Wheeler Holly Preserve Campaign
Barnstable Land Trust is getting close to the finish line of the nearly $2 Million Wheeler Holly Preserve Campaign. Now we need your help!
Barnstable Land Trust has an agreement to purchase the nearly 10-acre Wheeler family property at 150 and 178 Wheeler Road in Marstons Mills.
This presents a remarkable opportunity to expand the conservation land and trail access from Fuller Farm, protect endangered species in Middle Pond, and provide housing for Barnstable Land Trust staff or property caretakers.
The Wheeler homestead in Marstons Mills is the last undeveloped property on Wheeler Road and holds a rich history that spans generations. The thickly wooded property has 600 feet of frontage on Middle Pond, one of Barnstable’s Great Ponds.
Rachel Jones
Will you make a donation to protect this property forever? Your impact will be doubled thanks to a generous matching opportunity.
With only $75,000 left to raise to secure the property, a generous donor has come forward, pledging to donate half of the amount needed if we can raise the other half by the end of May.
Conservation Value
As the Wheeler property shares a 600-foot boundary with Fuller Farm, purchase of the property will expand the natural area extending from Fuller Farm to Danforth Recreation Area on Race Lane, which itself connects to the Cape Cod Airfield and the West Barnstable Conservation Area.
The Wheeler parcel is thickly wooded with pitch pine, white pine, white and black oak, American holly and American beech, and an understory of black huckleberry, blueberry, wintergreen, field grasses and wild sarsaparilla.
Deer, fox, raccoon, turkey, songbirds, and coyote all shelter and feed in the woods.
One of the first 21st century bald eagle nests on Cape Cod is located at the head of Mystic Lake, about a half-mile west from the Wheeler parcel, owing to the rich fish/food resources of the area.
Link to Wildlife Corridor
Doug Lyons
The Wheeler property has almost 600 feet of frontage on Middle Pond, the spawning ground for Barnstable’s most prolific anadromous fish run (alewives and blueback herring) coming up through the Marstons Mills River from Nantucket Sound.
The cove protected by Fuller Farm and the Wheeler land is called Turtle Cove, after the resident painted turtles, and is itself a major spawning area.
Preserving this property from becoming a 4-lot housing development allows us to ensure the protection of the endangered species (freshwater mussels and aquatic plants) that make their home on the shoreline of Middle Pond.
Further, it prevents the addition of nutrients to Middle Pond that would be allowed by new septic systems if developed into housing.
Water & Endangered Species Protection
Michael Brokenshire
Vision
Trail Connection
Our vision includes a loop trail accessible to the public from parking at Fuller Farm. The trail would navigate woodland, bog, and field on Fuller Farm and provide a view of Middle Pond from a bench in the Wheeler woods.
Provide Housing for Staff/Caretaker
Barnstable Land Trust intends to maintain the house and rent it to staff who can serve as property caretakers in return for below-market rent.
Rachel Jones
Maintain Historic Hollies
The property has a rich history and BLT intends to steward the land to protect its thriving and historic holly trees.
Wilfrid Wheeler Jr. (known as Boysie), an arborist long associated with Bartlett Tree Experts, purchased the almost ten acres of undeveloped land after the Hurricane of 1938, calling the property Windrift. Boysie and his wife Dorothy planted trees and perennials around a simple Cape cottage.
Prominent among the trees brought to Windrift were varieties of the American Holly, Ilex opaca, cultivated by Boysie’s father, Wilfrid Wheeler Sr. A farmer and esteemed horticulturalist, Wilfrid Sr. sought to preserve this native tree, which he collected and propagated at his Ashumet Farm in Falmouth.
At Windrift, the family faithfully tended the hollies with the help of Bartlett Tree. Led by Boysie’s son Richard, the Wheelers have sold Cape Cod American Holly to retailers in Massachusetts and New York during the winter holidays for the past 30 years.
BLT’s purchase of the property will forever protect this historic holly legacy.
Your Support is Needed
The success of this conservation effort is contingent upon the generous support of our Community.
The Barnstable Land Trust will close in June 2024 on the property at 150 and 178 Wheeler Road in Marstons Mills. By contributing to the Wheeler Holly Preserve Campaign, you can make a lasting difference.
Will you help us preserve this property forever?
How to Contribute
Gifts may be made by cash, credit card, appreciated securities, or planned gifts. All gifts are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Please contact Janet Milkman at 508-771-2585 x101 or janet@blt.org for details.
Rachel Jones