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The Trustees of Reservations will become the new owner and manager of Francis William Park, accepting it as a gift from a Bird family trust. The 89-acre park will become the Trustees’ 94th reservation in the state and continue to be open to the public at no charge. The transition is to be completed by year’s end. The Trustees are accepting the park in East Walpole, the adjacent Ellis Field and an endowment from the Francis William Park Trust. The park, created in 1925 in the memory of a member of the Bird family, is usually called Bird park. Philip Conway, president of the Friends of Francis William Park, noted that the Trustees “have a great background and credentials.” Solely supported by donations, visitors and 35,000 members, the Trustees own a dozen large preserves in towns close to Walpole; other properties include the Crane estate in Ipswich and World’s End in Hingham. The Friends, Conway said, are “very happy” that the Trustees’ board voted unanimously last week to accept the gift. “The prospect of working with the Trustees of Reservations is very exciting for us,” he said. “At a time when open space is often developed, it is wonderful to have a commitment from the Trustees to preserve and protect this 89-acre jewel,” he said. Members of the Bird family are getting on in age and wanted to be sure that the tradition will continue, he said. The idea for the gift originated in a casual conversation between Charles Bird and Andrew Kendall, executive director of the Trustees, Conway said. The Trustees are committed to working closely with the community and the town, Conway said. The Friends, a volunteer group that has helped reinvigorate the park in the past decade, will continue to take on new improvement projects there, he said. High on the list is creation of an area for 6- to 12- year-olds next to the new playground for younger children, he said. The Friends also want to get the walkways repaired and standardized, he said. The Friends carry out their projects with donations and volunteer labor, including help from local contractors. The Friends would like to develop annual plans for improvements with the Trustees, he said. The Friends do not do park maintenance, he noted. The Trustees will use the Bird endowment for park management. (Financial details were not provided.) The Trustees will staff the park with their own personnel in December. Tom Foster, the Trustees’ director of field operations, credited Roger and Libby Pero, the park’s caretakers for the past 12 years, for their “skilled service and dedication.” Foster said that the Trustees “are very excited and honored to have the opportunity to preserve this important public resource for the people of Walpole.” The Trustees will be “a real plus” for East Walpole and the town, said Susan Maguire, an East Walpole Civic Association executive and former selectman. The Trustees are “absolutely first class,” she said. “They’ve preserved some absolutely extraordinary pieces of property.” In discussions leading to the transfer, the Trustees were very sensitive to the community’s interests, she said. Preserving Massachusetts landscape since 1891, the Trustees are one of the nation’s oldest conservation organizations. Their mission is “to preserve, for public use and enjoyment, properties of exceptional scenic, historic and ecological value in Massachusetts. Their properties total 35,000 acres from the Berkshires to the Cape and islands. Nearby Trustees properties (and their acreage) include the Bradley estate in Canton, 90 acres; Chase Woodlands, Dover (85); Fork Factory Brook, Medfield (135); Noanet Woodlands, Dover (695); Rocky Narrows, Sherborn (227); Rocky Woods, Medfield (491); Shattuck Reservation, Medfield (245); Noon Hill, Medfield (204.) More information is available at the Trustees web site: Photo by Christine Cochrane |
