Opposed to Article 18, Citizen’s Petition

The Harvard Conservation Trust (HCT) manages over 325 acres of land in the Town of Harvard.  As stewards of this land, we have a responsibility to take a holistic and long-term view in caring for our natural heritage.  While passive land management has often been the default approach, it is not always sufficient or responsible.  Managing land well is an adaptive endeavor that requires careful consideration of complex and dynamic natural systems.  For this reason, we endorse maintaining all of the options and tools available, for the long-term.  At the October meeting of HCT’s Stewardship Committee, a recommendation was made to oppose the Citizen’s Petition to ban hunting on Town Conservation land in Harvard as it removes a potentially important management tool from the Conservation Commission’s land management tool box.  The Board of Trustees voted on October 16th to support a recommendation to oppose Article 18 at the October 28th Special Town Meeting.  While the Citizen’s Petition to ban hunting on Town conservation land does not apply to HCT’s land, natural systems function across property boundaries, and limiting the Conservation Commission’s options for managing Town land could result in negative consequences for HCT conservation lands by extension.