Human History of Wildlands: Crystal Spring Preserve

From left: Sister Chris Loughlin, Wildlands President Karen Grey, Wildlands Director of Land Protection Scott MacFaden, and Sister Barbara Harrington.

By Skip Stuck, Key Volunteer

On May 6,1949, Sister Bernardine wrote a letter to Mother Margaret Elizabeth of the religious order of the Dominican Sisters.  It starts: "Dear Mother, I am really much too excited to write... We have just returned from visiting and touring the grounds. Mother, do please come up to see the place. I can't do justice in writing about it, but I'll try." Sister Bernardine was writing about the property we now know as Crystal Spring Preserve in Plainville. Her excitement runs through the nearly three-page letter, in which she praises the property’s beauty and marvels at the opportunity it presents the order to fulfill its educational and spiritual mission. The next day, the property owners, the Toner family, began drawing up the papers to transfer the land to the Dominican Sisters. 

Although the human history of Crystal Spring Preserve certainly does not begin here, perhaps its spiritual history does. 

Plainville: Natural & cultural history 

Grandfather Rock, a glacial erratic boulder at Crystal Spring Preserve. Photo by Rob MacDonald.

The town of Plainville, like all of Southeastern Massachusetts, was covered by ice and snow during the last glaciation that ended about 12,000 years ago. A prominent reminder of this period is a large glacial erratic boulder on the Crystal Spring property known as "Grandfather Rock." The retreating ice revealed land with few glacial deposits aside from moraines and kettle ponds to the south and east, and rather thinner soil and more scraped and exposed bedrock. Nonetheless, the area was soon settled by early Native peoples who followed the ice sheet's northward retreat, hunting and foraging on the newly exposed land. When first noted by Western settlers in the early 1600s, the Plainville area was inhabited by the Wampanoag people but lay close to the home territories of neighboring Narraganset and Nipmuc tribes. 

Near Crystal Spring Preserve is a feature known as the "Angle Tree." European settlement of our region started in the early 1600s with the founding of Plymouth Colony. Shortly thereafter, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded to the north. Despite sharing a homeland, the two colonies remained separate and somewhat culturally distinct for the next century, with the Angle Tree providing an important border landmark. 

Crystal Spring: A spiritual oasis 

Meadow at Crystal Spring Preserve. Photo by Jerry Monkman.

Crystal Spring, named after the dependable and clean local water supply, was farmed for the next 200 years, into the early 20th century. It was known for its lush pastures, feeding cattle, sheep, and horses, but also for its apple, peach, pear, and crabapple orchards comprising over 750 trees. By the 1940s, the property included 84 acres of mixed woodlands and fields. 

In 1949, Sister Bernardine and other Dominican Sisters of Peace saw Crystal Spring as a gateway to a better appreciation of the value of human interaction and spirituality with nature. In 1998, under the leadership of Sister Chris Loughlin, the property was renamed to the Crystal Spring Center for Ecology, Spirituality, and Earth Education. Among other activities, the Center opened an elementary school, provided support to homeschooling programs, established a women's justice center, and operated a summer camp. They built and maintained trails and other outdoor features to illustrate the value of our lives in concert with nature. One of the most impressive is the "Cosmic Walk," a spiral of stones in a trailside forest clearing that traces the history of the universe from its beginning to the present time. (Talk about History!)  

Cosmic Walk stone spiral at Crystal Spring Preserve. Photo by Rob MacDonald.

Along the way, the Center became deeply concerned with wildland preservation—not only relating to their own lands, but to those of religious communities across the nation. Sister Chris was instrumental in the creation of the Religious Lands Conservancy, in partnership with the Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition, which has grown beyond Massachusetts to assist religious communities in New York, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Louisiana in protecting their properties. 

In the early 2000s, concern from Sister Chris, Center board member Kathy McGrath, Sister Barbara Harrington, and others over the future of the Crystal Spring property prompted them to initiate discussions with Wildlands Trust. In 2008, the Center granted a Conservation Restriction (CR) on the remaining 33.5 acres to Wildlands Trust, protecting most of the campus. In 2023, the property was donated outright to Wildlands Trust, creating Crystal Spring Preserve. The Attleboro Land Trust accepted the CR to facilitate this transfer. Enhanced trails, a new kiosk, and improved parking herald the preserve’s public opening ceremony this November. The Trust is committed to ensuring that the sisters' dream and vision will continue in perpetuity. 

