It is unfortunate that two articles by The Bridge (October 25 and November 8) reporting on the Massachusetts Land Court’s ruling that the public has “right of access” to the use of Estabrook Road, misrepresent and inaccurately report on the court’s ruling regarding the past litigation brought by the town against private landowners as defendants.
The defendants never sought to “block,” “prevent,” or “bar” public access to Estabrook Road (trail).
The public has always had access and has been welcome to use Estabrook Road trail, along with the many abutting trails, many of which pass over Harvard’s land in Estabrook Woods. As others have noted here, the advent of social media falsely promoted that Estabrook Woods was a public off-leash dog walking park. This resulted in a rapid increase in the number of people and pets from well beyond Concord using the trails, with an increasingly negative impact on the wildlife, as well as the creation of significant parking problems.
As a representative of one of the private landowners, I shared the concerns that the other landowners faced. We sought to address the concern by making clear that these were largely private lands that the public was welcome to enjoy, given they adhered to the trail rules (which also included a limit of two dogs per person).
It is most unfortunate that the town has spent over $1.6 million litigating this case, and at a cost to the landowners as well, when those funds could have been used for many other important and more productive purposes.
As one of the defendants, we continue to encourage the public to enjoy Estabrook Road trail and the surrounding woods while abiding by the rules.
Andrew Biewener
Silver Hill Road
Concord Field Station Director, Harvard University
