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Middlesex Students and Graduates speak:

This page contains material that is public information. Note that there is also a fine new website created by the organization "Middlesex Graduates for Estabrook." That site contains many other letters from Middlesex graduates opposed to the project. That site's address is <www.estabrookwoods.org>.

* Jan. 25, 2005. Jeff Walker, Middlesex Class of 2001, has posted an amazing set of images showing the impacts of Phase 1 (the soccer fields on Area A); click http://wwwalker.net/estabrookwoods/ *April 18, 2004. Middlesex Graduates for Estabrook announces the rebirth of the website: <http://www.estabrookwoods.org>. While many of the finishing touches still need to be applied, the site is up and running and will hopefully function as a resource for those in the Middlesex family who are concerned about the development of the woods. Please visit the site and provide any feedback to <pstites@estabrookwoods.org>. Spring 2004. Both Middlesex School student publications "The Anvil" and "Fides" speak out against the school's proposed development in Estabrook Woods. The Anvil editor spoke of the transformative experience of a literature class that incorporated walks in the Estabrook Woods and at Walden Pond. She concluded, "At this point, it seems to me what the school is lacking is not playing fields or more dorms or more Smartboards in the classroom. What we really need from our time here is moral and ethical direction from the school, which has somehow become lost among concerns over yield rates, athletic records, and college admissions statistics." The Fides writer noted that those expressing an environmental conscience these days are "mercilessly" maligned. After moving articles of personal testimonial, the issue concludes that the project is "not only unnecessary but unwise." The issue also prints the results of an updated poll taken by the student organization "Common Sense" showing that 88% of those polled valued the Estabrook Woods as one of Middlesex School's resources and 87.5% favored that campus expansion, if it is to occur, should occur outside of Estabrook Woods. To read these excellent articles, click here. September 2002.  "Common Sense" writes the Trustees. The Middlesex student organization Common Sense reiterated its support for Estabrook Woods and its opposition to the development project by sending a letter to the school trustees at their fall 2002 meeting. The students wrote, "We maintain that the proposal is ill-conceived. We believe that alternative building plans have been both poorly researched and prematurely rejected. The Estabrook Woods are too valuable a resource to dispense with so quickly and thoughtlessly." For full letter, click here. June-July 2001. At Centennial, Middlesex graduate-architects oppose Estabrook project as "a spectacularly bad idea." One architect, who is both a Middlesex 1952 graduate & a 1980 Mx parent, wrote, "In my professional opinion, this is not just a bad idea, this is a spectacularly bad idea." Another architect, a member of class of 1950, recently wrote that the project will be "very costly" and "devastating to the entire area." Also, letters from "Middlesex Graduates for Estabrook,"  signed by McCagg, Summersby, Rusch, Faulkner, Stites, and Mitchell to alumni and to trustees. Just discovered, a June 2001 letter from a Middlesex parent who is also an environmental engineer and Concord neighbor. Class of 2001 Students March To Protect Estabrook Woods On a spring day in 2001, the Middlesex School environmental club "Common Sense" marches through Concord's Monument Square in the annual Musketaquid Festival Parade. Author John Hanson Mitchell carries the banner with Thoreau's admonition "We are all schoolmasters and our schoolhouse is the universe." For other picture, click here. May 2001. 70 percent of students oppose bridge. At graduation, the 68 members of the 79 member senior class wore green ribbons and silver spotted salamander pins as a statement of the importance of the Estabrook woods to the class. In a survey conducted that spring, 216 students out of 318 filled out surveys. 70% oppose building the bridge into the woods, 22% support if absolutely necessary and 8% support building the bridge. Full results here. Caption: This mug was designed and distributed by the student club Common Sense at Middlesex School. They understand what is at stake, though others don't. "Convenient Amnesia": in April, 2001, the Middlesex School student magazine Fides commented on the school trustees' forgetting Monk Terry: Convenient Amnesia By Brigham Brough The battle rages... The woods are still standing, but for how long? There are several contributing factors to the preservation and/or destruction of the Estabrook Woods. The most pressing of which are: Endangered species in and around the proposed building area, the original intentions of the school in buying the woods, and to what extent current students and faculty use the woods. All of these issues are fortunately swaying towards supporting the preservation of the woods. An endangered Blue Spotted Salamander was recently discovered during a biological study of the area. A letter from Monk Terry. . .was recently discovered, which explains his intentions for the woods not as future development of buildings and fields, but rather development of Middlesex students. The woods are also being exploited increasingly as an academic field. Many of the freshman English classes use the woods while reading or writing. The Environmental Consortium class is studying local salamanders in the Estabrook Woods, at a site quite near, if not in the "A Land" (the land where future building will potentially take place). And, Chauncey McLean and myself have started our senior project in the woods, during which we read Thoreau, where he wrote, and write our own compilations. Students and faculty are beginning to realize the value of the woods,and consequently the importance of preservation. In a letter I received recently from Steve Ells, a local Concordian and fellow Estabrook supporter, the Blue Spotted Salamander discovery and a letter from Monk Terry are exposed... "Hello, Estabrook friends, Spring is here and a rare BLUE SPOTTED SALAMANDER was just found at the site of Middlesex's proposed three hundred foot bridge into Estabrook Woods. It was discovered in the last day or so by the citizen-objectors' wildlife consultant, who was conducting additional rare species studies as required by the DEP administrative law judge. Protection of such rare species will be an issue at the fall DEP trial on the issuance of the wetlands permit. for the bridge. The project area contains habitat for FIVE state-listed species; an endangered dragonfly [name confidential], which breeds at the southern end of Bateman's Pond; and four Species of Special Concern: the Elderberry Longhorned Beetle, the Blue Spotted Salamander, the Spotted Turtle, and the Mystic Valley Amphipod). It is the breeding site of at least three watch-Est species (Spotted Salamander, Northern Leopard Frog, and Northern Goshawk). And four certified vernal pools are in the immediate vicinity of the bridge site. It is a very rich area, and we hope it can be preserved. What does it take?" "The school might also be interested in the recently discovered 1963 statement in the Middlesex Alumni Bulletin by Monk Terry on saving Estabrook Woods. Project sponsors have been saying for nine years that "there's nothing in writing " about the School's position on saving all Estabrook Woods. Well, now it is been discovered that there IS something in writing." From "Fides," #7 p. 8 (Middlesex School student magazine, April 2001).