Crystal Spring Preserve. Photo by Jerry Monkman.

Learn More 

Please visit wildlandstrust.org/crystal-spring-preserve to learn more about Crystal Spring Preserve, including directions and parking. 

A special thanks to Sister Barbara Harrington, who has been an amazing resource in the development of this history. She provided us with invaluable primary resources related to the history and operation of the Crystal Spring Center, including the May 6, 1949, letter from Sister Bernardine; letters from Crystal Spring summer campers; a teaching pamphlet about the Cosmic Walk; and the Center newsletter, “Streams.” 

A final thanks to the Plainville Historical Society for research support. 

Crystal Spring Preserve is Open!

By Thomas Patti, Communications Coordinator

Crystal Spring Preserve in Plainville.

Crystal Spring Preserve, our first property in Plainville, is officially OPEN! 

Wildlands Trust’s acquisition of this special place came in late 2022 after a 20-year partnership with the land’s previous caretakers, the Crystal Spring Center for Ecology, Spirituality, and Earth Education. Learn more about the preserve’s rich human and natural history at our property webpage here. 

TRAIL MAP AND PROPERTY DESCRIPTION: CLICK HERE 

Crystal Spring Preserve.

Preparing the property for public access took the sustained effort of our extended stewardship team, including staff and faithful volunteers. Between February and May, three volunteer workdays moved the preserve incrementally closer to its current accessible state. Thank you to all the volunteers who came out to help us take this huge step in expanding our regional land conservation portfolio! 

As is the case for many of our properties, “stewardship” at Crystal Spring Preserve goes far beyond clearing trails and removing debris. In addition, we are entrusted with less tangible, though equally critical, resources—a story we hope to carry on, and a vision we strive to sustain. Sister Barbara Harrington, Sister Chris Loughlin, and the entire Crystal Spring Center team saw the property as a place for both children and adults to get in touch with their spiritual connection to nature. Evidence of this philosophy can be found throughout the preserve, as well as in the passionate words of all who engaged with the Crystal Spring Center. Preserving these stories is paramount to our effective stewardship of the land. 

Volunteers at our April workday explore the Meditation Circle, a former education site of the Crystal Spring Center for Ecology, Spirituality, and Earth Education.

“[The Crystal Spring Center] invited Wildlands Trust into a dream,” said Sister Barbara. “It became a mutually enhancing relationship. We then became part of your dream, too. And something new and really quite wonderful has ensued.” (Watch Sister Barbara and Kathy McGrath speak about Crystal Spring Preserve for our 50 Years, 50 People series here.) 

During our April volunteer day, the stewardship team came across several trail signs from the property’s Crystal Spring Center era. After sitting on the forest floor for years, these painted wooden planks and stumps had seen better days. But the care and devotion that had been spent on their production were instantly clear. “Insects have searched for sacred spaces on Earth for 395 million years,” reads one sign adorned with ants, bees, and butterflies. The Wildlands team brought these signs back to our Plymouth headquarters to restore them to their former glory before returning them to the Crystal Spring trails. 

Sister Barbara Harrington (fourth from right) and the Wildlands stewardship team display well-worn trail signs at Crystal Spring Preserve.

This project and others will help us uphold our obligation to holistically preserve the land—trees, ponds, stories, and signs alike. Stay tuned for updates. 

See you on the trails! 

Late Summer Land Acquisitions Update

By Scott MacFaden, Director of Land Protection

Thus far in 2022, we’ve completed a variety of projects across our coverage area that protect a diverse array of habitats and conservation values, including properties on two of the region’s major rivers.

In February, we completed the first two phases of a long-contemplated project that will create our first preserve in Plainville. These first two steps involved adding another two acres to the 33.5-acre Conservation Restriction (CR) we’ve held on lands of the Crystal Spring Center for Ecology, Spirituality, and Earth Education Inc., since 2008, and then assigning the expanded CR to another qualified nonprofit conservation organization—the Attleboro Land Trust. With those steps concluded, the third and final step will transfer the “fee simple,” or outright ownership of the property, from Crystal Spring to Wildlands Trust. We expect that final transfer to occur before year’s end.

