Please join us for a focused Annual Meeting on your Wellfleet Conservation Trust. Due to pandemic concerns, we have not been able to meet in person since our August 2019 Annual Meeting, but we have some statutory requirements, so we hope you can join us via Zoom. There will be a brief review of recent activities, a video presentation of our new Herring River Overlook site, and election of Trustees for terms ending in 2023 and 2024.
We miss meeting in person but plan for a regular, in-person annual meeting in the summer of 2022.
The Wellfleet Conservation Trust (WCT) just held its 34th Annual Meeting.
Ms. Heather McElroy, the Natural Resources/Land Protection Specialist for the Cape Cod Commission, delivered the keynote address. She described work of the Commission, with a special focus on the Commission’s work in Wellfleet.
Mary Rogers, with delicious refreshments
In a presentation entitled, “Planning to Keep Wellfleet Special,” Ms. McElroy helped the audience understand the challenge for the Commission, first in terms of Cape geography, with its 560 miles of coastline, 15 towns, and a population of 216,000, which more than doubles in the summer, and a single freshwater aquifer. The Commission’s mission, “…to protect the unique values and quality of life on Cape Cod by balancing environmental protection and economic progress,” proceeds in a context of sea level rise and changing climate.
WCT President Denny O’Connell
She then described the various strategies that the Commission uses to address these challenges, including helping to develop adaptation strategies and providing decision support tools. In Wellfleet, the Commission has worked on affordable housing and historical preservation. In addition there are Cape-wide projects, such as the Outer Cape Bike Plan. As an example, see “Buy Fresh, Buy Local,” an award-winning story map.
There was a lively Q/A session, in which the audience asked about the Commission’s work in detail, discussed political resources and constraints, and explored the relationship of the Commission to other organizations, such as the WCT.
The Annual Meeting began at 9:30 AM, with coffee and a spread of delicious pastries. It was called to order at 10:00 AM. During the business meeting, President Denny O’Connell presented an historical overview of the group’s actions and achievements. A key point was that the all-volunteer Trust now has 385 acres in Wellfleet under its protection. There was also a Treasurer’s report, an invitation to the upcoming Annual Walk, the election of new Trustees, and a tribute to the late Don Palladino.
Annual Meetings are open to the public; no reservation needed.
Mr. Peter Trull, Cape Cod Naturalist, author and educator, delivered the keynote address, based on his recent book entitled The Gray Curtain – The Impact of Seals, Sharks and Commercial Fishing along the Northeast Coast, at the Wellfleet Conservation Trust (WCT) Annual Meeting and Review at the Wellfleet Council on Aging.
Mr. Trull showed, through discussion and vivid photographs, the relationship between commercial fishing, expanding gray seal populations and great white sharks along the beaches and in the waters of Cape Cod. This “Gray Curtain” has come about after geologic and environmental changes, as well as animal migrations and population increases. Each has had an effect on the location and, though daily and seasonal changes are accepted as normal, there are great transformations taking place that may go unnoticed, some, unexplained.
“Mr. Trull’s presentation is of current interest, in light of the public’s adoration of seals, the recreational and commercial fishers’ frustrations with the seals and the growing public awareness of increases in great white shark sightings in Wellfleet and other parts of the Cape,” says WCT President Dennis O’Connell.
The WCT Annual Meeting began at 10:00 AM at the Wellfleet Council on Aging, 715 Old King’s Hwy in Wellfleet. Annual Meetings are open to the public; no reservation needed. Light refreshments are provided. Prior to Mr. Trull’s presentation, the Trust held its short annual business meeting and presented a historical overview of the group’s actions and achievements.
The Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts bestowed the 2007 Award for Excellence in Open Space Preservation to Robert Hankey, a resident of Wellfleet and one of the original founders of the Wellfleet Conservation Trust.
Robert’s fame in conservation circles is well known. He served as President of the Wellfleet Conservation Trust from 1990 to 2003. Under his guidance the WCT grew from a fledging non-profit to a major force for conservation in the Town. He led the successful initiative to designate Wellfleet Harbor as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern, and his strong partnership with the Town Open Space Committee led to many of the Town’s conservation purchases. His personal contacts with local private landowners led to dozens of land gifts to WCT and he has strongly supported and worked on behalf of regional cooperation on land conservation.
For over 30 years, Robert and his wife Eleanor Stefani have operated The Colony of Wellfleet, a retreat of cottages nestled on the slopes off Chequessett Neck Road designed by famed architect Nathaniel Saltonstall.
Wellfleet Conservation Trust 
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