Forestland protected in Charlestown, Richmond

THE NATURE CONSERVANCY SAID 271 acres of forestland along the Pawcatuck River in Charlestown and Richmond have been permanently protected. / COURTESY THE NATURE CONSERVANCY
THE NATURE CONSERVANCY SAID 271 acres of forestland along the Pawcatuck River in Charlestown and Richmond have been permanently protected. / COURTESY THE NATURE CONSERVANCY

CHARLESTOWN – A total of 271 acres of forestland along the Pawcatuck River in Charlestown and Richmond has been permanently protected, according to The Nature Conservancy.
The land, off King’s Factory Road, abuts the conservancy’s 841-acre Francis Carter Preserve, and marks its largest acquisition since 2007, when it helped establish the Grills Preserve and Wildlife Sanctuary in Hopkinton.

The conservancy purchased the new 271-acre property for $271,000 from the General Electric Co., with funding from The Champlin Foundations.

The acquisition protects nearly a mile of the Pawcatuck River and creates a 1,112-acre conservation area open to the public for recreational activities.

“Securing the fields and forest next to the Carter Preserve has been one of the conservancy’s highest land protection priorities for over a decade,” Terry Sullivan, director of The Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island, said in a statement. “It is a special place in terms of its biodiversity and it is one of the largest and most beautiful protected areas in South County. We are so thrilled to be able to keep it intact.”

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The conservancy will reclaim several historic cart paths on the property to extend the Carter Preserve’s hiking trail system, which now stands at 5.5 miles. Next season, the property will be open to bowhunting for deer as part of a cooperative agreement with the state Department of Environmental Management.

The Carter Preserve provides habitat for nearly one-third of Rhode Island’s bird species of greatest conservation need, as determined by DEM.

Starting in May, the conservancy will expand 35 acres of grassland on the preserve by clearing poor quality pines and removing invasive, non-native shrubs, such as autumn olive and multiflora rose. The project will restore at least 20 acres of field and shrub habitat, with benefits for American kestrels, grasshopper sparrows, prairie warblers and more than a dozen other birds.

From 1964 to 1980, the property contained an industrial facility operated by the United Nuclear Corporation. State and federal officials supervised the environmental remediation of the site, and in 2011, concluded that no further cleanup action was necessary.

Approximately 3,000 feet of chain link fencing will be removed that surrounded the former facility.

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