Photo Caption: Hingham Land Conservation Trust President Katharine Reardon, center, presents gifts to HLCT’s founding trustees Sally Goodrich, left, and Will Ertman at a recent party celebrating the Trust’s 40th anniversary. PHOTO/CAROL BRITTON MEYER

Author: Carol Britton Meyer; cmeyer@wickedlocal.com

A garden party to celebrate the Hingham Land Conservation Trust’s 40th anniversary drew a large crowd. Monique and Philip Lehner hosted the gathering on the grounds of their elegant South Pleasant Street home on a beautiful, sunny day following a rainy spell.  HLCT founding donors and trustees, former and current trustees and officers, and other supporters socialized against a backdrop of lush green fields and exquisite gardens, with flute music in the background.  The event doubled as the HLCT’s 2012 Annual Meeting. President Katharine Reardon presented gifts to founding trustees Sally Goodrich and Will Ertman and also to Lehner for hosting the gathering and for her contributions over the years as a long-serving board member.  The Trust’s 40th-year goals focus on visibility and outreach. Part of that effort is designing and permitting signs for its properties that will be visible from the street. Trust members have also visited various Hingham organizations with its open space map and slide show highlighting Hingham’s natural treasures.  The Trust also offers a program of guided walks. Recent ones include Whitney Thayer Woods; the Marchesiani Farmlands off Main Street; Foundry Pond; the Hingham Town Forest; Black Pond Nature Preserve in Norwell; the Plymouth River Nature Trail; Glastonbury Abbey; Wompatuck Park; and Jacob’s Meadow.  In addition, the Trust manages the conservation restrictions on seven properties acquired with Community Preservation Act funds. These include a 3.3-acre property on Rockland Street adjacent to the Weir River; a 4.1-acre field and 5.43 acres of wet-lands on the Cushing property off East Street; 2.4 acres behind 730 Main St.; 17.5 acres behind the Union Street driving range; 5.83 acres on Leavitt Street next to the Wompatuck State Park gate; a 6.46-acre salt marsh on Nokomis Road; and 3 acres on Scotland Street.

Past annual meetings have included presentations on such varied topics as: birding and natural history on the Shore Shore; Hingham’s water supply; the Boston Harbor Islands; climate change; Holly Hill Farm in Cohasset; and the role of nature in teaching students in a digital age.

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Record Number: 59e9a043c705cda4ad3be2fe2ba28012