The founders of Sheriff's Meadow Foundation, Henry and Elizabeth Hough, did not in the beginning plan to create such an organization. It was happenstance.

From the north windows of their living room on Pierce Lane in Edgartown, the Houghs looked out on wide fields and a small body of water now called Sheriff's Meadow Pond. In cold winters ice was cut on the pond and stored in a large icehouse. But after electric refrigerators came into wide use, ice no longer was needed, and there were rumors the pond and fields might be developed.

Some years later, Mr. Hough recalled, "I had $7,500 from magazine rights from the Women's Home Companion for a book. It was the only time I ever had $7,500 at one time, so we decided to preserve the ice pond and its surroundings." The Sheriff's Meadow Foundation was born with the Hough's gift of this property. It was formally chartered on April 2, 1959. Today, the Sheriff's Meadow Sanctuary remains at the heart of the Foundation's efforts.

The Hough's borrowed $6,000 and bought additional acreage around the pond. From this small beginning, with the aid and financial support of many friends and interested people came the present-day organization with its properties ranging in size from less than one quarter of an acre to over 200 acres located in all of the Island's towns including 216 acres of pond, moor, woods and shore at Cedar Tree Neck, 26 acres at Roth Woodlands in Chilmark, 9 acres at Brightwood Park in Vineyard Haven, and the 110 acres of Middle Road Sanctuary in Chilmark.

By the 1970s, a building boom was underway and the Island's growth rate had accelerated. Population pressures increased and public use of the properties called for better management. The position of Executive Director was established. Since 1990, Richard W. Johnson has filled that post.

Sheriff's Meadow now employs four year-round and five seasonal staff members. The Foundation's properties represent all the major Vineyard habitats and many of the parcels add to or connect existing conservation land. Self-guided nature walks, visitor centers, new and expanded trails, bike racks and parking areas have been added at a number of the properties.

Cedar Tree Neck, West Tisbury

There have been ecological advances, too. The Foundation is working to control the spread of non-native invasive species, such as Asiatic Bittersweet, Russian Olive, and Japanese Honeysuckle. As a founding member of the Sandplain Restoration Project, it also participates in the cooperative burn program which plays a crucial role in maintaining the globally rare sandplain grassland community. Among other works, the Project published The Flora of Martha's Vineyard, the first compilation of both historical and current records of all the species of plants known to be growing on the Island. Plant inventories have been conducted on over 70 existing or potential conservation lands in the last five years.

Sheriff's Meadow sanctuaries have also been the sites of numerous research projects, both by Foundation staff and other scientists. These studies include an analysis of fossil pollen as a technique for tracking pre-European vegetation changes on the Island, the effect of salt spray on coastal vegetation, and inventories of grassland birds, moths, dragonflies and damselflies.

The Foundation sponsors a Vineyard shorebird protection program, a successful effort to monitor and protect nesting piping plovers and terns. Funding from the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program will allow the Foundation to conduct an intensive survey of nesting northern harriers this year.

Sheriff's Meadow Foundation works closely with other conservation groups, town boards and committees, the Martha's Vineyard Commission, real estate professionals, and numerous other individuals to advance the best conservation interests of the Island.