Daily Archives: March 26, 2022

Agassiz Rock Renamed The Monoliths

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The Trustees of Reservations has renamed Agassiz Rock “The Monoliths” due to Louis Agassiz’s racist teachings being incompatible with The Trustees’ mission of inclusion.

The Trustees’ mission is to protect and share Massachusetts’ iconic places for the simple reason that nature and culture soothes the soul and improves the lives of everyone, not just some of us. While that mission never changes, The Trustees is always seeking to learn and grow to find new ways to live up to it.

It is with this commitment in mind that The Trustees announced its Agassiz Rock property in Manchester-by-the-Sea has been renamed “The Monoliths”—a nod to the site’s two massive, granite boulders. The change comes after more than a year of reflection and deliberation regarding the complex legacy of Louis Agassiz, the 19th century biologist who published works that proposed that non-white human groups are inherently inferior.

After 65 years with the same name, people will want to know why The Trustees’ changed it now and what it hopes to accomplish.

There is no doubt that Agassiz’s theories about the rocks dotting New England’s landscape being shaped and deposited by glaciers and not the biblical flood that floated Noah’s Ark, as believed at the time, were groundbreaking. However, Agassiz also vehemently promoted the theory of polygenism—the view that humans of varying skin color are of different origins and non-white races are inherently inferior—to a degree that was considered extreme even for his time.

After receiving several letters from people in the community who questioned the appropriateness of honoring Agassiz despite his work that denied the humanity of African enslaved people, The Trustees embarked on a journey to research Agassiz the man and Agassiz the property, and to determine how tributes like this one align with its overall mission of inclusivity across its portfolio of 123 properties.

After creating an internal review process and speaking to internal and external stakeholders as well as staff and local historians, The Trustees decided to change the name—the first time that’s happened in its 130-year history. The name change is official on the website, trail maps, and the main sign on-site. In time, interpretive signage will be installed on the property that puts Agassiz’s scientific contributions in perspective while explaining why the name was ultimately changed. The goal is not an erasure of history; it’s a chronicling of change and taking an opportunity to learn and grow.

Save Crane Ledge Woods

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For decades, a 24-acre forest, known locally as Crane Ledge Woods (CLW) and designated as an urban wild, has been inaccessible and mostly unknown to the surrounding neighborhoods of southwest Boston – Hyde Park, Roslindale and Mattapan. Now a multinational property company intends to construct 10 buildings containing 270 rental units, 415 parking spaces and several roads on this land. From a beautiful green space of crucial wildlife habitats – shady forest, flower-filled meadows, rocky alcoves and vernal pools – the proposed project would turn Crane Ledge Woods into an immense urban heat island of impervious asphalt and concrete. This ecological devastation would rob our local wildlife of their homes.

Crane Ledge Woods gets its name from Crane Ledge – a rock cliff offering a stunning view looking southwest across Hyde Park and the Stony Brook Valley far below. A forest of mature native trees and diverse plant life surround the towering granite cliff, preserving an inspiring sense of wilderness and keeping the area cool on hot days.

The view across the valley gives visitors a rare sense of Hyde Park as it existed more than a century ago, when Crane Ledge was a site for weekend picnics known as Pine Garden. BPDA has defined CLW as one of Boston’s “Urban Wilds & Natural Areas”. Although the property is not under the protection of Parks & Recreation Department, the city has identified this land as a key opportunity to make progress on its own climate resilience, environmental justice and open space equity goals. Crane Ledge Woods is more than half the size of Chinatown – one of Boston’s hottest neighborhoods in the summer due to tree loss and over-development. There is not enough plantable space in the entire neighborhood to replace the trees that would be lost due to the project proposed for Crane Ledge Woods, and none of those trees would reach maturity in most of our lifetimes.

For complete details of the proposed project, and information on The Crane Ledge Woods Coalition, visit https://www.savecraneledgewoods.org/