HVA awards spotlight ‘once-in-a-generation’ land conservation effort anchored in Salisbury

SALISBURY — From the wooded heights of Tom’s Hill, overlooking East Twin Lake, the long view across Salisbury now includes a rare certainty: the nearly 300-acre landscape will remain forever wild — a milestone that reflects years of quiet local organizing, donor support and regional collaboration.

That assurance — and the broader conservation momentum it represents — was at the heart of the Housatonic Valley Association’s (HVA) 2025 environmental awards, presented in mid-December at the organization’s annual meeting and holiday party at The Silo in New Milford.

Salisbury conservation advocate Grant Bogle, who serves as president of the Twin Lakes Association (TLA), was among those honored, recognized for his pivotal role in helping secure Tom’s Hill and the adjacent Miles Mountain as part of a sweeping, multi-state land protection effort.

He was honored with The Louis and Elaine Hecht Follow the Forest Award, named for longtime conservation leaders Lou and Elaine Hecht. The award celebrates individuals who advance a collaborative vision for protecting connected wildlife habitat across the Housatonic Valley and beyond.

“I think it is tremendous for Salisbury and for the watershed,” Bogle said. “There’s a lot more that we are thinking about and able to do now, and it wouldn’t have happened without the Sheffield Land Trust and HVA.”

A ‘once-in-a-generation’ success

The annual award highlighted the work of the Cooper Hill Conservation Alliance, a partnership of eight conservation organizations, a realtor and a local farming family that together conserved more than 1,200 acres in Ashley Falls, Mass., and Salisbury.

“This is a once-in-a-generation environmental success,” said Julia Rogers, HVA’s conservation director, noting that the scale of the project — and the speed with which it came together — depended on trust, persistence and cooperation among many partners.

Kathy Orlando, executive director of the Sheffield Land Trust, was recognized for her leadership

in helping form the alliance and for seeing an opportunity to expand the protection of Massachusetts farmland by including two large, ecologically significant parcels just over the state line in Connecticut.

Orlando was quick to deflect praise.

“This is about all the volunteers and the committees of those eight organizations,” she said. “There is no way that I could have done what I did without these partners. It is really everybody’s time, energy and effort — and their networking — that makes all of this possible.”

Bogle and the Salisbury parcels

Equally essential to the project’s success, HVA leaders said, was the work of Bogle, who helped bring together private donors and shepherd critical land deals in Salisbury at a pivotal moment.

Bogle was honored for his role in securing 560 acres of vulnerable and highly visible properties — Tom’s Hill and Miles Mountain — that anchor the Connecticut side of the Cooper Hill landscape.

Working alongside two groups of private donors, Bogle helped assemble pledges and negotiate purchases while the Salisbury Association Land Trust pursued state, federal and additional private funding.

Tom’s Hill, nearly 300 acres overlooking East Twin Lake, is now permanently protected. Miles Mountain, another key parcel, is slated for conservation ownership in 2026.

For Bogle, the impact goes well beyond individual properties.

“What makes Tom’s Hill and Miles Mountain so important is how visible they are to the community,” Bogle said. “When people look up and know that land is protected — not just for today, but permanently — it changes how you think about Salisbury and its future.”

“I think it is tremendous for the watershed,” he said. “There’s a lot more that we are thinking about and able to do now, and it wouldn’t have happened without the Sheffield Land Trust and HVA.”

HVA Executive Director Tim Abbott said Bogle’s work exemplified the spirit of the Follow the Forest initiative, which seeks to protect a continuous woodland corridor stretching from the Housatonic Valley through eastern New York and north to Vermont and Canada.

“Although HVA is defined by a watershed, we are not limited by it,” Abbott said. “We are also interested in all the organizations we work with who care deeply about helping achieve great, lasting conservation.”

The Follow the Forest collaborative now includes more than 50 organizations working across municipal and state boundaries — an approach that HVA leaders say is increasingly critical as development pressure and climate change reshape the region.

Honoring a lifetime of leadership

Also recognized during the evening was Rebecca Neary, president of the Warren Land Trust and a longtime HVA board member, who received the Charles Downing Lay Environmental Leadership Award.

Named for HVA’s founder, the award honors an individual whose influence on conservation in the region is both broad and enduring.

“It’s a lifetime achievement superhero award,” Abbott said, “and Rebecca Neary, an indomitable champion of community-based and strategic land conservation, embodies that spirit and depth of impact.”

Neary said HVA’s emphasis on collaboration has reshaped how local land trusts approach their work.

“HVA has been instrumental in getting all of us to think more collaboratively with one another because we are in service of the same mission,” she said. “That is HVA’s overarching vision, and what it works diligently with its incredible team to achieve. It’s my great honor to be a part of that organization and to serve this incredible cause.”

An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Lisa Pastore as executive director of the Salisbury Association Land Trust and included a quote attributed to her. Pastore does not hold that role and did not comment on the preservation at Tom’s Hill. John Landon is committee chair of the Salisbury Association Land Trust.