LITTLE COMPTON — For her “in the trenches” land preservation efforts, Little Compton resident Sheila Mackintosh has been honored by the RI Land Trust Council with the 2016 Peter Merritt Award. 

This award recognizes dedicated individuals who are making an outstanding contribution to land conservation in their Rhode Island communities, said council member Carol Lynn Trocki.

“In 2016, the RI Land Trust Council board was faced with the delightful dilemma of choosing from among a number of very worthy candidates,” Ms. Trocki said.  “In my mind, it is Sheila’s steady commitment and quiet dedication to land conservation in Little Compton and elsewhere, in addition to her long and varied service with Sakonnet Preservation Association (SPA), that make her so deserving of this honor.”

In her nomination letter, SPA President Abigail Brooks wrote “Sheila has ably served this organization’s board for 16 years in a wide variety of roles—as board secretary, vice-president, property stewardship monitor and chair of the board’s Land Protection Committee.  Sheila’s commitment to conservation — locally in Little Compton, at the state level through working with the RI Land Trust Council, personally in the Adirondacks shepherding a complicated project conserving islands on a lake where her family has spent summertime for generations, and at the national level assisting with the initiation of workshops for volunteer organizations and supporting the efforts of the Land Trust Alliance—has been long term, well-considered and consistently effective.

Sheila Mackintosh joins a distinguished group of Peter Merritt award recipients, including Larry Anderson and Heather Steers, both former SPA board presidents.

The mission of the Sakonnet Preservation Association (SPA) and its all-volunteer board of directors involves conserving and stewarding Little Compton’s natural landscapes and resources. This work has resulted in the permanent preservation of over 60 properties totaling over 400 acres of Little Compton land.