Protecting Special Places
How We Work
As a core component of VCS’s broader mission to protect land, water, and community character, our legal defense work has for decades focused on strategic litigation to defend conservation land from development pressures that would fragment habitats and degrade ecological integrity—most notably in the protracted fight to protect the rare coastal heathlands along Moshup Trail in Aquinnah, where VCS has successfully defended its conservation holdings through multiple trials and appeals, including a favorable decision from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
Case Study: Moshups Trail
Beginning in the 1990s, VCS worked piece-by-piece to facilitate the conservation of nearly 40 acres of the heathland habitat located along Moshup Trail. The Moshup Sanctuary was assembled through donations of land, purchases of critical parcels, and by recording voluntary conservation restrictions on private holdings.
Over the years, our emphasis has shifted to legal defense of these conservation gains. Would-be developers of landlocked lots adjacent to the conserved lands sought to force subdivision access through the conservation lands. VCS and others responded, and we continue our vigorous defense of this special place. Two decades of litigation involving a series of cases in state and federal courts, including the Massachusetts Land Court and Supreme Judicial Court (plus a brief visit to the U.S. Supreme Court), has, more often than not, come out in favor of conservation, strengthening the land’s legal protection.
The seeds of this legal dispute were planted over a century ago. In 1862, the Massachusetts General Court passed an Act Establishing Gay Head as a District, changing the way the state related to the Wampanoags’ ancient communal system of land tenure. Ownership of enclosed lands was recognized, lands held in common were divided, and hundreds of small lots were created and deeded to local Wampanoag people. Since then, many of these so-called “set-off” lots have been conveyed out of tribal hands. Nearly one hundred and fifty years later, some of the lots have been conserved (by the Tribe, the Town, VCS, and other conservation entities), but many others located in the heart of the Moshup heathlands remain vulnerable to development.
We are optimistic that recent indications of closure on the legal defense front mean the need for active litigation is behind us for now. More recently, our legal work has turned toward perfecting title to Moshup parcels gifted to VCS in 2013 by Red Gate Farm LLC.
Much appreciation is due to the donors; their generosity will, once the legal work is done, add significantly to the protected habitat at the Moshup Sanctuary.
Funding for the Moshup Trail Project has been made available through the generosity of many private donors, including the Cedar Tree Neck Foundation, the Scheuer family, the Edey Foundation, the Helm Foundation, the Abraham and Ruth Krieger Foundation, and the Sweet Water Trust, as well as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.
