Seasonal Land Stewards Hone Skills at STC

By Thomas Patti, Communications Coordinator

Late last month, our burgeoning Stewardship Training Center (STC) reached a major milestone in its mission to build land stewardship capacity across the state. 

On June 26 and 27, Wildlands Trust hosted its first Seasonal Land Steward Training at the STC. Ten trainees, each holding a land stewardship role this summer with a city, town, or environmental nonprofit, converged on the STC from across Massachusetts to gain invaluable conservation skills and expand their professional network. The program, reviewed positively by participants, marks the first in hopefully a long line of initiatives at the STC to support the sustained care of conservation lands, especially during peak periods of human use. 

“I am extremely excited to have had the opportunity to bring this group of seasonals together,” said Wildlands Stewardship Coordinator Zoë Smiarowski. “I think all of the participants worked extremely well collaboratively and learned from each other and the instructors in the most positive way.” 

The training began bright and early on Monday morning with a group hike and trail maintenance workshop at our Halfway Pond Conservation Area, the setting of the STC. Leading the workshop were Mary Doucette of the Buzzards Bay Coalition and Colleen Andrews of Mattapoisett Land Trust. Around midday, Mary and Colleen were joined by Zoë to teach trainees how to care for stewardship tools. After lunch, trainees honed their invasive plant identification and removal skills through a presentation and hike led by Kelly Barber of Barnstable Land Trust.  

Kelly Barber of Barnstable Land Trust leads an invasive plant identification walk.

On Tuesday, Chris Crowther of Certified Rescue Courses trained program participants in first aid and CPR. Trainees then learned to build wooden benches during a carpentry workshop led by Wildlands staff. Finally, Nate Cristofori and Michael Cahill of the Plymouth Department of Marine and Environmental Affairs presented to the group about interacting with the public on conservation land.  

“I look forward to continued and new collaborations with the wide range of talented conservation professionals and volunteers in the region,” Zoë said about the STC. “I feel extremely fortunate to be a part of the community here in Southeastern Massachusetts and I'm excited to see all the creative projects that come together for the betterment of our lands and waters.” 

Thank you to all who attended our program, and to the guest instructors for providing their passion and expertise! Wildlands Trust looks forward to working with these and new partners as the STC marches forward in its first full year of operation.  

To learn more about the STC and browse upcoming events, visit our Training page. 

Click through the gallery below to view more photos from the 2023 Seasonal Land Steward Training. 

Kelly Barber of Barnstable Land Trust leads an invasive plant identification walk.

Kelly Barber of Barnstable Land Trust leads an invasive plant identification walk.

Kelly Barber of Barnstable Land Trust leads an invasive plant identification walk.

Kelly Barber of Barnstable Land Trust presents on invasive plant identification and removal.

Colleen Andrews of Mattapoisett Land Trust and Mary Doucette of the Buzzards Bay Coalition demonstrate trail and tool maintenance.

Trainees practice trail maintenance.

Carpentry workshop at the STC.

Carpentry workshop at the STC.

Carpentry workshop at the STC.

Carpentry workshop at the STC.

Carpentry workshop at the STC.

Carpentry workshop at the STC.

Carpentry workshop at the STC.

Crystal Spring Preserve is Open!

By Thomas Patti, Communications Coordinator

Crystal Spring Preserve in Plainville.

Crystal Spring Preserve, our first property in Plainville, is officially OPEN! 

Wildlands Trust’s acquisition of this special place came in late 2022 after a 20-year partnership with the land’s previous caretakers, the Crystal Spring Center for Ecology, Spirituality, and Earth Education. Learn more about the preserve’s rich human and natural history at our property webpage here. 

TRAIL MAP AND PROPERTY DESCRIPTION: CLICK HERE 

Crystal Spring Preserve.

Preparing the property for public access took the sustained effort of our extended stewardship team, including staff and faithful volunteers. Between February and May, three volunteer workdays moved the preserve incrementally closer to its current accessible state. Thank you to all the volunteers who came out to help us take this huge step in expanding our regional land conservation portfolio! 

As is the case for many of our properties, “stewardship” at Crystal Spring Preserve goes far beyond clearing trails and removing debris. In addition, we are entrusted with less tangible, though equally critical, resources—a story we hope to carry on, and a vision we strive to sustain. Sister Barbara Harrington, Sister Chris Loughlin, and the entire Crystal Spring Center team saw the property as a place for both children and adults to get in touch with their spiritual connection to nature. Evidence of this philosophy can be found throughout the preserve, as well as in the passionate words of all who engaged with the Crystal Spring Center. Preserving these stories is paramount to our effective stewardship of the land. 

