Panel approves Hill Orchard gleaning license

Conservation · Meeting of August 12, 2026

WESTFORD — The Westford Conservation Commission approved a license letting volunteer gleaners harvest this year's Hill Orchard fruit crop after a professional gleaning group pulled out over tree disease. Agricultural Commission chair Mark O'Laylor told the board the town's delay releasing farming contracts for Hill Orchard and Day Field amounted to "a waste of the land" and a likely lost revenue source, noting resident Amy Ducette had raised the Day Field issue roughly four times since May 27. Boston Area Gleaners found black rot so widespread, after a year without seasonal pest spraying, that it recommended removing diseased fruit entirely rather than letting it drop.

The Westford Community Garden Gleaners license runs through November 1, 7 a.m. to dusk. In a separate unanimous vote, the commission issued a conditional negative determination allowing the Gutierrez Company to demolish the 160,000-square-foot building at 5 Technology Park Drive, the first phase of a project that will eventually add a brewpub and roughly 70 condominium units.

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Source: the Conservation meeting of August 12, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.