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Middlesex School cuts its Estabrook Woods
Piles of trees and lumber cut in Estabrook
In June 2005, trees started crashing down and eighteen-wheelers roared as Middlesex School started stripping its part of the Estabrook Woods. It was once a partner in Harvard's ecology study area and made a "gentleman's agreement" with Harvard (according to Harvard's Ernst Mayr) to use this land for ecology study purposes. In the 1960s, people relied on this when they donated money and land to create the study area. In 1993, the Concord Selectmen wrote Middlesex School: "It is no secret that the Town of Concord [desires] that the Estabrook Woods be preserved....We have expended Town dollars and private monies for land acquisitions to defend the Estabrook boundaries. This public commitment...grows out of the... [1960s] preservation effort...led by [Headmaster] Lawrence Terry and Thomas Flint....Donors to [that] campaign clearly believed that the Woods would be preserved as an ecological study area for the use of Harvard, area scholars...and, expressly, Middlesex School." Headmaster Terry proudly announced this dream in the Middlesex Alumni Bulletin.
Slashed, bare hillside once rare species habitat
The site of the tennis courts. To build the soccer fields, they will cut 15 feet into the top of the hill and move 40,000 cubic yards of rock and soil to level the site.
Temporary truck access across wetlands
The old causeway is now covered with 14x8 plastic panels. The bridge to be built next year through rare species habitat will be about twice as wide, on pilings, and 300 feet long, surfaced with steel mesh grating. This bridge is also the gateway that opens thirty more upland acres for development even deeper into the Woods east of the proposed soccer fields (so-called Area B).
The first big tree to fall
The first to fall. The tennis courts that are under construction are being built to replace perfectly good ones next to the gym that were torn down a couple of years ago and replaced with commuter parking. Priorities and choices.
Construction in Sept 2005 1200 feet in Woods
Construction continues on 7 September 2005. These giant trucks are 1200 feet into what had been woods. Tennis court pavement at left. Site of soccer fields to right and behind photographer.
More cutting to come
Do not be misled. The amount of clearcut done in 2005 will increase dramatically when/if soccer fields construction starts (perhaps in 2006). As shown above, the cutting at the top of the hill (east of the tennis courts) will increase 4.5 times more than what had been cut at the top of the hill as of September 12, 2005 (i.e., by the end of tennis court construction). Overall, the cut will more than double.

FYI: North is left. Campus is at bottom. Harvard's land directly abuts the soccer fields to the right (south.) And thirty developable acres of "Area B" abuts the soccer fields to the east (top). The old cart path past Bateman's Pond is at the lower right.
The school has walled off the Woods
The architecture shows how Middlesex School has actually and symbolically walled off the Estabrook Woods. This photo was taken in 2004 from the Estabrook Woods' entrance behind Eliot Hall. The old Thoreau Museum of Natural History was at right, before it was ripped down two years ago and was replaced by that forbidding fortress, the Clay Centennial Center. Exeter took a different path: it spent $1.3 million to CREATE a wetlands for nature study.
Other entrances to Estabrook Woods
These are the signs that greet walkers at the other entrances to the Estabrook Woods that are owned by other organizations. The contrast with the attitude of the Middlesex School trustees could not be clearer. The Middlesex students, however, "get it," and support protection of the woods.