Volunteers at our April workday explore the Meditation Circle, a former education site of the Crystal Spring Center for Ecology, Spirituality, and Earth Education.

“[The Crystal Spring Center] invited Wildlands Trust into a dream,” said Sister Barbara. “It became a mutually enhancing relationship. We then became part of your dream, too. And something new and really quite wonderful has ensued.” (Watch Sister Barbara and Kathy McGrath speak about Crystal Spring Preserve for our 50 Years, 50 People series here.) 

During our April volunteer day, the stewardship team came across several trail signs from the property’s Crystal Spring Center era. After sitting on the forest floor for years, these painted wooden planks and stumps had seen better days. But the care and devotion that had been spent on their production were instantly clear. “Insects have searched for sacred spaces on Earth for 395 million years,” reads one sign adorned with ants, bees, and butterflies. The Wildlands team brought these signs back to our Plymouth headquarters to restore them to their former glory before returning them to the Crystal Spring trails. 

Sister Barbara Harrington (fourth from right) and the Wildlands stewardship team display well-worn trail signs at Crystal Spring Preserve.

This project and others will help us uphold our obligation to holistically preserve the land—trees, ponds, stories, and signs alike. Stay tuned for updates. 

See you on the trails! 

Corporations for Conservation: Wildlands Trust Gets South Shore Businesses Outdoors

Creative cross-sector partnerships a win-win-win for ecosystems, communities, team morale

By Thomas Patti, Communications Coordinator

REI Hingham and Wildlands Trust staff pose outside of the Stewardship Training Center in Plymouth.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Plymouth, MA — On April 19, Wildlands Trust welcomed REI Hingham staff to its new Stewardship Training Center (STC) in Plymouth for a volunteer workday. Wildlands Trust is eager to engage more corporate partners in conservation and community service as the STC embarks on its first year serving land stewardship volunteers and professionals from across the state.

The April workday marked REI’s fourth volunteer engagement with Wildlands Trust, including its third at the STC. Paul Vicino, softgoods lead at REI Hingham, began organizing the staff outings when similar company-led events were phased out.

“I was already a volunteer with [Wildlands Trust], so I thought I could get some people to help with the new trails,” Vicino said. “We also wanted to celebrate Earth Day while giving back to our community.”

Among other tasks, the REI staff completed gardening projects around the STC and helped build new walking steps between two trails.

“It’s a good team-building and community-building activity,” added Debbie Hill, operations lead at REI Hingham. “The staff that participates feels connected, and we talk while we’re doing it and get to know each other a little better. All of us who work at REI know how important it is to help be good stewards of our environment.”

REI Hingham and Wildlands Trust staff complete gardening projects at the Stewardship Training Center.

The STC, acquired by Wildlands Trust in 2022, sits within a 460-acre conservation area surrounding Halfway Pond in South Plymouth. Wildlands Trust aims to work with town, state, nonprofit, and corporate partners at the STC to advance skill development and address land stewardship needs throughout Massachusetts. To learn more about the STC, visit wildlandstrust.org/training.

“I appreciate the enthusiasm you all bring to our trails,” Vicino concluded. “Not to mention lunch. We’ll do something again with Wildlands, for sure.”

To schedule a corporate workday at the STC or a different Wildlands Trust preserve, contact Stewardship Coordinator Zoë Smiarowski at zsmiarowski@wildlandstrust.org or 774-343-5121 x109.

About Wildlands Trust: Wildlands Trust is one of the largest and oldest regional land trusts in Massachusetts. Since 1973, the Plymouth-based nonprofit has helped protect nearly 14,000 acres of natural and agricultural land across Southeastern Massachusetts, keeping local communities healthy and connected to the natural world. Visit wildlandstrust.org for more details.

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Seasonal Restrictions in Effect at Shifting Lots Preserve

By Thomas Patti, Communications Coordinator

Symbolic fencing at Shifting Lots Preserve. Photo by Jerry Monkman.

Shifting Lots Preserve in Plymouth could be considered prime real estate for people and wildlife alike. For people, the warm sand, cool waters, and quintessential South Shore views make the Wildlands Trust property and adjacent Ellisville Harbor State Park a can’t-miss summer destination. For wildlife, the preserve’s salt marsh estuary, sand dunes, and migrating barrier beach provide crucial habitat to an intricate web of aquatic and terrestrial species. Ensuring that Shifting Lots remains a place for all species to enjoy requires seasonal adjustments to how we humans engage with the property.  

