management plan intended to create a meadow.
Last spring, in keeping with the management plans, Dick Johnson, SMF land manager at the time, allowed a landscaper, working under a labor-for-plants barter arrangement, to remove huckleberry from the Hancock Meadow and approximately 22 pitch pines and three cedar trees from the Tuthill Preserve.
Mr. Johnson, a longtime member of the conservation community, filed a management plan for the work in Chilmark, but he did not fully describe that work. He did not file a plan for the Tuthill property and failed to properly monitor the extent of the work, which included the use of heavy equipment.
Alerted to the extent of the work by a member of the West Tisbury conservation commission, Natural Heritage began an investigation. After months of review, in November the investigation ended with a letter of agreement between Natural Heritage and SMF on a plan to mitigate the effects of the removal of trees and plants from the two properties. Tom French, Natural Heritage assistant director, used the opportunity to praise SMF's continued protection and management of state-listed species habitats on Martha's Vineyard.
The approved plan allows Sheriff's Meadow to continue its work of creating open meadow habitat at the Tuthill Preserve and create a pitch pine savannah.
The current work is being done by Oakleaf Landscaping as part of an agreement reached between Mr. Moore and John Hoff, Oakleaf owner, on the dollar value of the plants removed from both properties last spring.
SMF controversy - the back story
For years, Sheriff's Meadow Foundation had handshake barter arrangements with Island landscaping firms that provided services such as mowing, in exchange for unwanted plants. Sheriff's Meadow's 2006 annual report described the positive benefits of that barter arrangement. In particular, Mr. Johnson explained, it saved money and increased the supply of native plants used for landscaping on Martha's Vineyard.
That informal practice put Mr. Hoff squarely in the crossfire when the Vineyard Gazette published a series of stories and an editorial that asserted that the conservation organization had violated the public trust by allowing Mr. Hoff to "strip mine" plants for the benefit of Dirk Ziff, a wealthy West Tisbury landowner.
Photo by Susan Safford
The reporting focused on Mr. Ziff and insinuated that a quid pro quo existed between SMF and Mr. Ziff, an SMF donor. SMF leaders denied the implication and said they were unaware of who received the plants.
Relieved by the November agreement with Natural Heritage, Sheriff's Meadow leaders were anxious to put the uncomfortable episode behind them.
But in February, the Gazette won a first-place award for environmental reporting for its account of the SMF story, from the New England Press Association. The judges wrote, "The Vineyard Gazette's Sheriff's Meadow series focuses on a sad breach of trust, the raping of conservation land and violations of the Endangered Species Act."
The series included a call from the Gazette editorial writer that Mr. Hoff be barred from doing future work for Sheriff's Meadow. At the time, Mr. Moore said that Mr. Hoff did not do anything he was not authorized to do by Mr. Johnson. As for any future work, Mr. Moore said he would be fair to Mr. Hoff, who said he was greatly distressed to find his livelihood and reputation threatened.
Mr. Hoff is again working on the Tuthill Preserve, however the barter arrangement is now formal. Mr. Moore said Mr. Hoff is providing approximately $29,000 worth of work, based on the audited value of the plants he removed.
Mr. Moore did not rule out future barter arrangements with other landscapers, but he said they would be more formal than in the past and described in writing. He said a donation of a dump truck and tractor means SMF has less need to rely on bartering for maintenance work.
Emily Bramhall of Chilmark, SMF president, said that one lesson learned over the past year is that SMF needs to do a better job explaining the principles of diverse habitat management. "There appears to be a misunderstanding by some that because we are a conservation organization, nothing will be cut or removed from any of our lands," Ms. Bramhall said this week. "However, to maintain open habitat, one must cut or remove trees and shrubs, otherwise the land will succeed into woodland, thereby losing the open space."
In the case of the Tuthill Preserve, the goal was to maintain an existing meadow, Ms. Bramhall said. Despite the controversy, she said SMF emerged stronger. "We have always had thoughtful discussions about all manners of land stewardship. The intense scrutiny we were under served to make us question our past principles and to find that they were in fact sound," she said.
Noting the organization's membership growth, Ms. Bramhall said she believes Sheriff's Meadow retains the confidence of its members and the general public.
As for the notion that Sheriff's Meadow committed environmental "rape," she said, "I obviously rigorously disagree with the [NEPA] judge's interpretation of the facts, a balanced set of which they clearly were not privy to."
The decision to cut rather than transplant trees will provide some community benefits beyond new roadside views. Mr. Moore said that oak trees would be cut to stove-length and stacked beside the fence along the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road.
"The public is welcome to pull off the road and help themselves to firewood," said Mr. Moore. "We ask that people limit themselves to one car-load per household and that the firewood be taken for personal use only, and not for resale."
As part of its 50th anniversary celebration, Sheriff's Meadow will lead tours of the Tuthill and Hancock properties in April and May. "It's a good opportunity for us to talk to people, and if they have questions they can ask them right there," said Mr. Moore.
Information on the tours is available at www.sheriffs-meadow.org.
