Harvard residents Priscilla Endicott and Erhart Muller have written conservation restrictions on their properties to the Harvard Conservation Trust, ensuring that these parcels of land will be permanently unavailable for development.

Harvard Conservation Trustee Dennis Delaney made the announcement at the Nov. 6 meeting of the Board of Selectmen, explaining that the conservation restrictions put a permanent deed restriction on each of the properties. While the land remains in private ownership and may be resold, it can never be subdivided or developed. It will be up to the Harvard Conservation Trust to monitor and inspect the land, making sure that the terms of the restrictions are being followed.

Erhart Muller is a longtime resident of Harvard and advocate of conservation. He was the first chairman of the Harvard Conservation Commission when it was established back in the early 1960s and was a founding trustee of the Harvard Conservation Trust. Muller has placed conservation restrictions on his Shaker Road property, a nearly seven-acre parcel of land in the historic Shaker Village district.

Priscilla Endicott is currently an associate trustee of the Harvard Conservation Trust and is active in maintaining and promoting Harvard’s walking trails. She has placed conservation restrictions on her 30-acre Littleton County Road property, ensuring that it will not be subdivided. The restrictions do allow for continued equestrian use of the property.

Selectman Lucy Wallace hailed the announcement as good news, thanking both Muller and Endicott for their generous gifts and noting that both properties are “extremely visible properties” and “very vulnerable to development.” Emeritus Trustee Larry Finnegan agreed, commending both donors for their commitment to the town.