Open Space Update
On Wednesday, May 9, the MDC acquired 27.85 acres of land adjoining Lynn Woods Reservation in Saugus, from the Walnut Street Trust. This acquisition was a key step in a larger effort to preserve, protect, and enhance the open space, recreation, and public water supply values associated with Lynn Woods.
The Walnut Street Trust acquisition was the result of many months of successful meetings and complex negotiations. This effort has been characterized as one of the most innovative land protection partnerships in the history of the Commonwealth. Elected and appointed officials from Saugus and Lynn, including the Saugus Board of Selectmen, the Lynn City Council, the Lynn Water and Sewer Commission, the Lynn Park Commission, and the Lynn Woods Executive Committee all voted to support this project.
The 27.85 acres of land, which is now permanently protected, is actually three separate parcels located between Birch and Walden Ponds, and is critical to Lynn Woods. The key parcel, a 14-acre piece abutting the horse stable on Great Woods Road in Saugus, was under the imminent threat of development. Only a stone's throw from Walden Pond, a part of the City's public water supply, this land contains habitat for at least one species listed with the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program.
Acknowledgement of the generosity of the former owners of the Walnut Street Trust is in order. These owners were willing to forego significant additional profit, selling their land to the Commonwealth at below market price.
In return for the Commonwealth's significant financial investment, currently at $800,000, the Metropolitan District Commission and the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs have asked the City of Lynn to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which calls for a rededication of Lynn Woods for watershed protection and park purposes. To affect this rededication, the City and the State will seek authorization from the legislature to record a mutually agreeable conservation restriction at the Essex County Registry of Deeds.
The Friends of Lynn Woods strongly support this project and are committed to working with state and local officials to see that the MOU is executed, the legislative authorization is granted, and a mutually agreeable conservation restriction is recorded at the Registry of Deeds. We sincerely hope that the Commonwealth and the City will continue to play a role in the protection of other parcels of land.
The citizens of Lynn should understand that the City will retain all rights to manage Lynn Woods. This deal is simply a matter of protecting open space in a cooperative manner. The Indenture of Trust of 1881, the primary protection for Lynn Woods, was shrewdly written by Cyrus Tracy and the Trustees of the Free Public Forest. To these gentlemen, we owe a debt of gratitude for creating Lynn Woods. We're confident that, were they still with us, these farsighted men would be proudly smiling.