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Forest Legacy Feature Tract (May 1996):
The Pippen Tree Tract In The Estabrook Woods Is
Protected By A $1.5 Million US Forest Service Grant
(This is a copy of US Forest Service page at <http://www.fs.fed.us/na/durham/legacy/htm/pippen.htm>).
A favorite haunt of Henry David
Thoreau and one of four he recommended for preservation as a town forest,
had been preserved as a working forest on May 30, 1996. The tract known as
the Pippen Tree tract is 73 acres of high-quality managed forest land near
the Minuteman National Park. The USDA Forest Service purchased a
permanent conservation easement on the parcel for $1.5 million from
its owners, the Robb Family of Concord, principals of a family real estate
trust known as Pippen Tree Land Trust. Recorded at the Registry of Deeds
in Concord, the conservation restriction valued at $4.3 million, ensures
that the land will never be developed. It also provides pedestrian and
horseback rider access. The Robb family donated the difference in
value, and will continue to own and manage the land as a tree farm.
Comprised primarily of oak, white
pine, and birch on gently rolling hills, the Pippen Tree tract lies at the
southern end of the area in Concord and southern Carlisle known since the
mid-17th century as Estabrook Woods. It forms the southern boundary of a
672 acre tract held by Harvard University. The Robb family has owned the
parcel since the turn of the century.
The Trustees of Reservations,
a statewide conservation group founded in 1871 by landscape architect
Charles Eliot, and the Concord Land Conservation Trust founded in
1959, have accepted joint responsibility for monitoring the
conservation restriction. According to Marion Thornton, Chair of the
Concord Land Conservation Trust, which was the prime mover in the process,
"The federal investment serves as the keystone to the permanent
protection of at least 1,200 acres within Estabrook Woods, including the
Harvard property."
The Trustees of Reservations played
a key role in bringing the Forest Service and the Robb family together. In
1994, The Trustees negotiated an option with Pippen Tree for purchase of
the restriction and a corresponding option with the Forest Service for the
sale of the restrictions. "By taking on a bit of legal risk, we were
able to cut through some red tape and get this project moving while funds
were available," said Wesley Ward, Conservation Director for The
Trustees. "Our involvement is an example of the useful role that
non-profit land trusts frequently play in facilitating transactions
between private landowners and municipal, state, or federal conservation
agencies. But the Pippen Tree Project could not have been done without the
extraordinarily generous bargain sale offered by the Robb
family."
Authorized by Congress in 1990, The
Forest Legacy Program protects important forests from development. Under
the program, the Forest Service purchases development restrictions from
willing landowners. The landowner keeps all other customary rights of
ownership. |