Judy Record Conservation Fund Cares for Land

By Roger Wrubel

The Judy Record Conservation Fund (JR Fund) was founded in 2001 in honor and memory of Judy Record by her friends and family. Judy Record worked tirelessly and effectively from 1995 to 2000 as the leader of the McLean Open Space Alliance (MOSA), which began when eight apprehensive Belmont citizens met to discuss the rumored development of over 190 acres of woods and meadows surrounding the McLean Hospital campus. She stepped forward to lead the effort to preserve as much of the undeveloped land as possible.

Record grew MOSA into an effective grassroots organization with 800 members. And she was politically adept, guiding MOSA as it emerged as a force in the ensuing heated debate, both within the town itself and between the town and the hospital corporation, to determine the property’s future. Judy took on her volunteer role as a full-time job and, along with other MOSA members, spent the next five years vigorously advocating for the preservation of the most significant unprotected natural habitat in Belmont. After a town-wide referendum, agreement between the Town of Belmont and the McLean Hospital Corporation was reached in 1999 creating the McLean overlay district, permitting development of land in proximity to the hospital campus in exchange for preservation of 123 acres of open space, now the Lone Tree Hill Conservation Area, and 14 acres for what is now the Highland Fields Cemetery.

In the 26 years since the agreement was reached, only one of three building zones has been developed: the residential subdistrict of condominiums. Additional development has been approved for the remaining two building zones: a complex with condominiums, an apartment building, and a school for McLean.

Record Players celebrated legacy

Judy tragically died in a bicycle accident 25 years ago this September. Between 2001 and 2017, Judy’s friends organized annual classical music concerts to benefit the fund established in her name, which aided local land conservation. The talented musicians who participated pro bono in these benefit concerts named themselves the Record Players.

The mission of the JR Fund is to support Belmont and its neighboring communities, including Waltham, Watertown, Lexington, Arlington, and Cambridge, in protecting, restoring, enhancing, maintaining, and acquiring conservation land to benefit both wildlife and people. The fund supports the creation and maintenance of off-road hiking, biking, and universally accessible trails, as well as grants for environmental internships to develop the next generation of environmental leaders. Over the last 24 years, the JR Fund has issued a wide range of grants, from small to large. Below are some of the most notable projects that provide a flavor of our grantmaking.

Lone Tree Hill

The JR Fund has focused on Lone Tree Hill in Belmont because of Judy’s commitment to protecting this land. The JR Fund supported an assessment and management plan for what is called the Great Meadow, where the “lone tree” stands, and where it placed a granite bench in Judy’s memory with approval of the property’s governing body, the Land Management Committee for Lone Tree Hill (LMC). Perhaps you have stopped there to rest and take in the view.

The Pine Allee at Lone Tree Hill consists of four rows of white pine trees, a quarter mile long, parallel to Concord Avenue, planted at the end of the 19th century when McLean Hospital moved from Charlestown to Belmont. It is a distinct cultural landscape feature that the JR Fund board determined was in decline. The JR Fund financed a study to assess the condition of the white pines. The arborists recommended pruning some trees to prevent storm damage and removing others that were diseased or dead. The JR Fund provided the town with a grant to implement the plan’s recommendations to protect the remaining trees.

During the study, an arborist’s inventory showed that more than 180 of the original trees were missing. From 2017 to 2023, the fund and the Belmont Citizens Forum cosponsored six volunteer days to replace all the missing trees. If you walk through the Allee now, you will see the success of this work, as the young white pines are thriving under the tall canopy of 100-year-old trees.

The volunteer days were so successful in terms of community building and the results so satisfying that the JR Fund and BCF decided to support annual volunteer days. Most recently, volunteers planted trees in the southern end of the Great Meadow near the border with the private residential development.

The LMC has been using an ecological management plan to restore and enhance the meadow through brush mowing, mechanical removal of invasive plants, spot herbicide treatment, and the planting of suitable native species. The fund shares the cost of that work with the LMC.

Habitat

The JR Fund has made several grants to Mass Audubon’s Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary. It contributed to two land purchases, adding four acres to the sanctuary, and to the construction of a half-mile-long, universally accessible trail. The JR Fund recently made a grant to Habitat for enhancements to the sanctuary’s entryway, including improvements for handicap accessibility. This project focuses on refining the visitors’ entry experience by making it easy to navigate, more welcoming, and, most importantly, accessible for visitors of all abilities.

Rock Meadow

A grant to the Belmont Conservation Commission funded the Rock Meadow Master Plan, and the JR Fund has made an offer of a $100,000 matching fund to establish an endowment for Rock Meadow maintenance and improvements, provided the town will place a conservation restriction on this special property. The Conservation Commission received an allocation from the Belmont Town Meeting in May to initiate work on placing a conservation restriction on the property, which includes legal work to draft the restriction, a title search, and a survey and resource mapping of the property.

Environmental Internships

In 2019, the JR Fund began supporting two land stewardship interns each year at Habitat. These internships provide learning opportunities and hands-on experiences for young people interested in careers in environmental fields. Land stewards receive valuable professional development and training, enabling them to continue performing important work in conservation after their commitment to Habitat has ended. Tasks include trail maintenance, invasive plant identification and control, wildlife and vegetation inventory and monitoring, animal care, and assisting in the management and education of volunteer groups.

Since 2019, the Fund has also provided up to 12 stipends for Belmont and Arlington high school students participating in either the Meadowscaping for Biodiversity or the Biodiversity Builders six-week summer learning programs. Biodiversity Builders includes Cambridge high school students who receive stipends from Cambridge Summer Recreation. Students learn how to

• Build and restore biodiversity in local ecosystems
• Identify and remove invasive plants
• Install native species, design gardens using native plants
• Operate a business where they collectively define mission, vision, and values, and implement a large native plant sales event, and
• Advocate for nature-based solutions to climate change.

Below are several additional projects the JR Fund has supported.

• Remote photographic equipment for a Lexington high school student to capture images of wildlife on local conservation properties. This student then used the equipment to assist a neighborhood advocacy effort to prevent the development of a wooded parcel in Belmont. The student turned this project into a video (bit.ly/BCF-JRFvideo), which won a Slingshot Challenge award from the National Geographic Society.
• Wellington Park and Mill Brook Revitalization Project in Arlington, focusing on benches, invasive plant removal, and the purchase of native plants.
• A three-year grant to the Belmont Public Library for Japanese knotweed removal.
• Contribution to building a canoe and kayak launch at Magazine Beach in Cambridge.
• Interpretive materials for the Magazine Beach Nature Center in Cambridge.
• An engineering plan for the construction of a trail and bridge to extend the Western Greenway to connect with the Wayside Rail Trail in Waltham.
• A grant to Belmont to purchase and install eight benches along the trail at Clay Pit Pond.

The JR Fund continues to fulfill Judy Record’s vision of keeping nature within close reach for all the residents of our region. If you would like to learn more about the Judy Record Conservation Fund, make a donation, or discuss a potential grant for a project, contact me at roger wrubel@msn.com or visit our website at www.massaudubon.org/jrfund.

Roger Wrubel is the executive director of the Judy Record Fund and a Belmont resident.