Katherine Durand
Katherine Durand
| Died | 2018-02-02 |
Katherine Durand, known as Katie, was the Conservation Land Use Assistant of the Billerica Conservation Department from 2014 until her death in 2018, and the Katie Durand Memorial Park on the Concord River at the end of Carter Avenue in South Billerica is named for her. A graduate of Boston University, where she studied environmental science, policy and biology, she chose a career in public service and was hired by the town in April 2014. With the Director of Environmental Affairs, Isabel Tourkantonis, and the senior clerk, Janine Depper-Nash, she staffed the Conservation Commission, which administers the state Wetlands Protection Act and the town's wetlands bylaw, manages the town's conservation land and teaches residents about the town's natural resources.
She died on February 2, 2018, at the age of 28, after an illness. In its report for fiscal 2018 the commission remembered her as "a smart, bright, outgoing young woman with a passion for food, reading, conservation and environmental protection" and "an impassioned advocate for the Conservation Commission." That year the commission and its staff arranged the purchase of 8 Carter Avenue and the riverfront parcel beside it, approved by the spring town meeting of 2018, to restore the floodplain and give the public a way to the river. The town meeting of May 2020 voted Community Preservation funds to plan the Katie Durand Memorial Park there, more were added in 2021, and the town built the park in 2023 and 2024, with a canoe and kayak landing, picnic tables, interpretive signs and a memorial area with a pollinator garden.