Lloyd Woods Protected

The Lloyd Center for the Environment recently announced the achievement of its long-sought goal to protect the 27-acre parcel of land which lies directly across the road from its headquarters and spectacular nature preserve overlooking the scenic Slocum River estuary in South Dartmouth.

Affectionately dubbed “Lloyd Woods” by the Center’s staff and bounded by Little River and Potomska Road, the recently acquired property was the unrestricted gift to the Center from its founder, the late Karen Lloyd and was one of the last pieces of unprotected land in the “necklace” that surrounds Dartmouth’s fragile Little River estuary.

In return for a $500,000 North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Lloyd Center is conveying a conservation restriction on the land, adjudged to be worth at least $1.6 million, jointly to the Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust and the Buzzards Bay Coalition, thus permanently conserving the 27-acre property in its entirety.

“I am enormously gratified that the Center’s board of directors has unanimously elected to conserve this fragile piece of Little River shoreline property”, said Lloyd Center Board Chair Robert “Brodie” MacGregor, “We are grateful to our colleagues at the DNRT who have given unselfishly of their time to help the Center achieve this important conservation goal and to those at the Coalition whose expertise and hard work were critically important to the securing of the NAWCA grant”.

“The Buzzards Bay Coalition is incredibly proud to have partnered with the Lloyd Center and DNRT to help make this conservation plan a success,” said Bay Coalition President Mark Rasmussen, “We are excited to have received this grant from NAWCA and to be able to apply it to conserving such an important property on the Little River estuary. We applaud the Lloyd Center for their vision to secure permanent protection for this land and thank the DNRT for their leadership in conserving this property and so many of Dartmouth’s treasures.” 

Lloyd Center Executive Director, D’Arcy MacMahon, expressed his thanks to members of the Town’s Select Board, and to the Center’s Potomska Road neighbors in particular, for their encouragement in bringing this project to a successful conclusion. “I am especially grateful to Lloyd Center board vice-chairs George Nelson and Mary Mandeville for their having managed to meet extraordinarily tight deadlines in order to preserve the Center’s NAWCA grant eligibility”, MacMahon said, “and to Lloyd Center directors Kathryn Duff and Richard Rheaume for their perseverance and diligence in hammering out the final details of this critically important conservation restriction”.

The NAWCA Standard Grants Program supports public-private partnerships collaborating projects in the United States which involve long-term protection, restoration, and/or enhancement of wetlands and associated uplands habitats for the benefit of wetlands-associated migratory birds and other wildlife. By conveying this particular conservation restriction to its partners at the DNRT and the Bay Coalition, the Lloyd Center will be permanently protecting 27 acres of valuable coastal wetlands and adjacent buffering uplands.

“This was a great partnership that came together to protect one of the last unprotected parcels on Little River,” said DNRT Executive Director Dexter Mead. “DNRT is especially pleased that the public will be able to enjoy exploring this beautiful property.” Guided by all relevant national and regional bird conservation plans, the project will add to 840 acres of existing adjacent protected lands, including 5.7 miles of protected shoreline and 318 acres of wetland and will have significant benefits to a variety of important natural resources, including waterfowl, waterbirds, shorebirds, other migratory birds, fish, shellfish and other wildlife species.