Twin Lakes conservation: Keenan explains his plans and reasons for causeway

Editor’s note: Over the next several weeks, this topic will be presented in installments aimed at providing equal and unbiased coverage on all sides of the issue. 

This week’s article focuses on landowner Jeffrey Keenan’s stewardship of and vision for property which he owns on Twin Lakes that is under a conservation restriction with The Nature Conservancy in Connecticut.

SALISBURY — Looking westward from his property on tranquil Lake Washinee in the Twin Lakes section of Salisbury, Jeffrey Keenan has a direct view of, and a vision for, a century-old railroad causeway which protrudes from Taconic Road well into the West Lake.

Keenan purchased the 20-acre parcel containing the abandoned structure about four years ago and is the successor in title to the land, which was placed under a Conservation Restriction Agreement in 1990 by the late Mary Alice White, a staunch Salisbury conservationist. Keenan has since transferred ownership of the property to an LLC of which he is the managing member.

In a phone interview on Dec. 9, the landowner explained that he and neighbors with homes on Salisbury’s Twin Lakes believe that the old railroad causeway is a “man-made disaster” and is detrimental to the West Lake by disturbing its natural flow.

 “That was my sole purpose for buying the property,” said Keenan, who noted that the causeway is causing problems similar to what prompted communities in the northern part of the country to remove dams on the Columbia River. His goal, he said, is to do what he can to help the lake, and its ecosystem, thrive.

Keenan said that a conservation easement on the land allows for modifications and he believes that White contemplated possible amendments when she signed the agreement three decades ago.  “She left an explicit provision to permit appropriate changes in use,” said Keenan.

He referred to paragraph 8 of the Conservation Restriction: “Prior to undertaking any changes in the use of the property the Grantor [in this case, Keenan] shall consult with the Grantee [The Nature Conservancy] regarding the proposed changes to determine the effect …on the property.” The agreement further states that the Conservancy, as grantee, “shall have the right to approve such changes in use, such approval not to be unreasonably withheld.”

“Dr. White clearly contemplated that circumstances could change in the future and she included a provision in the Conservation Restriction agreement that would enable The Nature Conservancy to approve a change in use — in my case, removal of the causeway, if the change was consistent with the natural values being protected in the agreement,” said Keenan.

A controversy over interpretation

In recent weeks Keenan has found himself at the center of controversy. A group of petitioners, headed by John Harney Jr. (whose parents, Elyse Harney and the late John Harney Sr., were friends with White), fear that an amendment to the easement would erode White’s intent to protect the site in its natural state, in perpetuity.

Also, the Salisbury Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission recently issued Keenan a Cease and Correct order for “cutting and removal of vegetation in the upland review area along the railroad causeway without the benefit of permits.” A show cause hearing on Dec. 7 was tabled to Jan. 4, to allow Keenan to participate.

 “I think what we have here is a diagnosis of premature objectionitis,” said Keenan, who expressed disappointment that his project and intentions have been prematurely and unfairly judged.

Keenan is no stranger to conservation easements. “I owned property on Nantucket for 40 years, and gave quite a bit of land to UMass.” He acknowledged that the easement expressly prohibits removal of the causeway without prior approval of The Nature Conservancy as grantee under the agreement. “I am bound by the agreement, I respect it, and I fully understood it before I purchased the land,” he said.

Responding to the town’s Cease and Correct order, Keenan said he was legally maintaining the property by removing only dead ash trees from the property, some of which had blocked access to the causeway; mowing grass; and weed-whacking. He also hauled away “big trash containers” of old, rotted railroad ties, broken fence posts, bottles, beer cans and other debris.

“I have every right to make sure I can drive out to the causeway” and the gazebo at its far end, he said. “Everything I have done to maintain the causeway is clearly permitted under the terms of the conservation restriction and under all laws and regulations. The Inland Wetlands Commission is a good group of people. I am absolutely confident we will have a civil and polite dialogue over this,” at the hearing next month.

