The Carlisle Conservation Foundation (CCF) and its sister organization the Carlisle Land Trust (CLT) have been a unifying force this year. With the collaboration, help and support of many individuals, other organizations, and town officials, we have made some great things happen in town. The highlights are:

• Wang Coombs Cornfields - an extraordinary coalition permanently protected most of the 44 acres of farmland on either side of Curve Street near the Cranberry Bog;
• Poole Swamp Acquisition - the “bargain sale” of Poole Swamp, thanks to the generosity of its owners, adds 14.5 acres to the 225 acres owned and maintained by CCF and provides an important link between the town-acquired Rockstrom conservation parcel and Woodridge Road near Estabrook Woods;
• O’Rourke Farm - we now have a green corridor stretching 2 miles long and half a mile wide from Billerica to Bedford Road, thanks to the successful transfer of 129 acres of the O’Rourke Farm on Maple Street to the Great Meadows Wildlife Refuge;
• Erickson Project - CCF is facilitating the bargain sale of 8.5 acres to Great Brook State Park, linking the park areas on the north and south side of Lowell Road;
• Amazing Volunteers -- hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of volunteer time were donated to make these efforts possible.

Our role has been varied and demanding for all these projects. But in every case, the key to our success is board members and other dedicated individuals who donate their significant professional and personal skills coupled with strategic use of CCF’s financial resources. As you will see from the enclosed articles, we have used our limited funds very carefully in order to leverage the biggest return. The greater our resources, the more we can do to protect the land and the memories we all cherish in Carlisle.

You can help CCF continue to make great things happen in Carlisle by contributing to our annual appeal for support. Like us, you probably receive many frndraising appeals every week. This one, however, is not the usual direct mail piece from some facel ess individual pitching a distant cause. We are your neighbors working to protect our hometown - the trails you may walk or ride on, the fields you drive by every day, the woods your children or grandchildren may explore.

How will we, as citizens of the 20th century be judged by those who follow us? Will they say we have “held local soil and local memory in place?” Will their children exclaim at the sound of a bluebird’s song and thrill at the sight of a rabbit in a meadow? Now is the time to work together to preserve these treasures for future generations. Review first hand the accomplishments described in last year's newsletter. Please join with me in this effort and make a generous tax deductible contribution to CCF. Thank you.

Sincerely,