ATHOL – As the year draws to a close, Mount Grace celebrates a series of land conservation projects across central and western Massachusetts.

From sweeping landscape-scale initiatives to small, but significant, community projects, 2024 has been a year of milestones for the regional land trust.

The year began with Mount Grace and Mass Audubon finalizing a project in Winchendon that protected over 1,000-acres of unfragmented woods and streams within the headwaters of the Miller River. As this project concluded, Mount Grace turned its attention to another undertaking—the Hawes Hill Conservation Corridor in Barre.

The Hawes Hill project was a chapter of Mount Grace’s story that took years to write. This collaborative, landscape-scale project in Barre brought together a number of biodiverse natural and working landscapes and protected more than 800 acres of important wildlife habitat.

“For five generations our family has been caretakers of the land,” Molly Stevens Dubois, whose family of farm owners protected four of the properties, said at a celebration of the project’s closing. “We value the importance of maintaining space as open fields and forests. Working with Mount Grace on this project has enabled us to ensure that the land is protected for the future generations of farmers.”

Some projects, though smaller, still proved significant for the communities they served. In Royalston, Mount Grace protected 0.19 acres – one of their smallest projects to date – by partnering with the town to ensure that the site of the beloved Pete & Henry’s restaurant can be transformed into a town park. Thanks to the town and the dedication of many committed volunteers, the site will continue to be a place where neighbors will gather for generations to come.

By the end of the year, Mount Grace will have protected over 2,000 acres of land.

“The urgency of the conservation work we do is escalating in the face of increasing development pressures,” said Emma Ellsworth, executive director at Mount Grace, in a statement. “Our little corner of North Central Massachusetts and the Connecticut River Valley is identified as containing over 100,000 priority acres for conservation. To meet our statewide conservation and biodiversity goals, we must conserve as much of this land as we can.”

To address the growing challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and encroaching development, Mount Grace has developed a strategic plan to guide the organization over the next three years. This plan includes expanding staff capacity, enhancing people’s connection to the land, and further embracing land justice in conservation.

“This is a great opportunity, yet it is also a responsibility,” said Ellsworth. “The issues we collectively face are daunting, and can make us feel powerless to change, but Mount Grace provides the opportunity to address them here, in our backyard. Projects like these, which you can support online now through the Mount Grace annual appeal, can be a model for new land conservation here and beyond.”