Fall 2015 NEWSLETTER Issue No. 50 Quansoo Farm Photo by Stephen Chapman Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation Awarded Accreditation Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation has ment at the Land Trust Alliance Rally in local land trust for the island of Martha’s been designated as an accredited land Sacramento in October. Vineyard. The mission of Sheriff’s trust by the Land Trust Accreditation “Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation is Meadow Foundation is to conserve the Commission, an independent program honored to have achieved accreditation,” natural, beautiful, rural landscape and of the Land Trust Alliance. On July 28, said Executive Director Adam Moore. character of Martha’s Vineyard for pres- 2015, the Foundation received word “Accreditation demonstrates to our com- ent and future generations. that after two years of intense prepara- munity that we adhere to the highest Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation was tion, the submission of records on land national standards. Sheriff’s Meadow awarded accreditation this August and is and financial matters and scrutiny by Foundation is a much stronger organi- one of 317 land trusts from across the the Commission, accreditation had been zation today from having gone through country that have been awarded accredi- awarded. The accreditation period lasts this rigorous program.” tation since the fall of 2008. Accredited for five years, from August 1, 2015 to July Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation was land trusts are authorized to display a seal 31, 2020. Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation founded in 1959 by Henry Beetle Hough indicating to the public that they meet was publicly recognized for this achieve- and Elizabeth Bowie Hough and it is the Continued to Page 5 page 2 MARTHA’s VINEYARD Foundation Elects Officers and Directors At its Annual Meeting of June 19, DeLong follow in this newsletter. 2015, the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation The Board reelected Michael Berwind, founded in 1959 by Board of Directors elected a number of Susan Crampton, Peter Getsinger, David Henry Beetle Hough and new Officers and Directors, reelected Grain and Bill Howell to second, three- Elizabeth Bowie Hough certain Officers and Directors, and elect- year terms as Directors, and reelect- ed the members of the Executive and ed Chris Alley, Susannah Bristol and Board of Directors Nominating Committees. Kathy Ham to third, three-year terms Chris Alley, President The Foundation Board reelected Chris as Directors. Directors Emily Bramhall, Alley to a one-year term as President Christian Halby and Lil Province were Brien O’Brien, Vice President of Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation and elected to fourth, one-year terms as Walter Looney, Jr., Treasurer reelected Brien O’Brien to a one-year Directors, and Adam Moore was elected Susannah Bristol, Assistant Treasurer term as Vice-President. Walt Looney was to a one-year term as a voting, appointed elected to a one-year term as Treasurer, Director. Molly Glasgow, Clerk and Susannah Bristol was elected to a The Board also elected the mem- Michael Berwind one-year term as Assistant Treasurer. bers of its Executive Committee and Jennifer Blum Mr. Looney succeeds Terry Guylay, who Nominating Committee at this meet- Emily Bramhall had served as Foundation Treasurer ing. Elected to one-year terms on Kim Burns since 2010. Molly Glasgow was elected the Executive Committee were all of Susan Crampton to a one-year term as Clerk, succeeding the Officers, and also Jennifer Blum, Mary Lou DeLong Alley Moore, who had served as Clerk Susan Crampton, Bob Egerton, Peter Keith Dodge since 2008. Getsinger and Samme Thompson. Robert Egerton The Board elected Alan Rappaport Elected to one-year terms on the Peter Getsinger to a first, three-year term as a Director. Nominating Committee were Chris David Grain Mr. Rappaport joins Mary Lou DeLong, Alley, Jennifer Blum, Susannah Bristol, Terry Guylay elected in December of 2014, in the Bob Egerton, Ellen Harley, Rob Christian Halby same class of Directors. Biographies and McCarron, Alley Moore, Phil Regan Kathy Ham photographs of Mr. Rappaport and Ms. and Sarah Thulin. Ellen Harley Carol Hillenbrand New Trail at Eastman and Knapp Preserves in Aquinnah Bill Howell Bill Maloney Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation is seen before,” said Adam Moore. Over Rob McCarron pleased to announce that is has created the winter, some additional work on the Alley Moore a new trail on the Eastman Preserve and trail is planned. The additional work Lil Province the Knapp Preserve in Aquinnah. The will result in a loop with enhanced long- Nancy Randall trail leads from a discreet, two-vehicle distance views. Alan Rappaport trailhead on the Knapp Preserve