Preserving Our History And The Magic That Is Martha's Vineyard

The other day I was reviewing my information about the environmentally sensitive areas down Island and the restrictions those areas impose upon the ability to build a home. That led me to thinking about our devoted and determined conservation groups like the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank, the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, the Trustees of Reservations, The Nature Conservancy, and the Vineyard Open Land Foundation.

There are two primary roads on the Island that I would still consider to be untouched and basically the same as they were 100 years ago. One is Middle Road and the other is the road I live on, Lambert’s Cove Road. In the mid-90’s I brokered a sale to The Nature Conservancy of a 103 acre estate known as the John Hoft Farm.

I was thrilled that TNC agreed to save this ecological one-of-a-kind property from possible development. The property includes meadows and peat bogs as well as woodland areas where rare flora and fauna thrive. The TNC Hoft Farm connects with properties owned by the MV Land Bank and VOLF.

VOLF, the Vineyard Open Land Foundation, under the tireless direction of Carol Magee has been working with little sleep and even less funding to reestablish one of the original cranberry bogs on the Island that happens to be located right on Lambert’s Cove Road just below the Wakeman Center and Cranberry Acres.

Every summer I have watched with fascinated interest while teams of volunteers labor in the hot sun hunched over plucking invasive weeds of all kinds out of the sandy soil. And all the time that hand labor is going on the original cranberry processing shed built in the 1800’s progressively sags and seems to be folding in upon itself as the ridge beam disintegrates.

VOLF’s plan is to resurrect the cranberry bog and harvest the berries as well as to restore the original cranberry processing shed, move their offices there and establish a museum to house all the artifacts representing an Island industry from days gone by. They already have architectural drawings from a well respected Island architect who cut his fees to assist with the project. What they are missing is money. Right now they are getting by on about $20,000 a year but they will need a lot more than that in order to see this dream come to life.

If you want to know what you can do to contribute to the Island you love, I suggest this could be one of the ways to keep your dream alive and pay forward what this Island gives you.