Conservancy is ‘aware’ of project

According to Keenan, his causeway proposal is at a very preliminary stage. Although he has been in contact with representatives from The Nature Conservancy, he said he has not sought approval, nor has he applied for permits. 

“I have been talking to The Nature Conservancy for a long time,” and representatives have visited the site, said Keenan. He said that preliminary feedback from the conservation agency is expected before the end of this year. 

According to Sarah Pellegrino, Land Protection and Strategies Manager with The Nature Conservancy in Connecticut, her agency “has a responsibility to monitor its conservation easements and we have recently been on site and met with the landowner’s representative. If the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission determines there has been violation of town regulations, we are available to be of assistance as needed.”

Again, the Inland Wetlands concerns do not relate to possible removal of the causeway; they only relate to the possibility that the clearing on the causeway was done without the required permits.

Pellegrino said the Conservancy is also aware that Keenan “is considering a project on this property, but we have not received a formal request from him to which to respond. Without that,” said Pellegrino, “it is too early for us to evaluate our position or offer additional comment. That said, we look forward to talking with the landowner in due course and are happy to cooperate with the community and listen to local concerns at the appropriate time.”  

In August, Keenan retained well-known conservationist, Timothy Abbott, in his capacity as a private consultant, and in no way connected with his position at the Housatonic Valley Association, to facilitate discussions with The Nature Conservancy as holder of the easement granted by White. Those talks, said Keenan, are currently underway. 

At HVA, Abbott is Regional Land Conservation and Greenprint Director. He is passionate about land conservation and has spearheaded the Greenprint project, which maps out protected lands in the region. 

Abbott was also a longtime Lakeville Journal columnist, writing the Nature’s Notebook column.

“I told Mr. Keenan at the outset that if I felt that the proposal would harm the ecology of the lake or compromise the conservation values of the easement, I will have to disassociate,” Abbott said in an interview last week.

Keenan said he has also hired multiple consultants to produce reports on the ecological and biological impact of removing a portion of the causeway, and is willing to share that information with town and regulatory officials. 

At one point, said Keenan, he had offered to make a charitable donation to the Salisbury Land Trust of approximately 12 acres of land that are under the conservation easement, contingent on that organization’s support for the causeway project. “They said, ‘We’d love to have the land but it’s not in our DNA to agree to reduce the amount of land subject to an easement,’” said Keenan.

Keenan said he and his consultant have also met with representatives of the Twin Lakes Association, which he described as “wildly open-minded and direct. A pleasure to deal with. We are not asking for their approval. We are just asking them to continue to stay apprised of our work and to withhold judgment …and to give everybody a chance to present their findings.” 

The Salisbury community, he noted, “is sadly divided between people who live on the lake and those that do not.” 

‘One big idea on the table’

Washining and Washinee Lakes and their associated wetland habitats are beloved places with a complex biology, said Abbott. “It is right and appropriate to ask what can be done to improve their health and address conditions that are causing them stress. That is a big question and requires the best science and data and creative ideas that we collectively can bring to bear,” he said.

Keenan, said Abbott, “has put one big idea on the table that deserves consideration, but neither he nor I nor anyone else knows yet whether that would be a helpful remedy and what other affects it might have.  That is precisely why it won’t be allowed to go forward without thoroughly testing that hypothesis, without satisfying The Nature Conservancy, without complying with the permanent protections afforded by the conservation easement, without complete regulatory review at every applicable level from local to federal, and without strong support from the community.

“This is a process that will take years,” Abbott explained, “and it begins with TNC, but it does not end there. I believe it is worth considering and that is why I agreed to help. I hope that provides a level of reassurance for people who care deeply, as I do, about conservation and about the conservation easement that protects this property.”

Keenan has invited community leaders and petitioning residents to tour the property and to engage in an “open, honest, direct, polite and respectful dialogue,” either at the site or remotely. The landowner said if, in the end, he is unable to garner community support and regulatory approvals for removal of the causeway, “I will simply drop the project and move on.”

 “If anything good comes from all of this,” said Keenan, it will be that it forced people “to realize how bad the situation is on this lake.”