Dear Friends,

We are blessed to live in a small town that retains much of its rural character. The priority given to preserving our open space is seen in every quarter of town –- Towle Field, Foss Farm, Davis Corridor, Spencer Brook Reservation, Estabrook Woods, Hutchins and Robbins Fields. Recently a visitor from Boston and I made the short walk from my house to Estabrook Trail, entering 1000 acres of protected woodlands, rock outcroppings and ponds. With our dogs scampering ahead and uninterrupted vistas of fall foliage around us, my friend exclaimed, “We have nothing like this where I live.”

Preserving Carlisle’s community character and our way of life have long been priorities we share. Conserving open space is one component, but preservation of the town we cherish entails a lot more:

• Supporting responsible forest management and keeping fields open.
• Ensuring we can walk and ride safely around our town on roadside paths and woodland trails.
• Providing active and passive recreational opportunities for all ages with ball fields and playgrounds but also easy access to open spaces for walking, jogging, birding, nature study and exploring.
• Defending rurality by encouraging active agriculture, organic farming and recycling (mulch piles) and by minimizing restrictions on domestic animals.
• Encouraging native plant life and animal life, one of the mandates of the CCF charter, specifically: “To study and disseminate information on conserving plant and animal life in its natural habitat for public benefit.”

CCF is committed to being a positive force in preserving and enhancing Carlisle’s rural character. Sometimes we take a leadership role; for example, expanding the Estabrook Woods, facilitating land donations and conservation restrictions and funding invasive plant species control by sheep grazing. Often we work with town boards as we did in preserving the O’Rourke Farm and WangCoombs cornfields, now named Hutchins and Robbins. CCF will continue to be a partner with Carlisle’s recreation, conservation, historical and housing groups through its support of the Community Preservation Act and the creative use of these funds.

Most of all we want to work with you, our members, in achieving a variety of conservation goals and in maintaining Carlisle as a rural community outside both metro and suburban restrictions and viewpoints. Let us hear from you. We value your advice in shaping our priorities.

Like past newsletters this one chronicles CCF activities, which your contributions have made possible. Without your support there could be no sheep grazing project, no assistance for conservation restrictions and land transfers, no maintenance of our protected lands or funding for land purchases. Please help CCF make great things happen in Carlisle by contributing to our Annual Appeal.

Now is the time to work together to preserve for future generations all that we value so dearly in Carlisle -- a quiet walk in the woods, the sound of a bluebird’s song, the beauty of a rolling meadow edged by a centuries-old stone wall. Please join me in this effort and make a generous tax deductible contribution to CCF. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Arthur N. Milliken, President

PS CCF is run entirely by volunteers, fellow Carlisleans, so every dollar you contribute, $30, $100, $1000 or more, goes directly into the Foundation’s