In late March, volunteers and staff from Wildlands Trust and the Friends of Ellisville Marsh installed symbolic fencing around the historic nesting area of Piping Plovers within the preserve. This fencing, composed of simple wooden stakes and twine with bright-colored educational signs, may not provide much of a physical barrier between shorebirds, people, and predators, but it can help alert beachgoers to the small, sandy-colored birds that are otherwise almost impossible to spot. Alongside habitat loss from beachfront development and predation from gulls, raccoons, and other species attracted to nest sites by food waste and garbage, Piping Plovers face death and nest failure from more direct human conflict, including pedestrians and offroad vehicles trampling eggs and unleashed dogs frightening parents and chicks. Consequent population declines have contributed to their protected status under both the state and federal endangered species acts since 1985. 

Volunteers of Wildlands Trust and the Friends of Ellisville Marsh installed fencing at Shifting Lots in late March.

However, the dedicated efforts of local, state, and regional organizations and agencies have demonstrated that a little intervention can go a long way toward protecting these vulnerable shorebirds. Over the past four decades, symbolic fencing, nest monitoring, and public education have contributed to a sevenfold increase in Piping Plovers in Massachusetts, from 135 pairs in 1986 to 956 pairs in 2021. Collaboration among conservation groups—including the longstanding partnership between Wildlands Trust, the Friends of Ellisville Marsh, and Mass Audubon’s Coastal Waterbird Program—has proven particularly effective at securing the space that Piping Plovers need to thrive along our shoreline.  

For plovers to continue calling our region home, we all need to do our part! Please obey all signage at Shifting Lots Preserve, especially by keeping out of fenced areas. Every year between May 15 and September 15, the Shifting Lots parking lot is closed in order to moderate visitation during peak breeding season. Vehicles may drop off passengers at the parking lot gate and park at Ellisville Harbor State Park, a short walk from Shifting Lots. 

Piping Plovers.

Thank you for helping us uphold our duty to protect the vulnerable wildlife of Shifting Lots Preserve. If you observe vandalism or other suspicious behavior on the property, please take photos or videos and notify the Plymouth Police Department and/or Wildlands Trust at info@wildlandstrust.org or 774-343-5121. For your safety, please do not approach any active or hazardous situation. 

To learn more about shorebird conservation at Shifting Lots Preserve and beyond, check out this 2021 webinar presented by Wildlands Trust, Mass Audubon, and the Friends of Ellisville Marsh.

Eagle Scout Candidate Builds Bird and Bat Boxes at Sylvester Field

By Thomas Patti, Communications Coordinator

Hanover Boy Scouts Troop 38 at Sylvester Field.

Earlier this month, Hanover Boy Scout Jacob DeMong completed a multifaceted conservation project at Wildlands Trust’s Sylvester Field, putting him one step closer to the prestigious title of Eagle Scout. 

“Environmentally beneficial projects are extremely important,” Jacob, 17, wrote to Wildlands stewardship staff Tess Goldmann and Owen Grey, who provided him with mentorship and support throughout the project. "I was overjoyed to get this opportunity.” 

Jacob led Boy Scout Troop 38 from Hanover in installing eight Eastern Bluebird boxes and one bat box along the trail at Sylvester Field, a grassland parcel acquired by Wildlands Trust in 2021. The troop also cleared invasive vines and plants from the trees lining Washington Street, as well as cut back overgrowth from the woodland section of the trail. 

New bird boxes at Sylvester Field.

If you would like to see the project for yourself, you’re in luck! Just this week, the Wildlands stewardship team began installing a boardwalk that will complete a 0.5-mile loop trail around the entire field. This addition will allow visitors to admire all of Jacob’s great work—and perhaps some winged creatures that he has already attracted to the property! Eastern Bluebirds nest from March to August, while bats rely on warm, clean, and secure places to rest, hibernate, and raise young year-round. On Tuesday, a Tree Swallow was spotted inside one of Jacob’s boxes! Be on the lookout for an official trail opening announcement in the coming weeks. 

“We were really impressed with Jacob’s organization skills, as well as by the hard work of the Hanover Boy Scouts,” Tess said. “We are excited to see the boxes in use this season!” 

Congratulations, Jacob, on this huge achievement! Thank you for making our community a place for people, birds, bats, and trees to thrive. 

Jacob’s Eagle Scout project is one of several that Wildlands Trust has recently supported. If you are interested in completing your Eagle Scout project with us, contact our Stewardship Coordinator Zoë Smiarowski at zsmiarowski@wildlandstrust.org.  

Tree Swallow inside a bird box at Sylvester Field.