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RECENT NEWS ABOUT MIDDLESEX SCHOOL'S
UNFORTUNATE BUILDING PLANS
IN ESTABROOK WOODS

 Continued from page one of Middlesex School project news

Appalachian Mountain Club's journal "Appalachia " (Dec. 15, 2000) supports Estabrook preservation in the article "The Estabrook Country: A Rediscovered Great Wild Tract" One of article's photos is below. Click on photo for full text with pictures.

Reprinted below from the Fall 2000 issue of Massachusetts Sierran, the newsletter of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Sierra Club:

Estabrook Woods: Too Important to Lose By Gil Wooley Between the towns of Concord and Carlisle lie the Estabrook Woods, a place intimately associated with Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Minutemen, rallying to face the Redcoats at the Old North Bridge, marched through these woods. Estabrook Woods is the largest contiguous and undeveloped woodland within thirty miles of Boston, a major recreational resource, and a favorite venue for the Sierra Club Inner City Outings Program. Since 1965, more than four million dollars of federal, state, town and charitable funds have been spent to protect Estabrook. Last year, Harvard University, the largest owner of land in the woods, agreed to a conservation restriction for its 670 acres in perpetuity. Unfortunately, the second largest owner has other plans. The Middlesex School, which has 200 acres of land in the woods, wants to build an access road into an undeveloped area adjacent to the school campus. The school took the first step in 1994 when they applied for a permit from the Town of Concord to improve a causeway across a wetland. Because of strong local opposition, supported by the Sierra Club, the permit was denied. The school appealed to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and after lengthy negotiations, a settlement was announced and the project was allowed to proceed. Citizens, again supported by the Sierra Club, have appealed this settlement and the issue is currently awaiting a decision. The school's most recent proposal is to cross the wetland with a 300-foot-long, 32-foot-wide steel-framed bridge. While this may technically conform to town and state wetland regulations, it does not alleviate the concerns of the Sierra Club. A 300foot steel framed bridge will look very out of place in the school's woodsy campus. Furthermore, the ultimate object of this access bridge may be to allow development of an extension of the campus into the woods. An extension would be clearly visible from the Estabrook (or Old Carlisle) Road, the principal public access trail through the woods, and would be extremely intrusive. Indeed, it is hard to believe that the Middlesex school's financially sophisticated Board of Trustees would propose such an expensive project just to provide access to a few sports fields. On the other hand, if the objective is a campus extension, the high cost would be justified. Just such an extension was part of the original proposal made in 1992 . The Sierra Club appeals to the school to recognize the value of unspoiled woodland as a resource for the students of the school, for the towns of Concord and Carlisle, and for the public. Since it's founding almost a hundred years ago, the school has been a welcome member of the local community and has sometimes taken the initiative in protecting this invaluable natural resource. Alternative (and less expensive) sites exist for athletic fields and additional buildings. The Sierra Club urges Middlesex School to celebrate its centennial by agreeing to preserve for all time Estabrook Woods. The fate of this outstanding historical and cultural resource will have an impact on the school as well as on the broader community.

Middlesex School Proposes a 300-Foot-Long Bridge as Gateway for Development of Estabrook Woods.

On Sept. 8, 2000, the school submitted a redesigned wetland crossing to the state. For front page Concord Journal banner story of Sept. 28, 2000 titled as follows: "Middlesex redesigns bridge over troubled wetlands": click here. And, click here for the Sierra Club's letter to the editor "An Expensive Bridge for Estabrook." This expresses fear that this new and expensive bridge will make inevitable the extensive development of the woods to justify the bridge's excessive cost.

The Sierra Club's Massachusetts Chapter renews its opposition to Middlesex's Plans. On July 30, 2000, the Sierra Club in Massachusetts voted to oppose the plans of the Middlesex School to develop in Estabrook Woods. The nation-wide Sierra Club represents over 350 members in Concord, 41 members in Carlisle, and over 4000 members in nearby towns. For full text of the Sierra Club's statement, please click here. To see Aug. 3, 2000, Concord Journal story that reports on the Sierra Club's opposition, please click here.

