Stewardship

The land we care for, and how.

The parcels

EFLTV stewards 1,840 acres across twelve parcels that together span most of the East Fork's tidal reach. Roughly a third is open marsh and tideflat; a third is mixed upland forest; and a third is working land — small farms and woodlots whose owners have chosen to retire the ecologically sensitive portions from future development while continuing to work the rest.

Every parcel is mapped, walked annually, and documented in an ongoing stewardship log that goes back to 2003. The log is handwritten, in pencil, in matching field notebooks kept in the workshop.

The easements

We do not hold title. Conservation easements are held in trust through a parent regional conservancy, which gives families continuity and legal weight beyond our small organization. Our role is daily care and long relationship — walking the land, talking with the families, and doing the unglamorous work.

Principles we try to keep

  1. Walk before you plan. Every season begins with a slow, unhurried walk of the parcel. Plans made from a desk rarely survive contact with the tide.
  2. Write it down, by hand. A written log that any volunteer can read in ten years is worth more than any dashboard.
  3. The family comes with the land. Easements are relationships. We show up for birthdays, funerals, and barn-raisings, not only for workdays.
  4. Small, repeated, forever. We do not do heroic one-day restorations. We do modest work, at the right tide, for decades.
  5. Teach the next walker. Every volunteer is someone else's eventual replacement. Orient generously.

Partners and landowning families

We are grateful to the families who have placed portions of their land into permanent easement, and to the regional conservancy that holds those easements in trust. New partnerships are considered slowly, through introduction, and always with the land walked first.

Not accepting new easement inquiries outside of existing partnerships at this time.