Neighbors Donate 8 Acres in Andover and Wilmington to FPC for Permanent Preservation
The Foster's Pond Corporation, through the generous donation by residents in the Willard Circle area, has acquired an 8-acre parcel in Andover and Wilmington to be preserved as publicly-accessible open space.
The parcel provides a gateway to a 225-acre forested
expanse on the shores of Foster's Pond, with a trail system that runs between Route 28 to the east and Willard Circle to the west. To the hiker in search of scenic vistas and a variety of wildlife, the trails form a seamless web.
Andover recently purchased the two lots shown in green on the above map. The 8-acre parcel shown in tan has been donated to the Foster's Pond Corporation to be preserved as open space with public access. Three different entities own portions of the land, but there are no barriers, and visitors are welcome throughout the abutting reservations.
The Boston Foundation owns the largest tract - the 170-acre Goldsmith Woodlands, managed by the Andover Village Improvement Society. The Town of Andover owns another 47 acres, including 5 acres added after the 2010 Town
Meeting appropriated $480,000 to purchase two parcels from developers who were planning to build three houses. Just before Town Meeting voted on that appropriation, the Foster's Pond Improvement Association pledged to donate its 8-acre parcel to the FPC, to be open to the public, if the measure passed. It did, and the FPIA made good on its pledge in June, 2011.
Sign at the entrance to Andover's "Foster's Pond Reservation" off Willard Circle. From a gate on Willard Circle, next to a bank of mailboxes, a logging road affords an easy hike through the FPC's property to the "Foster's Pond Reservation", as the Town of Andover has named its newly-expanded tract.
On Father's Day, 2011, the Andover Conservation
Commission sponsored an "open house" - without the house, since the land is undeveloped - to introduce residents to the Commission's most recent acquisition. The reservation now has two shore-side picnic tables in a grove sheltered by towering white pines.
View of Foster's Pond from Andover's newly acquired conservation land. It was an afternoon of canoeing, kayaking and swimming under cloudless skies.
Both the Andover Conservation Commission and the FPC are working to improve parking and signage in the area.
The FPC's acquisition of this land also affords a potential "bridge" to conservation land inWilmington, whose Town Forest is an easy quarter-mile walk to the west.
The FPC's 8-acre parcel was once owned by Frances Homer Foster (yes, a descendant of that Foster). In the 1940's, he gave it and a lot of other land around the Pond (including the Foster's Pond Dam) to the Foster's Pond Corporation, which in turn transferred land in the Willard Circle area to the FPIA (whose members mostly are drawn from Willard Circle). The return of this land to the FPC will have huge significance for the preservation of the parcel, since the FPC underwent major changes in 2005 and is now a tax-exempt charitable organization dedicated to a Pond-wide mission of environmental protection and land conservation. The 8-acre lot, which has over the decades served as a community garden and a ball field, is now mostly covered by trees.
Foster's Pond, in recent years, has become increasingly accessible to the public. In 2006, the Foster's Pond Corporation established a "pocket park" adjacent to the Foster's Pond Dam, for the first time allowing a convenient spot for visitors to launch a canoe or kayak directly into the Pond without having to trek long distances or trespass on private property. Residents also took the lead in cleaning up Rock Island, which the Town also owns, making it an attractive picnic spot for Pond visitors.
