Pepperell Conservation Commission Opens Orchard to Falconers, Advances State Land Transfer

PEPPERELL — February 5, 2019 — Pepperell Conservation Commission grants falconers access to Heald Street Orchard and backs a $4,000 state land deal. The commission voted unanimously February 5 to allow two state- and federally-licensed falconers, identified only as Arthur and Andrew, to use the Heald Street Orchard on Heald Street after they appeared before the board with a second-year red-tailed hawk and explained that the posted sign restricting the area to bow hunting technically excluded their federally regulated sport. In separate action, the commission voted to support in principle a $4,000 transfer of a four-acre parcel along Uncanny Brook to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, a deal the state's Northeast District land agent described as a key access link to two landlocked Dunstable Rural Land Trust parcels totaling roughly 65 acres — though a title defect from an unrecorded donation deed around the year 2000 must first be resolved by Town Counsel. The commission also voted unanimously to remove a longstanding restriction that had limited shotgun deer hunting to Pepperell Springs conservation land, bringing its written regulations into alignment with what the town website already shows: all properties open to hunting except Kyes Parker Conservation Area and Nisotisit Meadows, with the Heald Street Orchard limited to archery and now falconry.