Giving Back to the Future by Syd Smithers

and workshops. Our urban initiatives in strategic plan to mobilize and inspire a It’s In the Interest Boston, Holyoke, and Fall River inspire critical mass of people and partners who of the busIness youth to become the next generation of care about their communities and will conservationists, programs soon to come work to protect their quality of life in hill communIty to have to a city near you. towns, cities, and suburbs. In the next decade, the work we do—the work we a good clImate for Why volunteer? must do—will matter even more. That’s our workers: clean It’s in the interest of the business why I give my time. community to have a good climate for our As a state, we are devouring open land streets and clean aIr, workers: clean streets and clean air, good out of all proportion to the growth in our good schools and good schools and good hospitals, and places population. And as the climate continues to refresh and recreate. Our nonprofits its painful shifts, we face a future as un- AT THE BAR hospItals, and places to are key to that effort, in the Berkshires predictable as the weather on an October refresh and recreate. as elsewhere. afternoon. Within the business environ- The work of a nonprofit is both like ment, good citizenship requires being Naumkeag and Ashintully, as well as and unlike the work of business. In either part of the community and a supporter view-scapes such as Bartholomew’s case, committees aren’t known for en- of all the things that make it worth living Cobble, a National Natural Landmark— gaging the imagination, or offering sig- here. I’m convinced that the Trustees— but it has become so much more. nificant rewards. The Trustees’ Strategic and all our nonprofit organizations—can Over the past several years, through Planning Task Force, on which I served make a vital difference in all these areas, the intensive outreach efforts of the in 2007, looked like any other—but we if we stand up to help. BBQ Trustees’ Highlands Communities were inspired by a shared purpose that giving back to the future Initiative, we have helped thirty-three mattered intensely to us all. In charting Attorney F. Sydney Smithers IV, a partner at towns in eastern Berkshire County and the Trustees’ next ten years, we knew we Cain Hibbard & Myers, has more than thirty- Volunteering time and expertise is an important component in western Pioneer Valley chart their future were not only shaping the future of an or- five years of experience in real estate law, both through planning grants, protect their ganization we love and admire; we were, residential and commercial. He is a member of our vibrant community—and good business to boot open spaces and historical resources in a very real sense, helping to define the prestigious American College of Real Estate through the adoption of the Community the quality of life in the Berkshires, and Lawyers. He is the chairman of the board of di- BY F. SYDNEY SMITHERS IV Preservation Act, and sponsor commu- Massachusetts, for a long time to come. rectors of the Trustees of Reservations, the larg- nity building with meetings, seminars, Out of that work came a ten-year est and oldest land trust in Massachusetts. name, the Trustees is very much an or- to the quality and texture of life across elping lead a great ganization for today—and tomorrow— the Commonwealth. I’ve been privileged nonprofit organization helping to preserve Massachusetts’s to play a part with the Trustees in con- is a privilege and an landscapes and landmarks for everyone, servation in western Massachusetts in- Hinvestment in our quality of life, forever. Being involved—offering my cluding: securing a key endowment for personally and professionally. time and expertise—helps me hold onto Notchview in Windsor; relocating the the things I care about, and leave a lega- Appalachian Trail at Tyringham Cobble It’s hard to say who gets more out cy for the future. in Tyringham; defeating a proposed of it. condominium project on the western the trustees of reservations slopes of Monument Mountain in Great Community service is a habit. Several The Trustees of Reservations were Barrington, and doubling that property’s years ago, when I lived in Windsor, founded in Boston in 1891 by open- conserved acreage; and helping acquire Massachusetts, I served on the finance space visionary Charles Eliot, a pro- some wonderful properties, includ- committee, Board of Selectmen, and tégé of landscape architect and park ing Field Farm and Mountain Meadow Planning Board at various times. Those designer Frederick Law Olmsted. Today, Preserve in Williamstown, Goose experiences and my work as a real-estate the Trustees own and manage one hun- Pond in Lee, Questing and Dry Hill in attorney have given me firsthand experi- dred reservations—25,000-plus acres New Marlborough, and Ashintully in ence in the development pressures facing in seventy-one communities across Tyringham. It’s a fair bet to say that had towns across the state. But more to the Massachusetts—all open to the public these treasured properties not been pre- point, municipal service grounded me in to enjoy. In addition, the Trustees have served for public use and enjoyment, the my community and helped me understand protected another 16,000 acres by hold- Berkshires would lack much of its distinc- the disconnect residents sometimes feel ing perpetual conservation restrictions— tive character, and the Commonwealth, between a vibrant business community more than any other conservation orga- much of its grace. and our quality of life in the Berkshires. nization in Massachusetts—and have The Trustees have been best known A healthy economy, healthy people, assisted in the protection of another for signature properties—museum hous- and healthy communities are all inex- 16,000 acres of open space in partnership es like Naumkeag in Stockbridge, the tricably linked, and my community ser- with local, regional and state govern- Colonel John Ashley House in Ashley vice today is focused on the organization ment, and other nonprofit organizations. Falls, and the William Cullen Bryant I chair, the Trustees of Reservations. Over the past 117 years, the Trustees Homestead in Cummington, and beau- Despite the odd nineteenth-century have made an enormous contribution tiful planned environments such as 26.

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