on The Eastman Preserve is 11.3 acres Phil Regan East Pasture Road, along East Pasture in size. The land was given to Sheriff’s Tom Robinson Road, down the Eastman driveway, onto Meadow Foundation by Yvette Eastman Samme Thompson the Eastman Preserve, and down to the in three separate donations in 1984, Sarah Thulin shore of Menemsha Pond. 1989 and 1990. The Knapp Preserve is “This is a beautiful trail with great 7.74 acres in size. The land was given Honorary Directors views of Menemsha, and it showcases a to Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation by Jean April Hamel property that many people have never Knapp in 1994. Edo Potter Rez Williams Adam R. Moore, Executive Director Kristen Fauteux, Director of Stewardship Bill Bridwell, Property Manager Marc Macfarlane, Property Manager Nevenka K. Daniels, Office Manager Samantha Look, Education Coordinator Ann Barros, Bookkeeper SHERIFF’s MEADOW page 3 FOUNDATION Executive Director’s the edge of Ocean Park in Oak Bluffs. Buzzard’s Bay to the west, to the tall In Oak Bluffs at Camp Duarte, fair towers of the bridge binding Newport MESSAGE weather comes and children frolic on the to Jamestown, to the broad shores of the grass in the fleeting light of afternoon. great American continent beyond, and Thanksgiving The father splits firewood in a Chilmark with our fellows in America on this day From October, where our common backyard, and the mother walks the dog we join. lot is the glory of scarlet beetlebung and down the ancient way, strewn with fallen We join to give thanks that we have red sumac and yellow hickory, from that leaves. The cold returns, and the Island again been delivered to this national day month’s refuse pile of orange sassafras shivers at dawn to frost on the switch- of Thanksgiving, and for the laden table leaves and compost heap of spent Jack- grass, and the hollies and the pitch pines and for the bounty of farm and forest and o’-Lanterns, emerges November. and junipers hint at the season of mirth field and sea. We give thanks for those November emerges and the beating that is yet to come. Then the winds blow, gathered together at our hearth and for autumn ocean waves carve a scarp into and they strip the russet oak leaves from those gathered only in our hearts. the beach, the scallopers ply the Cape their branches, and sweep across the In our hearts we give thanks for the Poge Bay, the archers perch in branches great open plains, and scour the bluffs of very refuge that this Island is, a refuge of beeches and there they wait. Lichens Cedar Tree Neck. from the tempests and the surf, a sanc- cling to the gravestones and the stone From Cedar Tree Neck one spots tuary safe and dry amid the cold waters walls and the great gray boulders left the ferries coming to and from Woods of the mighty Atlantic. And we give here by the glacier. Hole through the waters of Vineyard thanks for those who gave so that, on Left here by the glacier was this entire Sound. The fourth Thursday of this this Island, our meadows and plains, our Island, and so passes this eleventh month month approaches, and the pace quick- marshes and moors, our bogs and fens, of this year, on this outpost seven miles ens. Schools let out early and families our forests and frostbottoms, shall for- out to sea. Clutches of hockey players set forth to visit family and friends in ever be our common lot. board the steamship, the ferry sounds America, or set forth from America to its steam whistle, and its organ-pipe gather here, at this Island home. Adam R. Moore blast sounds through the empty woods To our Island home Thanksgiving off Lake Tashmoo. Veterans and young comes. We gather, and then we pause. An homage to Governor Wilbur L. scouts form up on New York Avenue, We pause, and from the cliffs of Cross of Connecticut and his Thanksgiving and march off to the Civil War statue on Gay Head, we look to the shores of Proclamation of 1936. New Directors Welcomed American Museum of Natural History, she received an Honorary Degree from the NYU Langone Medical Center, as BC. Ms. DeLong served five years as Chair of the board of GuideStar, and a Trustee of Boston College and as a as Co-Chair of the Parents Committee Trustee of Newton Country Day School of Duke University. He received his BA of the Sacred Heart. She was a Board from Harvard College and MBA from member of the Council for Advancement Stanford University. A life-long resident and Support of Education and President of Martha’s Vineyard, he lives with his of the Planned Giving Group of New wife Jill and two children in Chilmark England. Ms. DeLong and her husband, and New York. Jeff, live full time on Martha’s Vineyard Mary Lou DeLong recently retired as and she also serves on the Boards of Vice President and University Secretary Mink Meadows Golf Club and Deep of Boston College, a post she held Bottom Pond Owners Association.