The Trustees of Reservations

The Trustees of Reservations is a nonprofit organization with headquarters and activities in the state of Massachusetts in the United States. Their task is the preservation of monuments and nature conservation. The idea was published by landscape architect Charles Eliot on March 5, 1890, the organization was founded in the spring of 1891 formally. This makes it the oldest private conservation organization in the U.S.. With more than 100,000 members and an annual budget of over 20 million dollars she now has a broad-based and financially viable basis for their activities.

History

The article Waverly Oaks, the Charles Eliot published in the journal Garden and Forest on March 5, 1890, led directly to the creation of Trustees. However, it would take a year to the organization could be entered in the register.

While it was successful in the sparsely populated western part of the United States at the end of the 19th century, largely to preserve nature, there was little understanding of such efforts on the East Coast. Boston had risen to the nation 's fourth largest industrial center, and hundreds of large and small companies settled in the city environment. In this many agricultural areas, river basins, and even historical sites overbuilt without consideration and thus destroyed.

As part of the ongoing expansion of the population were asked only to a very limited degree open space available, since it is preferable to used the land for new factories. This was contrary for example to cities such as Paris and London, which offered its inhabitants comparatively spacious recreation rooms. This took Eliot, who was convinced that urban green spaces fresh air, joy offered as a contrast to the rather drab city life in scenic design and space for recreation, as a reason for his article.

In the spring of 1891, the state government agreed to set up the organization "The Trustees of Public Reservations " formally and write, " to beautiful and historical places to buy in the area of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to obtain, maintain, and for the public "To make accessible. In 1954, the word " Public" removed from the name to avoid confusion with possessions of the state.

Organizational structure

The elected each for a term of three years, the institutions of the Trustees of Reservations consist of Corporate Trustees ( 200 to a maximum of 600 members), the Board of Directors ( 25 persons), the Executive Committee ( is occasionally occupied from the other organs out ) certain officers ( Officers of the Corporation, 4 persons), an advisory committee ( Advisory Council, 75 people ) and the Chairman's Council, made up in varying number of former members of the different organs.

Data

The organization decreed in 2012 more than 150 permanent employees, 149 part-time employees and 400 seasonal employees. Throughout its history, the Trustees more than 70 mi ( 112.7 km ) were able to preserve coast. The Virginia Woods were the first acquired reserve, which was transferred in 1923 to the Metropolitan District Commission in 1892. The oldest still owned by the organization are areas of Mount Ann Park in Gloucester and Rocky Narrows Sherborn, both of which were acquired in 1897. The smallest protected area is approximately 1,000 m² of Redemption Rock in Princeton, which covers an area of ​​more than 12.5 km ² largest reserve is Notch View in Windsor.

The Trustees maintain and preserve historic buildings, gardens, gorges and waterfalls, forests, landscapes and early industrial sites and take care of in addition to the history of the Indians. In its administrative area includes National Historic Landmarks in the National Register of Historic Places registered monuments, natural monuments and Historic Districts.

In the protected areas of the organization live 132 some very rare animal and plant species and 12 % of the threatened Yellow-footed Plover population in Massachusetts. Overall, the Trustees manage more than 270 mi ( 434.5 km ) hiking trails, some of which are associated with inter-regional long-distance hiking trails, including the Appalachian Trail, Bay Circuit Trail, Mid-State Trail, New England Scenic Trail or the Tully Trail.

Reception

The work of the Trustees of Reservations is widely recognized. For lists of the National Geographic the beach Crane Beach in Ipswich on position 8 of the top ten family beaches, while the Landscape Architecture Magazine of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the restoration of the early 20th century, designed by Arthur Shurcliff Castle Hill Allée picks up on the same property. About current projects of the organization is also reported in the local press.