Waltham Citizen Organizes Petition To Save Waltham Fields Farm

WALTHAM, MA — The fate of Waltham's last farm is still in the balance, and some community members are hoping the way to save Waltham Fields Community Farm is a potential deal in the works between the city and UMass.

Someone named "Waltham Citizen," started a change.org petition with the goal of sending a strong message to UMass and the City of Waltham that people support a deal.

"My heart aches every time I see more open space and trees destroyed for yet another condo building, parking lot, or mall. We just can't continue to destroy our natural resources and assume our planet will survive it," said Rebecca Strauss in a post about why she signed it.

Since June, when University of Massachusetts, the farm's landlord, announced its intention to close the farm's administrative office space at the end of the year, there's been a sense of uncertainty about the future of the farm.

Waltham Fields Community Farm is one of the last working farms in the greater Boston area and one that has at within its mission to help others.

Farm employees and volunteers have advocated for anyone who loves the farm to share their concern with Waltham's City Council, the mayor as well as State Rep. John Lawn and Sen. Mike Barrett.

UMass offered two options to the farm: move its field station main office to rent space on the (newly acquired) Mount Ida campus in Newton by the end of 2019 or close up shop, Waltham City Councilor George Darcy told Patch earlier.

Neither of those options were exactly ideal.

"The tenants of the farm--and the city councillors who have created a resolution to support them--need a clear mandate from us that their efforts to get UMass and the City of Waltham to do the right thing, are supported," reads the petition.

In 48 hours, more than 1,000 people signed the petition to save Waltham's farms, gardens, and field station. Less than a week in and more than 4,000 people had joined in the petition.

From the petition:

We, the undersigned citizens of the City of Waltham, along with citizens of surrounding towns and cities of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, encourage the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to conduct a speedy, transparent, public process with our elected officials, to ensure that the historic Cornelia Warren lands in north Waltham commonly known at the UMass Field Station, are in their entirety:

• transferred to ownership, custody, and control of the City of Waltham

• at no cost to our taxpayers

• for perpetual use as a farm and open space

• as enumerated in the resolution put forward by Councillors George Darcy, Sharline Nabulime, and John McLaughlin

• as described in the deed restriction as per the original wishes of the Cornelia Warren estate.

RELATED:

• Could Waltham Fields Community Farm Be Saved?
• Waltham Fields Community Farms Future In Question
• Waltham Fields Farm Tomato Theft

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Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch Staff