“We Frances R. Arne, Clement H. Briggs, Mary H. Clark, Everett A. Gibbs, Richard A. Harlow, Russell Makepeace, and Everett Tenbrook…” The Sippican Lands Trust, Inc. is a non-profit organization founded in 1974 for the acquisition, management and protection of natural areas in Marion. The Trust is a membership organization of approximately 300 members and currently protects around 1,375 acres of beautiful open space. The Lands Trust sponsors events, educational workshops and lectures, and makes its properties available for natural history programming of area schools and other interested organizations. Working with the Town of Marion, local businesses, environmental agencies and with other Lands Trusts, the Sippican Lands Trust believes that New England’s rich natural resources can be preserved most effectively through collaborative citizen participation. Thus began the declaration of Trust for the Sippican Lands Trust in 1974.
A QUICK SLT CHRONOLOGY
- 1974 Founding of Sippican Lands Trust under the guidance of Mary Clark
- 1979 First contribution – Barnabas Woods
- 1985 Stewardship Program is inaugurated
- 1994 First Conservation Restriction (CR) donation – Little Marion Golf Course
- 1995 First purchases – Peirson Woods and Howland Marsh
- 1996 SLT holds first community-wide clambake
- 1996 SLT collaborates with the Coalition for Buzzards Bay in creation of Bay Lands Center
- 2000 SLT properties total 500 acres
- 2004 First full-time land protection staff initiated
- 2008 SLT receives accreditation from the Land Trust Alliance
- 2017 SLT properties and CRs total 1,350 acres
- 2019 SLT celebrates 45 years of land conservation in Marion