Orleans Has Protected Hundreds Of Parcels As Open Space, But There’s Still More To Do

ORLEANS – Wherever you go in Orleans, you’re never far from protected land. From wetlands to wooded trails and everything in between, open space is one of the features that makes the town and other communities on the Lower and Outer Cape such an enviable destination for residents and visitors.

 And the town has a lot of it, approximately 3,600 acres. That’s more than a third of the town’s estimated 9,000 acres of total land. But there’s still plenty more that can be protected in the future, said George Meservey, the town’s director of planning and community development.

 “It’s surprising how much there is out there,” he said.

 A new open space and recreation plan prepared by the town alongside the engineering firm Weston and Sampson includes a vision for securing more open space in the years ahead. For the town and private organizations such as the Orleans Conservation Trust, that means being ready to strike when opportunities for conservation arise. 

 “Securing land and conserving it from development, you have to be opportunistic,” Meservey said. “You can’t just have a plan and start going after parcels. You need to wait until they are available to you. Property owners decide when they sell their land, not you.”

 The town’s efforts to protect open space have been successful. The current local comprehensive plan, released in 2006, called for the preservation of 400 acres of land by 2026, a figure Meservey said the town has already eclipsed. But despite those gains, the town can’t rest on its laurels, he said.

 “As the population increases, we need more open spaces that are available, maybe even more than is commensurate with the population percentage increase,” he said. Orleans’ year-round population currently stands at approximately 6,300 residents, a figure Meservey said could rise to as many as 8,500 at total buildout.

 The town’s existing open space inventory comes in many forms, according to a breakdown in the new open space and recreation plan. That includes 504 acres that make up the public watershed, 808 acres of beach, 921 acres owned by the Orleans Conservation Trust and other private entities, 16 acres of state land and 113 acres of federal property. It also includes some areas of town property, such as cemeteries, that many might not immediately present as conservation land, Meservey said.

 “So not all of this is classic open space,” he said. “Most of it is.”

 One of the goals outlined in the new plan is to put every resident in town within a 10-minute walk of an open space area. That might sound ambitious, but Meservey said as is, the town isn’t far off from that goal.

 The town’s 3,600 protected acres include approximately 700 that are under the stewardship of the Orleans Conservation Trust. That includes 533 acres that the trust owns and an additional 137 acres that are placed under a conservation restriction, according to the trust’s executive director, Stephen O’Grady.

 In just the last seven years, the trust has protected 73 acres of land across 15 projects, O’Grady said. Those include large parcels such as Sipson Island and the 26-acre Namequoit Wood, which was part of the former Camp Viking. 

 O’Grady said conserving another 73 acres over the next seven years would be “a lofty goal,” adding that 40 to 50 acres is a more likely figure. But he said that following through on another 15 projects over that same period is possible. 

 “I think that would surprise a lot of people, that we’re still able to protect that much acreage in this day and age,” he said.

 O’Grady said the trust is actively in the process of purchasing three parcels in the coming year, while three others could soon be placed under conservation restriction. Then there are larger “priority parcels” that the trust has an eye on protecting in the future.

 “And sometimes that can take decades,” he said.

 Knowing it could be some time before those larger parcels become available, O’Grady said smaller projects have become an increased priority for the trust, including those that can help connect parcels already under protection.

 “It is strategic,” he said. “There are a handful of what I’d call still quite large parcels in Orleans. Those are obviously high on our wish list and we’re working on cultivating relationships with the owners of those handful of large properties. But yes, the majority of our effort in this day and age is focused on those smaller properties that are very important based on where they’re located.”

 The town is similarly keeping its own inventory of prioritized parcels, Meservey said. An added benefit of the new open space and recreation plan, which was due to be presented to the select board Oct. 2, is that its adoption will allow the town continued eligibility for state open space grants. To date, the town has secured $4.8 million in grant funding, which Meservey said has funded half of the town’s open space acquisitions.

 Partnerships have also proven key in the town and the trust’s conservation efforts. For the trust, that involves ongoing conversations with property owners.

 “At any given time, we’re talking with at least a few land owners who are kind of actively looking to protect their property with the Orleans Conservation Trust,” O’Grady said.

 Local interest in placing land in conservation has grown, O’Grady said, even in recent years. He said the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced residents to isolate and distance themselves from one another in its beginning stages, helped deepen people’s appreciation for the town’s vast natural resources and open areas.

 “That was often for a lot of people the only socialization they were getting with friends and neighbors, on trail systems in Orleans and throughout the Cape,” he said. Increased public education and awareness of issues such as climate change has also contributed to people’s growing interest in open space and conservation, he said.

 Orleans has collaborated with neighboring towns including Brewster on conservation efforts, including 22 acres of land that crosses into Orleans’ Zone 2 drinking water area. Those partnerships are particularly important when it comes to protecting local waterways, Meservey said, citing the work of organizations including the Pleasant Bay Alliance and the collaboration between Orleans and Eastham in protecting the Nauset Estuary as examples.

Meservey said the partnerships make sense, especially given towns’ shared interest in improving the region’s water quality. There are also shared concerns over the potential for future development. Failure to act to protect open land when it becomes available, he said, could rob the town of the natural assets that make Orleans and the region so desirable.

 “I think if we do nothing, every parcel in town eventually gets developed,” he said.

 “The new builds that we’re seeing are rarely affordable homes, and so it’s kind of a double whammy to see this latest development boom that’s been facilitated in a lot of ways by the cultural and societal changes that were precipitated by COVID,” O’Grady added.

 But in his role as executive director, O’Grady has seen firsthand the commitment that exists among property owners to protect the town’s natural resources. 

 “The best part of my job is working with land owners who want to protect their properties that are often deeply personal to them,” he said. “This land often goes back generations in their family, and even if it doesn’t they’ve spent countless hours on that property. So for someone to want to work with us and trust us to steward their property into the future is really just personally touching to me.”

 “I think it’s worth saying that there are a lot of property owners on the Lower Cape that have that same conservation ethic and care dearly about this place and participate in helping the town or helping private organizations to conserve land when the opportunity is there,” Meservey said. “And if it weren’t for the efforts and the approvals of the residents of Orleans, the headway would not have been made.”

 A draft of the new open space and recreation plan is available on the town website.