Webster – Janeway
Tyler Road
477 acres of fields, forestland, and stream frontage
No public access
June 2020
The Janeway Conservation Area has many attributes that make it a conservation priority. The Blackwater River, one of the “Five Rivers,” flows along ¾ of a mile of the Conservation Area’s southern boundary. Rich Cook, Five Rivers Project Manager for the project says, “For paddlers, this part of the river feels like wilderness.”
The property represents an extraordinary gift by Harold and Betsy Janeway of their home and 477 acres of land in Webster and Hopkinton to Five Rivers Conservation Trust.
On the north side of the property lies 1¼ miles of frontage on Deer Meadow Brook and its associated wetlands, an important water filtration system that slows frequent heavy rains.
Included in the Conservation Area are hayfields managed by Bohanan Farm, producing Contoocook Creamery milk products locally and pastureland used by the Drown Farm’s heifers each summer. Combined with hundreds of acres of forestland and frontage on Chase Pond, the Conservation Area is a haven for wildlife – songbirds and hawks, foxes and bears, salamanders, snakes and fish all use the habitat provided by these 477 acres.
The donation of the Janeway Conservation Area ushers in a new era for Five Rivers, conserving land by ownership in addition to its use of the conservation easement as a conservation tool. This is the third and by far, the largest property where Five Rivers will own and manage conserved land. The others are the Sweatt Preserve in Hopkinton and the Armstrong Forest Preserve in Concord. The Janeways’ remarkable gift is the largest property conserved by Five Rivers Conservation Trust.
