Smith College
IN-2: Innovation 2

190- Acres at the MacLeish Field Station in West Whately will be permanently protected. The hilltop forest and farmland owned by Smith College offers a place for students and faculty to conduct environmental research, outdoor education, or to simply enjoy a walk in the woods. The Conservation Restriction that Smith donated to Kestrel Land Trust will ensure that those uses will continue, while protecting wildlife habitat for the future.

The MacLeish Field Station is part of a critical contiguous block of forest identified by the Nature Conservancy as a “resil- ient” landscape: an area that has the potential to support a wide diversity of plants and wildlife as they adapt to climate change in the future. Adjacent lands protected by the Northampton Wa- tershed Department, Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game, Conway State Forest, and Franklin Land Trust create a large block of protected forest totaling over 5,000 acres. For Kestrel, the conservation of the MacLeish Field Station also marks an important milestone for our land trust’s efforts to partner with the Five Colleges to advance land conservation in the Valley. Robert Jonas, Kestrel’s Board Chair said, “Kestrel is honored to be invited by Smith College to become a steward of their land. Together, we can ensure the conservation and stew- ardship of forest habitat, encourage ecologically responsible education and research, and promote sustainable forestry and agriculture.”operated over its first year of occupancy as a net-zero facility, meaning that it generates more energy than it uses and that it draws solely on a renewable water system.