Green Team Gives Gift to Local Environment

In Wildlands Trust’s third summer hosting Green Team, the program nearly triples in size and capacity, cultivating the next generation of environmental leaders.

With the summer of 2017 came the third consecutive Green Team program at Wildlands Trust. Each summer, we select teens from across Southeastern Massachusetts for this labor-intensive, career exploration internship that exposes them to conservation related work happening in the region. With a four part focus on land stewardship, agriculture, wildlife conservation, and water quality, staff at Wildlands Trust take the team to cut new trails, track wildlife, test water quality, help with farm work, and more at Wildlands properties and in partnership with other local organizations. 

This year marked the first year of expanding the Green Team to include middle school aged students as well as high school aged with the addition of “Green Team 1”, a one-week volunteer program for ages 12 – 14. The two-week “Green Team 2” internship was reserved for ages 15 – 18, involving more intensive field work, longer days, and an overnight campout.

The 2017 Green Team program involve a total of 17 students from our local communities! In previous summers Green Team had six and then seven students involved. The addition of a middle school age group, offering a shuttle from Brockton High School, promotion with Healthy Plymouth, and word of mouth all seemed to contribute to the growth and success of this program in 2017.

This year’s crews were led by Rachel Calderara, Program Coordinator, and Maura Coughlin, Education and Stewardship Assistant. Rachel helped to start the Green Team program in 2015 as a MassLIFT AmeriCorps member at Wildlands Trust, and now takes the lead on planning and executing the program as a full time staff member. Maura, a student at Simmons College, was a Green Team crewmember in 2016 and now helps to plan and execute the Green Team and other educational programs, as well as help steward properties as a seasonal employee.

We would like to congratulate the students on a job very well done this summer! Our hope is that exposure to environmental learning and volunteerism will promote responsible land use and inspire the next generation of leaders to protect our natural resources. Thank you to our sponsors at Rockland Trust and The Dorr Foundation for making these programs possible year after year, to Union Point for their generous sponsorship, and to all of the individuals and organizations that hosted the crew this July! We're already looking forward to next year!

Green Team 1:

Day One: Trail cutting at Pickerel Pond Preserve and Emery Preserve, Plymouth

Day Two: Trail work and tour of New England Wildlife Center, Weymouth

Day Three: Organic farming at Bay End Farm, Bourne

Green Team 2:

Day One: Bench building in the Wildlands workshop and Geocaching at Emery Preserve, Plymouth

Day Two: Water quality testing and birding with Herring Ponds Watershed Association, Plymouth

Day Three: Trail building at Union Point, Weymouth

Day Four: Blanding’s turtle tracking using radio telemetry with Mass Wildlife, West Bridgewater

Day Five: Garlic harvesting at Bay End Farm, Bourne

Day Five, pm: Team campout at Old Field Preserve, Bourne. 

Day Six: Campout cleanup and organic farming at Bay End Farm/Old Field Preserve, Bourne

Dragonfly Species Sighting Sets New County Record!

Great River Preserve in Bridgewater has been the site of our Butterflies and Dragonflies walk for the past three years. Program leader Nick Block, Assistant Professor of Biology at Stonehill College, is not only excellent at spotting and catching dragonflies in an instant, but is a whiz at instant identification of insects, birds, amphibians, and more. Towards the end of our program on Sunday, June 25th, he spotted this Great Blue Skimmer, a new county record for Plymouth County! This southern species has likely found its way further north due to changing climate. 

Great Blue Skimmer on the Taunton River, Great River Preserve, Bridgewater

Other notable moments from the program included watching a female Monarch lay eggs on a trail-side milkweed, getting up close and personal with multiple dragonfly and damselfly species, and a Fowler's Toad spotting! 

A damselfly, caught in Nick Block's insect net, Great River Preserve, Bridgewater

Nick is a fantastic teacher - knowledgeable, friendly, skillful, and has been graciously willing to lead this program year after year. Even if you've never considered these creatures to be of specific interest to you, we recommend checking this program out next spring! 

Thanks, Nick! See you next year!

Long Distance Hiking in Plymouth? You bet...

By Director of Land Protection, Scott MacFaden

Over the past two Sundays, we had the privilege of embarking upon a series of hikes we have come to call the ‘Big Ramble”.  Led by the “Trail Guy” and ace navigator Malcolm MacGregor, we (a group of eleven on June 4, and a group of ten on June 11) covered just about 20 miles in all, traversing through a wide range of landscapes that reinforced how much our region has to offer to the ambitious hiker.   

Malcolm and his band of stalwart hikers, including some folks affiliated with the Friends of Myles Standish, have been exploring the wilds of our local state forest and many other places in and around Plymouth for years.  More recently, they have graciously chosen to share their specialized landscape knowledge with Wildlands Trust. 

For most of our history, Wildlands has sponsored what might be more accurately termed walks than hikes—leisurely paced outings that typically cover no more than four miles.  While these walks appeal to many of our members and will always remain an integral part of our programming offerings, a land acquisition we closed on last December inspired us to consider sponsoring more ambitious outings.

The land acquisition in question was the 275-acre Luigi and Teotista Cortelli Preserve on Great South Pond in Plymouth.  Donated by Gerald and Maureen Sheehan, this outstanding property includes multiple rare species habitats, extensive frontage on Great South Pond, and an intriguing landscape connection:  it directly abuts the Plymouth Town Forest to the north and Myles Standish State Forest to the south. 

