Concord Pollinator Committee Unanimously Approves Letter Backing Peter Spring Field Preservation

CARLISLE — June 15, 2026 — Concord's Pollinator Health Advisory Committee voted unanimously to send a preservation letter for Peter Spring Field to the town's Land Use Working Group, the Select Board, and the Agriculture Committee. The vote came Monday after members spent most of their hour-long Zoom session rewriting a draft letter to sharpen its focus on pollinator-specific concerns — pesticide-free foraging habitat, protected nesting areas, and the reproductive life cycle of native bees. Former chair Mark Gailuts told the committee the Land Use Working Group has refused to remove the field from its candidate list for a new public works facility despite a high-profile March 13 public meeting, saying the group "are not taking it off the list." Member Emily argued the committee's strongest contribution was specificity: "That's what our mandate is." Isabel, who committed to sending the letter as a PDF the following morning, was given contact names Shannon McAndrew for the Land Use Working Group and Kristen Reichman for the Select Board; the group also discussed submitting the letter to the Concord Bridge newspaper before the Land Use Working Group's June 16 meeting.