RI Central - Preserving a Piece of Paradise

Lawrence J. F. Taft, Excutive Director of the Audubon Society of Rhode Island, pauses after hearing the call of a Red-tailed Hawk during a hike through the society’s recently acquired 73.6 acres of forestland in Exeter. Below, Marion Joslin, who sold the land to Audubon, explains she wanted to ensure the parcel would be protected for future generations.

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EXETER — To Marion Joslin, the home where she resides on Pardon Joslin Road is more than just a house in the woods of Exeter. Built between 1750 and 1780, the Joslin Family Homestead where she lives is a cherished piece of her late-husband's ancestry.

Joslin moved to the homestead and the 300-plus acre property where it stands with her husband in 1947 when there was no heat, no water and no electricity.

After her husband's death, the land, the homestead, and a desire to see them both preserved for future generations, became hers.

In keeping with that goal, Joslin's partnership with the Audubon Society of Rhode Island (ASRI) started in 1992 with the sale of 134 acres of Joslin property to the Audubon. That initial transaction came a year after the establishment of the Fisherville Brook Wildlife Refuge, made possible through a 500-acre donation from neighboring property owners George and Rose Matteson.

Since that time, Fisherville has grown to a 1,011 acres, 308 of which have come from purchase agreements with Joslin.

The latest addition of 73.6 acres to Fisherville came last month and was a joint venture between Joslin, ASRI, The Nature Conservancy, The Champlin Foundations and an Open Space Grant from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

“There was a collaboration between the Audubon and Nature Conservancy to acquire property to add to Fisherville Brook and an application was put in the state open space program in June of 2006. The award was made in January of 2007,” Lawrence J. F. Taft, executive director of ASRI, said.

In May, The Nature Conservancy closed on the property and once the state reimbursed them for half of the roughly $500,000 purchase price, the property was transferred to Audubon.

"The landowners have to have a lot of patience and perseverence because it's a long process," ASRI Senior Director of Conservation Scott Ruhren said.

For Audubon, this acquisition was particularly important because the parcel contains the headwaters to the Fisherville Brook, which leads directly to the Queen River, what Ruhren described as "arguably the hottest biological diversity spot in the state.”

“By protecting this water, we protect Fisherville Brook and then we protect the Queen," he said.

While the parcel contains a significant amount of wetlands, Taft said any future development of the parcel could have compromised the quality of the Queen River.

"If this were a sub-division, where then people are spraying lawn chemicals or had septic systems, the water quality down stream would be very different,” Taft said.

"This land was given to me to protect,” Joslin said dutifully, “and I think I've done pretty well."

Taft said a conservation easement is now attached to the acquired property that restricts any development, change of use or subdivision of it.

"That's why they've got it,” Joslin said, “so nothing like that will ever happen to it."

Joslin retained about 30 acres of land that includes the family homestead with most of the frontage and a historic stone well behind the home. Ruhren said the what remains of the once 300-acre property should be enough to allow another Joslin family home to be built there, should they so choose.

Walking through the densely forested parcel, Ruhren pointed out pine trees he estimated were 150 years old, there are black huckleberries, hardwood saplings, hemlocks, larch and red pines.

As it stands now, there is only a crude path - a Joslin family road - leading through the Audubon’s new parcel and while trails might be put in to enable Audubon staff to monitor the new parcel, Taft said there were no immediate plans to do so.

“It remains to be seen whether it would be wise to actually connect the [existing Fisherville] trail system to this particular piece. The more trails you crisscross a habitat, the more you're going to fragment it and impact it and perhaps ruin some rare plants or habitat for an owl nesting,” he said.

Taft said Audubon looks to balance its preservation efforts with its other objective of providing the public with access to natural resources.

“When you do a conservation project and you either purchase or get a donation, that's not the end of the story, that's the beginning of the story. Now, there is an obligation by Audubon to be stewards of the property to protect the habitat, to manage the public access, prevent dumping, ATVs, hunting, poaching, that sort of thing," Taft said.

ASRI acquired its first property in 1923 and since then, it has become the state’s largest private land owner, conserving over 9,500 acres for open space and wildlife habitat.

“A lot of this starts with a conservation-minded landowner who is either made a donation or has talked abut wanting to preserve the land and that is really how conservation organizations are successful. You have to have a willing donor," Taft added.

The Audubon’s ability to succeed at its mission, Taft said, relies in large on partnerships with the community, with other conservation organizations such as the Nature Conservancy and with families like the Joslins.

“The neighbors talking is really a big deal. A lot of this starts in the post office, people go down, pick up their mail and talk about Audubon and land transactions,” Ruhren said.

“It's a lot about trust. I think Marion saying how well Audubon cares for Fisherville, or that a neighbor did it, I think that breeds a certain amount of 'OK, we're doing the right thing,’" Taft said.

And speaking with Joslin, it’s evident she feels she has done right by her husband and by the land itself.

“This homestead will stay in the Joslin family,” she said. “It’s been here for over 200 years and it should stay that way.”