Walden Woods Project Looks to Protect 35 Acre Landfill Near Walden Pond

The Walden Woods Project has offered the town of Concord $2.8 million to buy the development rights of a 35-acre former landfill in the woods near , while the town would still own the land. The landfill is capped and is now a grassy field, which the town uses for snow disposal. Now, the town is interested in putting large-scale solar panels on the cleared grassland to generate energy for the municipal light department.

“For the past 22 years, our organization has been conserving 2,680 acres of Walden Woods,” Executive Director of The Walden Woods Project, Kathi Anderson said. “This grass area abuts with reservation land and is visible from Route 2. We want to preserve this. This is the face of Concord.”

The Concord Landfill is across Route 2 from Brister’s Hill, which was going to be turned into an office building back in the late 1980’s, were it not for the efforts of The Walden Woods Project. The landfill field is in close proximity to the site of Thoreau’s Cabin (see photos).  The Walden Woods Project has also given the town of Concord $131,000 to plant trees on the grass area and would like to see that put to use.

Concord’s Solar Study Committee named the landfill property as one of the best places to put a large-scale solar panel installation.

“There is a question of having 5 acres used for solar panels,” Anderson said. “But the biggest questions that kept this issue from going to Town Meeting are how many solar panels, where would they go and also where to relocate the compost on the landfill.” The issue has been shelved and will be addressed at future Town Meetings.  

“The landfill is one of the largest unprotected areas near Walden Woods,” Anderson said. “Whatever we fail to protect there is lost forever.”