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Rounseville Land Acquisition:

Landmark Deal Protects Drinking Water for Several Bay Towns

The Mattapoisett River cascades along the rocks of the Rounseville property. (Photo, Tim Sylvia)

In April, 2005, the Coalition and a host of partners completed a landmark conservation effort that protects over 400 acres of aquifer lands in the Mattapoisett River Valley.  The second phase of the multi-year, multi-agency undertaking was completed with the acquisition of a conservation restriction on the 164-acre Rounseville Homestead in Rochester.

This pristine, forested property lies along the Mattapoisett River and filters drinking water used by residents of Fairhaven, Marion, Mattapoisett, and Rochester. It is estimated that the protection of the Rounseville Homestead parcel, combined with the 257 acres of Rounseville lands preserved in Phase I of the project, will result in a 64 percent increase in aquifer protection in the Mattapoisett River Valley.

“For us, this has been a regionally important project,” said Coalition Executive Director Mark Rasmussen.  “Twenty-seven thousand people drink the water that flows through the Rounseville land every day.  That brought together an incredible conservation effort where four towns each voted funds at their Annual Town Meetings for a project that was entirely in one town.”

The Rounseville family has been exceptional stewards of their 2,500 acres of woodlands since their ancestor Alden Rounseville, Jr. returned home from the California gold rush to take over his father’s timber farm and sawmill business back in the 1850s.  The sawmill business provided a living for five generations of Rounsevilles before the last board was sawn in 1962. 

Led by the late Lincoln Rounseville and his sister, Ann Poland, the Rounseville family was determined to save the remaining tracts of open space on their property and continue the land protection their mother had begun in the early 1990s. “Through the years my family went without an awful lot so that they could pay the taxes and keep the land,” Poland said. “It was very, very important to them.”

Lincoln Rounseville and his children (L-R): Lori Rounseville, Pat Marshall, Lisa Holden, Brian Rounseville, and Linda Rounseville

“My dad, aunt, and grandparents all felt the same way,” added Lisa Holden, Lincoln Rounseville’s daughter.  “They knew you needed money to get by, but how much was really the question.  They always felt the preservation of the land was more important than money.  Once land is developed, no amount of money is going to turn it back into the open space it once was.”

So the Rounseville family, together with the Coalition and the Rochester Land Trust, carefully crafted a road map of development alternatives that would bring value to the family while honoring their legacy and protecting the majority of their historic landholdings.  In Phase I of the project, completed in 2003, the Coalition brought together an extraordinary array of conservation partners (including three towns, two state agencies, and two private conservation groups) to protect 257 acres of Rounseville lands in Rochester and Mattapoisett. The deal was named the Mattapoisett River Valley Aquifer Project and protected pine and oak forests, wetlands, vernal pools, and meadows near several municipal drinking water supply wellheads. 

Phase II of the project aimed to forever protect the family’s crown jewel, the Rounseville Homestead. The Coalition again played a key role in bringing a suite of conservation partners, including the Wildlands Trust of Southeastern Massachusetts and the Town of Rochester Conservation Commission, and the Towns of Fairhaven, Mattapoisett, Rochester, and Marion, together to partner on the acquisition of the conservation restriction. This was obtained last April through a generous bargain sale from the heirs of Lincoln Rounseville, Ann Poland, and Rounseville’s niece, Judith Dupont. “We didn’t save the land to get rich,” said Poland.  “We saved the land because we wanted to see it protected. The land was more important than anything else.”

Nearly half of the funds needed to purchase the conservation restriction for the Rounseville Homestead property were from municipal governments, the rest was from private individuals and foundations. The Coalition and the Rochester Land Trust managed private fund raising for the project as part of the Saving Buzzards Bay Lands Campaign.

As she looks back on the years of hard work it took to close the deal on the preservation on her family’s land, Holden is thankful to the Coalition for their part in making it a reality. “Landowners today are in a terrible position,” she says.  “Many just want to live out their years on their homestead and enjoy their property. But, the taxes that need to be paid on property and the pressure to develop are a huge burden.  The Coalition for Buzzards Bay is the only place I can think of that gives landowners the opportunity to make money off their land but also to preserve it, by connecting them with the proper organizations that can accomplish that goal. It's a win-win situation, as my dad would say!”

The Rounseville family is proud of the legacy their land protection efforts have left for the Town of Rochester. “Everybody in Rochester is very happy and very relieved about what was done,” said Poland. “So you got to feel good about that.” Holden adds, “Our family has always loved the town of Rochester and this is our way of keeping it looking like the town of Rochester.  Things change at a rapid pace today, but when you’re out in those woods for a few hours you forget about that and feel like things aren't quite so chaotic for a while.  You’re in a place that's not going to change.”