Land Gift Protects 26-Acre Waterfront Parcel

ORLEANS – Along Pleasant Bay, an almost 30-acre parcel of land stands rich with pine, oak, maple and red cedar trees. A vernal pool provides a breeding habitat for native wildlife, while a 40-foot high coastal bank overlooks more than 600 feet of beach.

The land was one of the largest stretches of unprotected property along the bay. That is until June, when the property’s owner gifted the sizable tract to the Orleans Conservation Trust.

The land, which will be named the Namequoit Wood Conservation Area at the request of the anonymous donor, marks the single largest donation to the trust since 1973 and puts the total amount of land under the trust’s protection at 700 acres.

The acquisition links together two other protected parcels, a 22-acre bog and a 3.5-acre saltwater property on the Namequoit River, to form more than 50 continuous acres of conservation land. Stephen O’Grady, the trust’s executive director, said Monday that the trust had been working with the property owner for the last few years to secure the donation.

“This is what we dream about in the conservation world,” he said.

O’Grady said the donor, who lives off Cape, had been “carefully observing” the trust’s work prior to engaging in talks with the organization about donating the land.

“This one has been on our list for a very long time, and it’s always been near the top of our list,” he said. “When we heard that this land owner was interested in protecting her land a couple of years ago, that was thrilling news, and we have been working on this project quietly over the last couple of years.”

In a statement from the trust announcing the donation, Mark H. Robinson, executive director of the Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts, said donations the size of the Nameoquoit property are rare. The compact consulted with the trust in helping secure the donation.

“In almost 40 years of working with hundreds of private landowners on open space protection, I can list on one hand the number who have made such a generous contribution to conservation on Cape Cod,” he said. “This is surely one of those.”

Were it not donated for conservation, O’Grady said as many as nine homes could have been developed on the property. Instead, the donation not only ensures that the land will be protected as open space, but that there will be no future environmental impacts to the bay through nitrogen loading that otherwise might come if the property was developed.

The property was formerly part of the Camp Viking sailing camp. O’Grady said two bunk houses, a boathouse and a house that used to be part of the camp will be removed, and that the property will be “rewilded.” There also will be some removal of invasive species, but the land’s enrollment in the Massachusetts Forest Stewardship Program has otherwise left the property in good condition for the trust, he said.

“It’s already been managed for a lot of the same purposes that we manage our properties for,” he said.

There also will be limited public access to the property in the form of guided walking tours. O’Grady said trust staff will lead those tours on select dates annually.

O’Grady estimated the assessed value of the land to be between $7 million and $8 million, excluding the value of the existing buildings on the property. Next door, a separate property is currently on the market for $12.2 million, he said.

As property values have soared in Orleans and across the Cape in recent years, there’s understandably added incentive for property owners to sell on the open market. That fact was not lost on the trust.

“Words cannot adequately express our excitement and sincere appreciation for this incredible gift,” Kevin Galligan, the trust’s president, said in a statement. “It shows how good things can happen in our world when we have long-term relationships, and when donors recognize that their conservation values align perfectly with the mission of the Orleans Conservation Trust.”

Short of the donation, the trust would not have been able to secure the Namequoit parcel at the full market rate, O’Grady said. But the trust has benefited significantly over the years from private land owners who have opted to gift their properties to the nonprofit. In the last five years alone, he said, the trust has acquired 70 acres of land across 11 projects, most of which involved some sort of land donation.

O’Grady said that willingness to give up land for conservation speaks to how much of a priority the environment is to people in the region.

“Having Pleasant Bay and Nauset Estuary and Cape Cod Bay, those are just landmarks of Orleans that instill that appreciation of nature and motivates them to protect what we have and not tarnish that beauty,” he said.

Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com