July 5, 2000. Discovery of rare species causes Middlesex to commence redesign of project. Due to the recent discovery by the school's wildlife consultant of an additional state-listed rare species (the Blue-spotted Salamander) at the project site (this is the fifth such species), the School has decided that it is necessary to redesign the project, according to the attorneys. The salamander was allegedly found in vernal pool "D", the habitat of which would in part be filled by the proposed bridge and causeway. [Note: later in the summer of 2000, the school's consultant changed his mind and decided that he hadn't found the rare species after all. Because of this confusion, the judge ordered further rare species field studies in the spring of 2001 (see above). I had hoped this would provide an opportunity for some creative re-thinking of the entire project, the alternatives to it, and the permanent educational value of a protected Estabrook Woods. For full text of Concord Journal article, click here. Pass it on. [Caption: This is "Vernal Pool D," a state-certified vernal pool a few yards downstream of the old causeway (the construction site). Blue-spotted salamander egg masses were supposedly found here in April 2000. Four years ago, the school's arcaelogical consultants found this species on the hillside in the project area and named their dig site the "Blue Salamander site." The impacts of the construction on this species' habitat has not been analyzed. Photo taken from old causeway.

Two academic books have been recently published using the Middlesex School- Estabrook Woods controversy as a case study. In one, Prof. Charles W. Rusch of the University of Oregon (a Middlesex graduate) proposes an environmental alternative educational future for Middlesex School in which Estabrook Woods would play an integral role: see chapter entitled "Educating for Sustainability" (National Art Education Association 1999). (A complementary view is held by the eminent evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr, who has written on an environmental vision for the Estabrook Woods as training for the wise conduct of human affairs.)

May 29, 2000. Commencement support for Estabrook:  A Middlesex parent writes, "My son, all his friends, and I think most of the graduating class wore green arm bands [to support protection of Estabrook Woods] and a beautiful gold dragonfly pin that is the endangered dragon fly. It was wonderful to see, but I doubt that anyone is paying attention."

May 7, 2000. New letter to alumni/ae 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 has recently been purchased and offered to the School as an alternate site to the use of Estabrook; asked for e-mail support; and 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 notes 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 for many graduates' responses and for earlier MGFE letter(s), alumni/ae should go to their website at <www.estabrookwoods.org> or contact MGFE at <estabrook_woods@hotmail.com> (without the brackets).

April, 2000, Article: "In Defense of Estabrook Woods," by Molly Tsongas, Class of 2000, Mx Student Body President. An eloquent testimonial to the woods as part of the educational and spirirtual experience, and how we lose things of value, bit by bit, until there is only a memory of what once was precious. Opposed to trustees' plans. Click here for text, which was published in Fides, a Middlesex School student magazine.

April 13, 2000. Concord Journal. Full page of stories on Middlesex 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, 2000. New website on Estabrook Woods. The new website on Estabrook Woods run by the "Middlesex Graduates for Estabrook" at www.estabrookwoods.org is great. Crisp, attractive, inviting, informative, interesting. Middlesex School has been a traditional defender of the woods, and these graduates carry forward that tradition and oppose this development.

April 7, 2000 Boston Globe story: "Field of Honor: Prep school divided over plans to expand"    Click here for the full text of the article. The caption reads: "[Three Middlesex students] walking through the Estabrook Woods." This is a low quality scan, showing the charming picture and impressive format: (Why so fuzzy? For privacy, mostly. But it is the overall impression that makes the powerful visual point.)

Jan. 2000: Student survey supporting Estabrook preservation presented by students to meeting of Middlesex trustees: Click here for both the talking paper the students used when they addressed the trustees' meeting this Jan or Feb., 2000, and the results of their survey. (For more on student attitudes, click here to go to the "Student's Speak" section. Also see the website of Middlesex Graduates for Estabrook: <www.estabrookwoods.org>.)

This Associated Press story "Battle Brews in Concord" ran in the Philadelphia Inquirer (March 30, 1997) and other newspapers in the northeastern United States in the spring of 1997. ( Click here for text. )

Boston Globe editorial, February 18, 1997: "Promised Land." "Next to the museum's land, the Middlesex School hopes to develop part of its open space as soccer fields and faculty housing. Harvard's decision to safeguard its land ought to encourage the private school to preserve its open space." (Click here for text. )

Concord Journal editorial, January 23, 1997: "Estabrook Victory [Harvard's dedication ceremony ] Should Be True Model": (Click here for text. )

The Thoreau Society strongly opposes Middlesex's project: (Click here for text.)

And many other supportive stories and editorials too numerous to mention. . . .

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