Southboro Open Land Foundation

people looking over meadow at sunset

History of Wildlife Conservation and Recovery in Massachusetts

Published on May 10, 2014 by Eileen Samberg

The 2014 Annual Meeting of SOLF  featured a presentation  by Dr. Thomas French from  Massachusetts Fish and Widlife on the History of  Wildlife Conservation  and Recovery in Massachusetts. In this presentation, Dr. French discussed the overabundance of wildlife encountered by our earliest settlers to the subsequent endangerment of many  species because of the loss of woodlands due to land clearing for farming and over hunting in the 18th and 19th centuries. He also discussed recent and projected changes to the suburban wildlife of our region, including the increased sightings of bear and moose. Dr. French has graciously shared his presentation with us and you can download it here as a pdf file (7.3 mb).