May 2000 letter to graduates from Middlesex Graduates for Estabrook (MGFE). On May 7, 2000, this alumni organization sent a new letter to hundreds of fellow classmates. It reviewed the status of the citizens' appeal; discussed the $400,000 parcel that project opponents have purchased and have offered to the School as an alternative to the use of Estabrook; it asked for e-mail support; and it proposed a campaign to reunite the school community by raising funds to purchase a conservation restriction on the school's lands in Estabrook Woods. The letter noted that even if the School "may have the legal right to develop the Woods for playing fields, tennis courts and a second campus, it is not the right thing to do. We feel that developing Estabrook Woods is not the highest and best use of our increasingly rare open space. The School's Woods could be better used for instruction in the natural sciences, history and archeology, for recreation, and as quiet refuge from a busy world." Click here for full text. Or to see many graduate responses to this letter and earlier letters, alumni/ae should click here for the MGFE website at <www.estabrookwoods.org> or write them at <Estabrook_Woods@hotmail.com>.

Late April, 2000. "In Defense of Estabrook Woods," by Molly Tsongas, Class of 2000, Student Body President. This article by the student body president is an eloquent testimonial to the woods as part of the educational and spirirtual experience. It describes how we lose things of value, bit by bit, until there is only a memory of what once was precious. Click here for text, published in Fides, a Middlesex School student magazine. And click here for the irreverent cartoon cover of this issue of Fides.

Student wisdom: The "Common Sense" coffee mug gives "5 Reasons to Save Estabrook Woods" (1) Preservation of Nature (2) Spiritual Enrichment (3) Historical Value (4) Scientific Research (5) Recreation

	Boston Globe April 7, 2000 story headlined "Field of Honor: Prep school divided over plan to expand" Click here for the text of the story [8k] . To the left is a low-quality scan of the newspaper page & banner, showing the charming picture and article's prominence. The caption reads: "[Three Middlesex students] walking through the Estabrook Woods." (Why so fuzzy? Privacy issues, principally. But it is the overall impressive layout that reinforces the potent story.)
Concord Journal, April 13, 2000. Read these full page of stories on the Middlesex Estabrook project, with these headlines: "Citizens' Appeal of Estabrook Woods plan is approved" [click here]. "Middlesex students and alumni work to save the woods" [click here].
April 13, 2000: A new website on Estabrook Woods is created by the Middlesex Graduates for Estabrook at <www.estabrookwoods.org>. It is great. Crisp, attractive, inviting, informative, interesting.
In Jan. 2000, Middlesex student surveyed their classmates and the faculty about the proposed development. The Middlesex Bulletin reported the results: the students "embrace Estabrook Woods": Students also presented the survey results to school's trustees and made a statement in opposition to the project: This is the statement (click here) the students made to the school's trustees in Jan-Feb 2000 (see above Boston Globe and Concord Journal stories). Also posted here is the full text of the survey and responses.
1999 Alternative educational vision proposed for Middlesex and Estabrook Woods Professor Charles Rusch of the University of Oregon (Middlesex 1952) proposes an educational alternative educational future for Middlesex in which Estabrook Woods would play an integral role: see book chapter entitled "Educating for Sustainability."

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