Harvard Forest teams with local land trust and land owners to protect adjacent forest land.

The Harvard Forest has partnered with Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust, Keith Ross of LandVest, state conservation agencies and local land owners to permanently protect nearly 170 acres of forest in two large parcels adjacent to the Prospect Hill tract. This project advances our goal of maintaining the integrity of Harvard Forest studies and contributes significantly to the broader conservation effort in central Massachusetts. The 100-acre Wilson Lot was owned by Don Wilson, a long-time volunteer in the Fisher Museum, and his nephew Bill, and the 68-acre Bryant Lot was owned by Richard Bryant, a retired carpenter who worked on many of the buildings at the Harvard Forest.

Both lots were initially purchased by Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust which worked with the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and the Department of Conservation and Recreation to sell conservation restrictions over each property with funding from the US Forest Service Forest Legacy Program before selling the restricted properties to the Harvard Forest. These were the first of 19 tracts, totaling over 2,000 acres to be protected by a $2.5 million grant from the Forest Legacy Program in the North Quabbin Region. The Harvard Forest received contributions from foundations and individuals to purchase the restricted forest lands.

These parcels are valuable additions to natural open space of the North Quabbin Region as they connect many blocks of protected land in this beautiful, forested part of the region and provide additional protection for the long term climate change research underway at the Harvard Forest.