Poring over maps with Malcolm, it became apparent to us that our new preserve was the missing link in the most expansive corridor of contiguous open space in southeastern Massachusetts: an almost 19,000-acre greenbelt, ranging from the Plymouth Town Forest through Myles Standish and southerly to the Mass. Division of Fish and Game’s recently established Maple Springs Wildlife Management Area in Wareham. 

With this exciting realization in mind, we thought it an opportune time to formally sponsor lengthier, more ambitious and demanding hikes like the Big Ramble. 

As the accompanying photos attest, we encountered many interesting features along the Ramble route, including the sweeping vistas afforded by Pinnacle Hill (the highest location in all of Plymouth outside of the geographic Pine Hills), and the famed “Frogfoot” Reservoir. 

Traversing through the interior of Myles Standish State Forest was a particular pleasure.  The Forest holds many attractions that elude the typical visitor, including the striking landscape of Cherry Pond Valley (the namesake pond is the headwaters of the Wankinco River).   The valley is a steep-sided landscape with comparatively few trees that likely owes its appearance to a forest fire at some point in the relatively recent past.  Most of the state forest’s terrain is comprised of so-called Pine Barrens, a woodland type dominated by Pitch Pine and Scrub Oak and adapted to frequent fires. 

For those who want to undertake their own version of the Big Ramble:  unless you are adept at off-trail navigation and route finding, you’ll have to be patient.  Much of the Big Ramble’s route took us over terrain that doesn’t presently include marked and/or easily followed trails.   Our longer-term vision is to collaborate with the landowners along the Big Ramble route, most particularly DCR, DFG, and the Town of Plymouth, to formalize the routes that Malcolm and his merry band of hikers know so well.  While we don’t yet have a specific timetable for implementing this vision, we are enthused about the possibilities for expanding the range of hiking opportunities in our extended backyard.   

In the interim, we are planning more ambitious guided hikes—so stay tuned! 

Malcolm introduces us to Pinnacle Hill (Part I)

Outlook toward Great South Pond (Part I)

Cherry Pond - the headwaters of the Wankinco River (Part I)

Cherry Pond Valley (Part I)

A leisurely lunch in the shadows of the cathedral pines (Part I)

Traversing through open woodland (Part II)

The Part II Crew (minus Scott) at Frogfoot Reservoir

"The Rhododendron Not Taken" (apologie to Mr. Frost)

A respite at the picnic grounds on Maple Springs Reservoir (Part II)

Deer Ticks: One Bite Can Change Your Life

On Tuesday, May 23 Entomologist Larry Dapsis came to the Wildlands Trust Community Conservation Barn for a special presentation about ticks and tick-borne illnesses. Dapsis is the Entomologist for Barnstable County and Deer Tick Project Coordinator for Cape Cod Cooperative Extension. He works both to study tick populations and diseases and to educate the public. An engaged crowd of nearly 30 volunteers, members, and nonmembers made for an interactive program and lively discussion. If you missed it, or just want to review the information, you can download the PDF below.

Here at Wildlands Trust, we want to help inform and educate everyone who loves to get outside to enjoy nature in order to best protect themselves. Every time we're out on the trails with a group, without fail someone has a personal story about how tick-borne illnesses have effected their lives. Living in an area  where the rate of tick-borne illness is among the highest in the country, this information from Larry Dapsis is invaluable. We look forward to having him at Wildlands again next year! 

Brockton Envirothon Team Storms Competition

On May 18, 2017, the Brockton High School / Wildlands Trust Envirothon Team competed at their third consecutive Massachusetts Envirothon Competition. Teams from across the state spent the morning at Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farms taking field tests in Forests, Wildlife, Soil, and Water, presenting their community research projects, and volunteering with the Student Conservation Association. Our team of ten dedicated students placed 6th overall in the state, took the 3rd place award for their Current Issue Presentation, and brought home the Community Research and Community Action Awards.

The Brockton team tests their knowledge at the Forests field test, one of four tests at the Massachusetts Envirothon competition.

Each year, teams are asked to research a new current issue topic as it effects their community. This year’s topic was Agricultural Soil and Water Conservation. Since the fall, our students have been out in the community researching this topic and talking with the experts. They’ve met with the city’s water commissioner, farmers, AmeriCorps members, the Brockton city planner, soil scientists, and more. As their research developed, the team identified the need to help Brockton’s Promise assess the conditions of community gardens around the city. On their own time after school and on weekends, team members visited community gardens to collect soil samples for testing at the UMass Soil Lab, assess the availability of water, and assess the overall potential for community gardening at each site. They even came up with a unique rainwater collection trough design that uses fences rather than gutters.

The Brockton team presents their Current Issue Research to a panel of judges, taking 3rd place in this category at the 2017 Massachusetts Envirothon Competition.

At the competition, the team blew the judges away as they presented their research and action project. Comments from judge score sheets include:

“Great presentation – wonderful work.” 
“Excellent explanation of the issue.” 
“An exciting and good presentation. Thank you for your drive and your dedication." 
“Q&A at the end was excellent!”
“Good for people and the environment. Awesome!”

This and other Brockton Envirothon projects truly have an impact on the community as whole and on the lives of the students who spend their time getting involved with environmental issues in their city. Everyone at Wildlands Trust is extremely proud of this team’s efforts and achievements this year! We can’t wait to get back to it in the fall for another great Envirothon year!

After their presentation, the team is interviewed for the Community Research and Community Action Awards.

Special thanks are due to Biology teacher and coach Joyce Voorhis, who has spearheaded the Envirothon efforts in partnership with Wildlands Trust since 2015. Also thank you to Jack Jezard, SEMPBA’s MassLIFT AmeriCorps member who helped coach the team this year, and to all of the wonderful professionals who helped our students this year!