Mary P. Wakeman, a woman who has devoted herself to the cause of conserva­tion on Martha’s Vineyard, was the guest of honor Saturday when Island conserva­tionists gathered at Cranberry Acres to celebrate her 82nd birthday and to start a fund-raising campaign for the Mary P. Wakeman Conservation Center.

 

Six Island conservation organizations have joined forces to build a $500,000 conservation center on a lot donated by the Vineyard Open Land Foundation in the subdivision off Lambert’s Cove Road in Vineyard Haven.

 

With the recording of an agreement and declaration of trust last week, the Vineyard Open Land Foundation, first proposed in the Gazette of April 17, became a reality.

 

The agreement and declaration were signed by 12 original trustees: Jerome B. Wiesner, Mary P. Wakeman, Anne P. Hale, Herbert E. Tucker Jr., Robert E. Simon Jr., Edward J. Logue, Hans F. Loeser, William M. Honey, Henry Beetle Hough, Kevin Lynch, James F. Alley and Joseph G. Kraetzer. The eventual board will number not more than 21.

 

George M. Moffett Jr., widely known as a yachtsman and conservationist, signed an agreement last week by which Felix Neck, more than 200 beautiful acres of widely varying terrain extending into Sengekontacket Pond, will be conveyed to the Massachusetts Audubon Society as a wildlife sanctuary. Part of the acreage is transferred immediately, and the balance will be leased to the Audubon Society until the gift is completed.

 

In a friendly but eloquent mixture of encouragement, advice and warning to the whole Island, Secretary of the Interior Steward L. Udall formally dedicated the colorful clay cliffs of Gay Head as a National Landmark on Saturday afternoon.

 

Letters have gone out to a number of Vineyarders seeking support for a new organization devoted to preserving the natural splendors of the Island. The organization is a committee of the Natural Area Council Inc., and its letter is self-explanatory:

 

“An organization is in process of formation under the name, Friends of the Island. Its purpose is to preserve the natural beauty of Martha’s Vineyard. If it is to accomplish its goal it will need the support and cooperation of all segments of the Vineyard community.

 

The Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation figures this year for the first time in the list of tax-exempted property in the town of Edgartown. The property so designated is the old ice pond known for generations as Sheriff’s Meadow Pond, and the land immediately around it, now assured of preservation for all time in its present native state.