To the editor:

On Saturday, Oct. 10, the Bristol Land Conservation Trust held its 40th Anniversary Celebration at the Audubon Nature Center and Aquarium. My husband Andrew MacKeith and I had the privilege of being guests of Board Member Raymond Payson and his wife Marcia Blount. 40 years of work to benefit Bristol is an accomplishment worthy of celebration.

I was presented with the Alfred J. Shepherd Award for Outstanding Achievement in Conservation, along with co-honorees Matt "Twigg" Largess, Jay Maciel, and Raymond Payson. Each of us was taken by surprise. I was stunned to find myself among such distinguished company!

Thank you to the Nominating Committee and Board for this distinct and outstanding honor.  

I also give credit to my parents, Dudley and Janice Williams, who instilled in me a love of nature and an appreciation of open space. They worked hard to keep our end of Bristol open through land acquisition.  In 1994, they donated the first Conservation Easement (CE) ever registered in Bristol to the Audubon Society of RI to preserve wildlife habitat on over 20 acres which we still own and use privately. In 2021, I continued their example, when we needed to raise funds to pay taxes due on my mother's estate, by selling CEs on 20 more acres to the Town of Bristol, in partnership with USDA and RI DEM. These CEs preserve the agricultural value of the land, while we continue to own and use it privately. 

When the Executor of my mother's estate wanted to sell 11 acres (for development) to raise the needed funds to pay the estate taxes, I asked if I could try to raise those funds through the sale of CEs.  Fortunately, I was successful: it was the best of all worlds since the required funds for the estate taxes were raised, the estate tax total owed was significantly reduced, and we still own and use the land remaining in its unchanged condition. The land can be seen and appreciated by anyone driving by on Metacom or Griswold Avenues, or from Mount Hope Bay.

And since it is referendum season, I thank our local voters: none of the funding would have been possible without voter approval for Green Economy Bonds (in 2026: Question 5 at $55 million) which keeps a pipeline of funding available for agriculture and habitat protection from Federal, State, and Local levels, and are consistently approved by wide margins of 60-75% in RI.

I am truly humbled to receive this recognition for just doing what I was taught.

Shawen Williams
Bristol