The osprey, once a seriously threatened Vineyard bird, has made a significant recovery. The osprey population on the Vineyard has doubled and doubled again in recent years. The recovery comes from a well proven nesting pole program developed by Gus Ben David, director of Massachusetts Audubon’s Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary.
Leaders for the the new Conservation Partnership of Martha's Vineyard and the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank have pledged full cooperation with one another, announcing among other things that they will begin to hold regular meetings to exchange information pertinent to the conservation movement.
"The land bank is committed to meet with the partnership monthly, to talk about specific properties and also priorities," said land bank executive director James Lengyel.
The initiative announced Monday will preserve nearly all the remaining undeveloped land on Cuttyhunk — including a large swath of unspoiled barrier beach, marsh and upland.
A talk on the preservation of wild flowers, with fascinating illustrations in water color, painted by the lecturer, was presented before the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club Tuesday afternoon by Miss Eloise L. Luquer. Miss Luquer charmed her audience by her personality and her interesting and constructive lecture, given with just the correct light and amusing touch which makes the acquirement of knowledge a pleasant and easy task. The water colors, about thirty in number, were hung on the walls of the garden club center.
A Vineyard wild flower sanctuary, where native plants, flowers and shrubs will be planted and protected, under conditions which will allow the general public to see and enjoy them, is in the process of becoming a reality at Christiantown. Mrs. Wilfrid O. White of Vineyard Haven, president of the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club, has been given permission, and some financial aid, by the county board, with which to pit her plan into operation on the county-owned land adjacent to the Indian burying ground on this historic spot, and the initial survey has been made by Will C.
With the recording of an agreement and declaration of trust last week, the Vineyard Open Land Foundation, first proposed in the Gazette of April 17, became a reality.
The agreement and declaration were signed by 12 original trustees: Jerome B. Wiesner, Mary P. Wakeman, Anne P. Hale, Herbert E. Tucker Jr., Robert E. Simon Jr., Edward J. Logue, Hans F. Loeser, William M. Honey, Henry Beetle Hough, Kevin Lynch, James F. Alley and Joseph G. Kraetzer. The eventual board will number not more than 21.
George M. Moffett Jr., widely known as a yachtsman and conservationist, signed an agreement last week by which Felix Neck, more than 200 beautiful acres of widely varying terrain extending into Sengekontacket Pond, will be conveyed to the Massachusetts Audubon Society as a wildlife sanctuary. Part of the acreage is transferred immediately, and the balance will be leased to the Audubon Society until the gift is completed.
In a friendly but eloquent mixture of encouragement, advice and warning to the whole Island, Secretary of the Interior Steward L. Udall formally dedicated the colorful clay cliffs of Gay Head as a National Landmark on Saturday afternoon.