A drone's view of Sylvester Field and the Indian Head River in Hanover. Photo by Jerry Monkman.

In June, we acquired five acres in Norwell along the North River that protects important habitat for marsh wrens. Donated by the Estate of Clayton Robinson, the parcel represents the culmination of the Sylvester Field Preservation Project, through which we previously protected 20 contiguous acres along the Third Herring Brook in nearby Hanover.

In late July, we purchased 30 acres on Halfway Pond in Plymouth that was the largest remaining unprotected parcel on the pond’s west shore, and consequently one of our longest-standing preservation priorities. The property includes pockets of Pine Barrens, a globally rare natural community, and directly abuts and expands our Halfway Pond Conservation Area, now over 460 acres in extent and one of the crown jewels of our protected lands portfolio.

Most recently, in the waning days of August we protected 11.7 acres in Lakeville along the upper Nemasket River through the combination of a deed restriction and a two-acre land donation. This hybrid project protects over 900 feet of linear frontage along the Nemasket, a major tributary of the federally designated Wild and Scenic Taunton River.

Morning fog on Halfway Pond in Plymouth. Photo by Jerry Monkman.

We’re working to close more projects by year’s end, including the third and final phase of the Plainville project, and projects in Bridgewater, Scituate, Rockland, and Hanson.   

Watch this space!   

Religious Lands Present a Valuable Opportunity for Conservation in Massachusetts

Read Time: 3 min

By Amy Markarian, Senior Copywriter

Throughout Massachusetts’ history, faith-based organizations have amassed substantial property assets in the state. In global terms, according to the University of Notre Dame’s Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate in 2022, the Catholic Church is the largest non-governmental landowner in the world, with “an estimated 177 million acres” in its worldwide portfolio.* While this staggering statistic is not specific to Massachusetts (and does not take into account the land owned by all other religious entities represented here), it is useful in demonstrating the great potential that exists for the protection of privately-owned religious lands in our region. 

About 20 years ago, Wildlands Trust, working collaboratively with the Massachusetts Religious Lands Conservancy, realized that aging memberships and changing commitments to local religious organizations would someday lead to a significant turnover of lands that these organizations could no longer afford to maintain. Accordingly, we began building relationships with religious entities in our region, with the hope of someday protecting the parcels of land that they owned. Through the years, we discussed visions and plans for these lands with leaders who recognized a moral and spiritual value in protecting the natural environments that had long been a part of their faith communities. These relationships eventually formed the foundation for the permanent protection of several religious properties in Southeastern Massachusetts, earning Wildlands Trust a leadership role in this conservation niche. 

Over the last 15 years, Wildlands Trust’s partnerships with various religious orders have led to the preservation of 6 parcels--in Stoughton, Duxbury, Plainville, Kingston, and Raynham. They range in size from 2 acres to 325 acres, and they are the products of collaborations with several different religious groups, including Catholics, Episcopal Nuns, Thai Buddhists, and others.  

One of Wildlands’ principal partners in this work was Sister Chris Laughlin, a Dominican nun who was instrumental in protecting 37 acres of land in Plainville, owned by the Crystal Springs Center for Spirituality and Ecology. Wildlands’ President and Executive Direct Karen Grey said simply, “Chris was a force—soft-spoken and gracious, but a true force. You could not help but to be inspired when out walking land with Chris.” An 84-year-old nun who walked trails every day, she was a pioneer of the Religious Lands Conservancy, a group established in Massachusetts to protect religious lands. Sister Chris Laughlin died in mid-July 2022, a great loss for all who knew her and for the conservation world. But her death did not come before she was able to ensure the protection of the Crystal Springs Center’s Plainville land, Wildlands’ newest religious land acquisition. With sadness for the loss of a valued friend and partner, we are also eternally grateful for her efforts to build a bridge between religious entities and conservation organizations in Southeastern Massachusetts. 

*https://realestate.nd.edu/research/church-properties

From left: Sister Chris Laughlin, Karen Grey, Scott MacFaden, Sister Barbara Harrington