D.W. Field Park Initiative Awarded State MVP Grant

D.W Field Park in Brockton and Avon.

By Sam Butcher, D.W. Field Park Initiative Project Coordinator

On October 9, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll and Undersecretary of Decarbonization and Resilience Katherine Antos announced the award of nearly $30 million in Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) grants. Nearly $860,000 of these funds were awarded to the City of Brockton to promote climate resilience at D.W. Field Park. The award represents a significant step forward for the D.W. Field Park Initiative, which Wildlands Trust has led since 2022. Work under this grant will advance recommendations of the D.W. Field Park Master Plan, which Wildlands authored in 2024 in partnership with many stakeholders, including the City.   

Rachel Bruce, Wildlands’ Chief of Staff and a lead author of the plan, is pleased with the progress. “The Master Plan generated a long list of improvement projects, requiring a lot of time, effort and money,” she said. “We’re grateful to the MVP program for funding the first major project since the plan’s release last year and look forward to continuing to work with the City of Brockton and our Initiative partners.”  

D.W. Field Park, owned by the City of Brockton, spans over 700 acres and includes seven ponds and six miles of multiuse trails. It provides access to nature for over 200,000 residents. Projects outlined in the Master Plan range from redesigning the roadway to increasing accessibility for all residents. Projects will lead to safer roadways, greater recreation and trail access, and improved environmental conditions. Specifically, this MVP grant will fund the redesign of D.W. Field Parkway, which circumnavigates the park, with nature-based solutions to stormwater management. As climate change brings more frequent and intense storms to the park, increased stormwater runoff poses a risk to the health of the park’s ponds and lakes. Work will include land surveying, permitting, and construction-ready design plans.

Existing infrastructure empties stormwater from D.W. Field Parkway directly into open water bodies in the park.

“This is a big step forward for the Initiative,” Rachel Bruce added. “The Parkway is integral to both the user experience and environmental health of the park, and we have the opportunity to create a design that serves both needs. The community has repeatedly told us to fix the road, so that’s what we’re doing first.” 

This award marks the second MVP grant for the D.W. Field Park Initiative. In 2023, the Town of Avon earned $1.5 million to purchase Fieldstone Preserve, 30 woodland acres adjacent to D.W. Field Park. New trails at Fieldstone Preserve will be introduced later this fall.

Read the press release from the Healey-Driscoll Administration here. Learn more about the D.W. Field Park Initiative and sign up for email updates here.

Kingston Dam to be Removed Using State-Awarded Funds

By Amy Markarian, Senior Copywriter

KINGSTON– On July 28, Wildlands Trust received a $729,000 state grant to remove the Sylvia Place Pond dam in Kingston, MA. The award will allow the conservation group to improve public safety in the area and to restore fish passage by conducting a breach of this significant hazard, poor-condition dam.

Governor Charlie Baker announced the 2021 Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Dam and Seawall Program grant recipients from Gloucester’s Haskell Pond Dam on Wednesday. 28 grantees, including the conservation group and 27 cities and towns across Massachusetts, will receive more than $17 million to help repair failing dams, seawalls, and levees. Since the grant program’s inception in 2013, more than $95 million have been provided to address the state’s aging structures.

Wildlands Trust’s Executive Director, Karen Grey, says, “We have to be concerned with how severe storm activity is taking a toll on aging infrastructure. With this funding we can now eliminate the growing public safety issues to residents living downstream of this dam.”

Sylvia Place Pond is nearly surrounded by Wildlands Trust’s 27-acre Stewart/Person Preserve, in Kingston. The Sylvia Place Pond Dam has outlived its usefulness as an historic impoundment for mill power and ice harvesting. It is part of a series of interconnected manmade ponds that were originally constructed to supply power to nearby mills. There is a herring ladder at the north end of the pond that allows fish to complete their annual trek upstream for spawning in nearby Russell Pond. The area is also home to such wildlife as red fox, otter, mink, deer, osprey, and great blue heron.

Wildlands Trust is a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving land and preserving the natural heritage of Southeastern Massachusetts. The organization works to permanently protect and steward important habitats and landscapes, including woodlands and fields, ponds, coastal areas, agricultural lands, and river systems. Founded in 1973, Wildlands Trust has worked to protect nearly 13,000 acres of open space in 48 Massachusetts towns.