Happy New Year, Friends of the Dudley Conservation Land Trust (DCLT)! We wish you and your families a peaceful New Year.

2025 has presented all of us with many challenges. At DCLT, we worked to maintain our focus on conserving open space for native plants and animals to flourish and for people to enjoy. We aspire to meet the goal set by the Nature Conservancy: to conserve 30% of our land by 2030. Together with our fellow conservation partners in Dudley, we are well on our way! With your support and encouragement, we are on the threshold of an amazing future. Here is a quick look back at what we have accomplished together this year:

We added two new properties. This year DCLT added a new sanctuary, the Antos Farm, a 23-acre historic farm that adjoins Mass Audubon’s Pierpont Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary. In the coming year, we will work to determine which public uses will be allowed, consistent with our conservation values.

Although DCLT has been in existence since 2006, we have never had a physical home…until now! The Perron family graciously gifted us a house, barn, and land in northeast Dudley, right in the wildlife corridor we are working to conserve. The house and barn need work in order to be usable, but when ready, they will allow DCLT to store our equipment and records and to conduct meetings and gatherings, and other events. The Dudley Historical Commission recently recognized the dwelling, an 1830’s post and beam style Cape, as of historic interest. DCLT also purchased from the Perron family additional conservation land that adjoins Pierpont Meadow’s eastern boundary. DCLT is partnering with Mass Audubon on Conservation Restrictions which will preserve these assets—the Antos Farm and the Perron property—for future generations.

We’ve had a successful year for receiving land acquisition grants. Our next priority is to acquire and conserve 21 acres owned by the Tierney family. DCLT needs to raise the funds necessary to acquire the Tierney land by spring 2026 and launched a capital campaign for this purpose. This year, we earned $10,000 from the Cecelia Smolenski-Millette Charitable Trust, $15,000 from the Fields Pond Foundation, $5,000 from an anonymous donor, and other donations from our supportive community. We were also awarded a matching pledge of $271,500 from the Commonwealth’s Conservation Partnership Program to complete the purchase. We just learned that the Bafflin Foundation has awarded us a $50,000 grant!

You may have heard that we recently launched a GoFundMe donation page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-dudley-conservation-land-trusts-mission.

Please check it out and feel free to share with friends and family. Any amount helps! We are very thankful to those who have already supported this project. Thank you again!

Welcome to our newest Board members! Each fall we conduct our annual member meeting and Board election. We are delighted that Phil Ferland, Karen Gillon, Bob Hanacek, and Andrew McIntosh have joined our Board. Each of them is passionate about conservation, the beautiful community of Dudley, and making our world a better place. They join current Board members: Lisa McIntosh, Liza Moran, Sandy Peterson, Heather Radcliffe, and Paul Wieloch. Our organization is so fortunate!

Every election brings change. This year, we regretfully said goodbye to Board members and past officers Dave Harrigan, Keith Kirkland, George Martin, and Debi Thibodeau. Their contributions to DCLT are immeasurable and we thank you. They remain dedicated to serving our mission, through stewardship, treasurer support, member engagement activities e.g. social media and hiking club, and sharing their wisdom with future generations. We couldn’t ask for a better set-up!

We moved forward with our five-year plan, making tangible progress. DCLT continues to pursue the strategic plan objectives set forth last year in our new five-year plan. This includes:
• A new website, set for launch Q1 2026. We received a Greater Worcester Community Foundation grant this year to help us launch this new site with enhanced features, donation and event sign-up options, and more content.
• A five-year stewardship plan for each of our sanctuaries. In 2026, in addition to our typical trail and land maintenance activities, we will prioritize invasive plant management, new trail development, and initial structural investments needed at our new home. We are also hosting two stewardship days in 2026, open to the public.
• New conservation speaker series, free to the public. We offered a hands-on children’s program on Animals in New England last spring and plan another in 2026, Animals A-Z, sponsored in part by the Dudley Cultural Council. An adult talk is also planned later in the year.
• A strong bottom line anchored by Spear Wealth Management.

We are seeking your support! Do you find what we are doing exciting? Do you want to get involved? Help out on a stewardship day? Join one of our committees on a project? Share your ideas? Donate to our land acquisition fund? Learn more about ways you can help and become a DCLT member by visiting our website at https://dudleyclt.org/, or contacting us at Dudleyconservationlandtrust@gmail.com.

We on the DCLT Board hope you and your loved ones enjoy a peaceful and fulfilling New Year. We look forward to seeing you out on the trail. Nature has such amazing restorative powers.

John Muir once said: “I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.” We wish that for each of you.

Liza Moran, President