Thank You!

What do Michigan, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island all have in common? People from each of these states care about protecting Rehoboth’s remaining wild and open spaces!

That’s right – we heard from so many amazing people during our year-end campaign, including some who don’t even live here anymore! Our small town’s natural beauty is just that special. THANK YOU so much to everyone who participated in our campaign, and added thanks to those local businesses around town that let us post our campaign flyers. As an all-volunteer nonprofit organization, we are profoundly inspired and honored by your trust and support. We will continue to do our best to fulfill our mission of preserving our town’s natural character and resources.

Thanks to a generous gift from Cardi’s Furniture & Mattresses, we were able to offer participants in our year-end campaign a chance to win a gift card redeemable at Cardi’s, Ashley HomeStore, or RI Design Center. The RLT Treasurer was happy to hand deliver the gift card to the lucky winner’s home on Pond Street a few days before Christmas.

Many of you were shocked by the statistics we included in our campaign letter. We were equally surprised by these numbers, which is why we wanted to share them with you. Here are some more details regarding those stats:

• We’ve lost nearly 15% of our town’s wild and open spaces since 2011.
  • According to property assessment data from the state, in 2011 there were 1,447 parcels in Rehoboth that were undeveloped (building assessed value = $0).
  •  As of April 2023, the assessment data shows only 1,260 undeveloped parcels, which is a decrease of 13.8%.
•  Similarly sized towns in MA protect an average of 25% of their land. Rehoboth only has 7% protected.

• • The state also provided us with a super helpful document with lots of stats for each town in Massachusetts, including how much land is permanently protected
  • Of the 7% in Rehoboth that is protected, more than a third of that is owned or managed by Rehoboth Land Trust.

Town - Overall Acreage - Population (2020) - % of Land Protected
Rehoboth - 30,344.96 - 12,502 - 7%
Carver - 25,422.36 - 11,645 - 12%
Ware - 25,585.23 - 10,066 - 30%
Charlton - 28,024.84 - 13,315 - 8%
Winchendon - 28,231.10 - 10,364 - 29%
Nantucket - 31,303.18 - 14,255 - 49%
Westport - 33,350.76 - 16,339 - 20%
Belchertown - 35,376.60 - 15,350 - 22

• We’re ranked 332nd out of 353 in the state for percent of land protected.

• • We sorted that same document by percent of land protected, and unfortunately we’re way too close to the bottom…
  • By the way, New Salem tops the list with 81% protected

While it would be easy to be discouraged by these disappointing numbers, we at RLT are energized and eager to improve them. We are also immensely grateful to all who have come before us. The 7% of our town that is permanently saved is the result of a lot of hard work and thoughtful planning by our friends and neighbors. Thank you for doing your part to preserve our town’s natural beauty for generations to come.

If you’d like to help get Rehoboth pushed up in the state rankings, check out our website at www.rehobothlandtrust.org to learn about volunteer opportunities, donation options, and ways to protect your own land!