Those who frequent the Mattapoisett Bike Rail may have noticed a new stone monument placed near the wooded wetlands where the bike path crosses Brandt Island Road.
The new marker was placed at the site last week to mark the seven acres donated by Jeanette Mello of Mattapoisett who inherited the parcel from her parents, Captain Jack and Bridgette Murray.
Mello donated the conservation land to the Mattapoisett Land Trust back in December 2011, and the monument is now being placed to honor the Murrays and raise awareness of the MLT’s acquisition of the land.
During a January 23 phone interview, Mattapoisett Land Trust President Gary Johnson said there had not been funds for the stone monument until recently, after years of saving funding for the marker.
Johnson said that although there is no public access to the site, the location of Murray Preserve alongside the bike path abuts hundreds of acres of land in the Nasketucket Bay area protected by the Buzzards Bay Coalition.
“The Mattapoisett Land Trust would not usually accept an isolated seven-acre parcel of land like this one,” said Johnson. “But knowing a larger conservation project [with the BBC] was in the works, we accepted the conservation land in an area that is important, especially along the bike path.”
Johnson said because the land is too wet to traverse and there aren’t any hiking trails, the stone monument will serve to make the public aware of properties acquired and protected by the Mattapoisett Land Trust.
For more information about the Mattapoisett Land Trust and its properties, visit www.mattlandtrust.org.
By Jean Perry
