Since 2000, the Clapboardtree Meadow has been a protected community resource.

Majestic American beech trees, towering oaks, and flowing tall grasses distinguish this 29 acre-property. The grasses continue into the open expanse known as Clapboardtree Meadow and provide an important nesting area for Bobolink. Several brooks flow through the rear of the property and continue into 23 acres of abutting land at 795 Clapboardtree Street, also owned by the Town and protected by Westwood Land Trust.

Preservation of this property was made possible when the property was purchased by Ellen and Duncan McFarland in 1999. They placed it under conservation with the Westwood Land Trust the following year. Without the McFarlands’ intervention, the land would have been developed into a 68-unit townhouse complex. The McFarlands generously donated the meadow to the Town of Westwood. A private family lives in the home.

In 2025, the Town of Westwood filed a lawsuit seeking to force Westwood Land Trust to allow an agricultural use on the meadow at 665 Clapboardtree Street that would destroy the view scape and natural meadow. This land is permanently protected by a conservation easement that Westwood Land Trust is charged with enforcing. Although the land was given to the Town of Westwood by private donors, the Town’s use of the land is subject to the conservation easement that the donors placed on the property. This lawsuit threatens to undermine the land trust’s mission to protect open space and natural resources, such as the Clapboardtree Meadow at issue in the suit.