History of the Hopkinton Area Land Trust

The Hopkinton Area Land Trust was founded in 1995 by a group of six people at Dave Goldman’s kitchen table, as a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and preserving open space in Hopkinton and surrounding towns. It began only with a vision to protect open space, meet the requests of the townspeople for more recreational areas, and maintain the quality of life in Hopkinton. For the first 15 years the Land Trust was managed by a small board of directors consisting of six to nine people who worked to acquire and maintain open space in the town. Since that time, the Land Trust has preserved 700 acres of land containing four miles of trails. Despite our success, we must continue to work diligently to create and maintain open space for future generations.

The Land Trust was established in response to the many growth issues facing our rural town and surrounding areas. We seek to give landowners a conservation option when they are making decisions about the use of their land. Our growing community is facing the many pressures associated expansion and growth and to keep the balance we see the need to preserve open land and natural resources in order to keep the rural character that makes Hopkinton so attractive to us. As a charitable organization, the Land Trust can assume leadership in wise land management and flexibility in dealing with the specific desires of land donors.