Boy Scouts Say Conservation Restriction On Camp Richard "Unacceptable"

Nearly three weeks after being accused by the Nantucket Land Council of backing out of an agreement to place a conservation restriction on the 100-acre Camp Richard property, the Nantucket Boy Scout leaders have broken their silence.

The Camp Richard Campers Association (CRCA), the organization that controls the campground and includes the island’s Boy Scout leaders, has not been swayed by the Land Council’s public airing of grievances, and has doubled down on its rejection of the potential for a conservation restriction.

“Giving up control of the land is unacceptable to a majority of the CRCA board members,” wrote Chuck Lenhart, who serves as President of the CRCA group, in a three-page written statement. “For the majority of the board members who voted against the CR (conservation restriction) there is a question of trust that has not been satisfied. They are unwilling to give up control to an entity they do not trust.”

Read Lenhart’s full statement by clicking here.

The Boy Scout leaders believe there are adequate protections already in place to protect the campground from development or other intrusions, and that the terms of a conservation restriction would unnecessarily cede some of their control over the property.

“What the CRCA did over the last year in considering the Land Council request for a Conservation Restriction was to search deep into what their job truly was, to preserve the land for future generations of scouts to be used as a camp for scouts and not as an untouchable nature preserve,” Lenhart wrote. “It was not a decision they came to lightly but it was a decision that was consistent with their mandate and the law.”

The dispute between the Land Council and the Boy Scouts over Camp Richard first surfaced on March 23, following the CRCA’s 8-7 vote to reject any further discussion of a conservation restriction on the campground. That prompted the Land Council to go public with its objections, stating that the Boy Scouts “refuse to keep their promise to protect Camp Richard.”

The squabble between the two entities that once forged an alliance to protect Camp Richard has been years in the making.

​​During the protracted legal battle over Camp Richard in the 2010s – when the Cape Cod and Islands Council of the Boy Scouts of America attempted to assert ownership over the campground and sell a portion of it to a developer - the Nantucket Land Council took up the fight on behalf of the Nantucket Boy Scouts and the Nantucket Civic League. The Land Council launched a fundraising campaign and claims to have spent roughly $450,000 on a legal challenge that ultimately ended in victory. A Barnstable Superior Court judge ruled that the Camp Richard Campers Association – made up of Nantucket Boy Scout leaders – was the rightful owner of the campground.

At the outset of the dispute with the Cape Cod and Islands Council, the Nantucket Land Council and the Camp Richard Association recorded a formal option to protect the 100-acre campground through a conservation restriction, with the Land Council offering a financial contribution of $1.5 million to the island scouting group. That formal option, however, was later rescinded by the Barnstable Superior Court Judge Gary Nickerson who ruled that it violated the injunction he had granted at the start of the legal challenge. The Land Council says it then proceeded with its representation in the court case under a “handshake” agreement with the Camp Richard Campers Association, with the understanding that it would enter into a conservation restriction for the campground following the successful conclusion of the case.

But that agreement has now fallen apart, with the two sides trading barbs and the hope for a conservation restriction now fading.

Nantucket Land Council executive director Emily Molden did not return a message seeking comment on Lenhart’s statement from the CRCA.

Camp Richard was given to the island’s Boy Scouts decades ago by the Nantucket Civic League in a series of land transfers beginning in 1955. The gift came with just one string attached: If the campground ever ceased to be used by the Boy Scouts, its ownership would revert back to the Civic League. That reverter clause – which stipulates that the campground must always be used for “scouting purposes” - was at the center of the legal battle with the Cape and Islands Council of the Boy Scouts, and was upheld by Judge Nickerson. With that clause in effect, there is still a mechanism in place to protect Camp Richard from development. But the Land Council remains concerned how “scouting purposes” could be interpreted by future leaders of the Camp Richard Campers Association.

The proposed conservation restriction would continue to allow normal scouting activities on the site - things like hiking trails, primitive campsites, ropes courses, and archery - but would prevent development and other changes to the campground. Molden said when the scout leaders initially balked at the restriction on the entire property, the Land Council offered a similar deal for roughly 60 acres of the property, leaving 40 acres unrestricted. But that offer was also rebuffed.

The discussions over the conservation restriction began as early as 2018 following the conclusion of the court case. They were put on pause for more than a year at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the recent developments finally prompted the Land Council to talk publicly about the situation.