West Suburban Conservation Council

Formed in 2009, the West Suburban Conservation Council (WSCC) is a regional consortium of local land trusts, conservation commissions, agencies, and individual landowners working together on land conservation and stewardship.  The WSCC is based in Metrowest Boston, including 36 towns within the Sudbury, Assabet and Concord River watershed; however, neighboring towns are welcome to participate.  
Council members work collaboratively on land management (stewardship) and land protection to achieve regional conservation success.  The Council promotes sustainable forestry and agriculture, biodiversity protection, and local economies.  The Council recognizes the need to integrate people with the environment through education, extension and outreach in order to achieve our conservation goals.
The Council’s work is issue or project-driven.  Cooperation between conservation organizations within our region provides not only technical support on overlapping projects, but also gives political clout to regional efforts.  The Council has defined five project initiatives that would benefit from regional collaboration.  They are:
Stewardship
  • Sustainable Forestry
  • Deer Management
  • Open field Management (including wetlands and agricultural lands)
  • Land Protection
  • Conservation Restriction Aggregation
  • Protecting Agricultural Lands
In the last year, the deer management issue has gained momentum.  The Council is concerned about the detrimental impacts on habitat by deer over browsing and the spread of Lyme disease.  We hosted two public forums and several towns have been moving forward with instituting regulated hunting on selected conservation lands.  Deer management must be orchestrated at the regional level in order to be effective.
Several meetings have been held to identify appropriate areas for land protection aggregation projects.  Organizations involved in this initiative include Harvard Conservation Trust, Boxborough Conservation Trust, Littleton Conservation Trust, Nashua River Watershed Association, and New England Forestry Foundation.
The group is coordinated by Sudbury Valley Trustees.  Audra Valaitis, Americorp Land Steward at Sudbury Valley Trustees is the current Council Coordinator.  To join the council or to learn more please contact Audra at avalaitis@svtweb.org.