The Cape Pogue beach - two miles of it - including virtually all the strip with the ocean on one side and Cape Pogue Bay on the other, has been given to the Trustees of Reservations by Charles Sumner Bird and Oliver P. Filley, Chappaquiddick summer residents who acquired the beach some years ago.

 

The strip is one of great natural interest and beauty - often of windswept beauty - embodying the unaltered character of so much of the exposed shoreline of the Vineyard.

 

The Trustees of Reservations, formerly the Trustees of Public Reservations, is a private philanthropic corporation chartered by the state of Massachusetts which acquires and maintains sites of interest and value for preservation on behalf of the public. The gift by Mr. Bird and Mr. Filley, therefore assures the preservation of the Cape Pogue beach in perpetuity.

 

 

Mr. Bird, who has served as chairman of the Trustees, is also a trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, chartered by Congress, which is dedicated to the preservation of historic sites and buildings of national significance.

 

He has been a lifelong summer resident. Mr. Filley, who was his room mate at college, bought the Frame house on Chappaquiddick about fifteen years ago. He was one of the great Harvard oarsmen, and twice captain of the Harvard crew. He served in the Royal Flying Corps in World War I and made a brilliant war record, winning a commission as a colonel. He is a member of the brokerage firm of Post and Flagg in New York city.

 

The beach gift was announced at the annual luncheon of the Trustees in Boston on Wednesday. At this luncheon, Dr. Joel E. Goldthwait, another visitor to Martha’s Vineyard, was the recipient of the Trustees of Reservations annual Award for Distinguished Service. Dr. Goldthwait, now 92, donated the Rocky Woods Reservation in Medfield to the Trustees. Although he was unable to be present, the 200 person attending saw a film of the presentation of the award for him.

 

Among the new members of the corporation of the Trustees is another Chappaquiddick summer resident, Russell B. Stearns. William Roger Greeley is president of the Trustees.

 

 

 

The gift of the exposed and in so many ways magnificent Cape Pogue beach to the Trustees of Reservations which became known last week is an event of more importance than some casual observers may believe. The importance, we think, lies in the fact that here is a part of Martha’s Vineyard, stamped from the beginning with our insular character, which will be forever itself.

 

A piece of land or a bit of scenery does not need to be a Grand Canyon or a Garden of the Gods or a redwood forest to be worth preserving. Most of us haven’t sufficiently realized that.

 

The increasing population of the world, the means of transportation which have more and more done away with seclusion and wilderness, the curiosity and enterprise of new generations - all these are forces that are closing in, year after year, upon the once free domain of nature. If this sort of thing continues, there will be nothing untrodden, untamed, or unexploited.

 

As birds and animals may be rendered extinct by the pressures of what we call civilization, as we know to our bitter regret, all of us, so the face of physical nature may be altered, its expression forever changed. There will be generations an centuries which will never know what this land, sea, and shore were like.

 

Against so certain a prospect of loss and change, or even of destruction, it is important to set aside preserves, not always great ones, not always far off among mountains, lakes, or deserts, not always superlative in grandeur or traditional beauty. Such a preserve is the Cape Pogue beach. Does anyone ask, “What is it good for?” It does not have to be good for something; it is good.

 

Charles Sumner Bird and Oliver Finney are to be counted among the benefactors of all of us.