Wildlands Attends Massachusetts Land Conservation Conference

STC House Managers Paul Gallerani and Judy Savage share information about the Stewardship Training Center with attendees of the 2025 Massachusetts Land Conservation Conference.

By Wildlands staff

At Wildlands, we’re always looking for ways to improve and expand our work in Southeastern Massachusetts. Sometimes, that search leads us far beyond our region’s borders. Invariably, we come home with new insights, skills, and relationships to share with the communities we serve. 

On March 21, a record 15 (!) Wildlands staff members and volunteers traveled to Amherst for the 2025 Massachusetts Land Conservation Conference, hosted by the Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition (MLTC). Wildlands Trust is a strong supporter of MLTC’s mission “to advance land conservation across Massachusetts by providing education, tools, networking and advocacy for land trusts and their partners.” In addition to sponsoring the annual conference, Wildlands shares Chief of Staff Rachel Bruce with the MLTC Board of Trustees. 

“The Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition provides the platform for land conservation professionals to stay connected to one another and to present a unified voice,” Wildlands President Karen Grey said. Grey served on the MLTC board for 14 years. “Wildlands Trust is a stronger organization because of the resources we access through our active participation in MLTC.” 

Wildlands President Karen Grey spoke about our Brockton Kids Lead the Way Initiative with Manomet Conservation Sciences during her presentation about our Community Stewardship Program.

Beyond our attendance numbers, Wildlands was well-represented at the conference, presenting workshops, organizing networking events, and tabling with information about the Stewardship Training Center. Four Wildlands-hosted workshops shared our successes and lessons learned with the state land conservation community. Karen Grey presented with Jen Plowden of the Land Trust Alliance about “A Blueprint for Better Boards: Three Strategies for Board Recruitment.” Land use attorney and Dennis Murphy presented on Wildlands' complex project to save Picone Farm in Middleborough. Rachel Bruce and Programming Coordinator Amy Burt presented “Beyond DEI Statements: A Case Study for Delivering a Land Trust Mission in a Gateway City,” recounting our ongoing environmental justice work in Brockton. To end the day, Karen Grey presented once again, this time with Barnstable Land Trust’s Janet Milkman about our Community Stewardship Program. 

The MLTC conference offers land conservation professionals a rare opportunity to bond over their shared missions and values. Communications Coordinator Thomas Patti serves on the Organizing Committee of the Early Conservation Career Network (ECCN), an interest group of the MLTC that “provides networking and training opportunities for those in their first 10 years of a career in land conservation.” ECCN gathers the night before the conference every year to build camaraderie and community. This year, the event saw over 30 early-career conservationists, including eight from Wildlands, learn about spotted salamanders at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment before heading to Tree House Brewing Company for pizza and drinks. 

Rachel Bruce presents at the pre-conference ECCN gathering.

ECCN listens for frogs at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment.

ECCN learns about spotted salamanders at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment.

Stewardship Programs Manager Zoë Smiarowski also led a stewardship networking lunch during the conference, giving land stewards across the state a chance to come together and “talk shop.”  

Below, hear from Wildlands staff and volunteers about their experiences at this year’s Massachusetts Land Conservation Conference. 

Rachel Bruce, Chief of Staff & MLTC Trustee 

“The conference is a great opportunity for Wildlands both to showcase our work to our colleagues, as demonstrated at our multiple presentations and our outreach table, and to learn from the incredible work taking place at nonprofits and state agencies across the state. Networking with land professionals from many walks opens up doors for creative problem solving, big-picture thinking, and meaningful collaboration that advances our collective mission to protect and steward Massachusetts' natural landscapes.” 

Amy Burt, Programming Coordinator 

"The ECCN meeting was a timely reminder of the importance of new generations' commitment to the conservation field. I am inspired to look towards the future with such enthusiastic individuals." 

Rob Kluin, Donor Relations Manager 

“Overall, the Massachusetts Land Conservation Conference was very beneficial for me. Beyond the knowledge and great insights that I gained from a variety of informative workshops, the conference offered many opportunities for making conversations and meaningful connections. I was impressed by the mission-driven organizations and passionate people at this conference and came away feeling inspired and even more grateful for the work of Wildlands Trust.” 

U.S. Representative Jim McGovern delivered the keynote address at the 2025 Massachusetts Land Conservation Conference.

Zoë Smiarowski, Stewardship Programs Manager 

“At my first MLTC conference in 2023, I spent a lot of time at the Stewardship Training Center table, talking with folks. This time around, I had the opportunity to attend more sessions. I really enjoyed not only the speakers but also listening to questions and comments for the speakers from audience members. It's inspiring to see the ways our land trust community shows up for each other and engages in reciprocal learning.” 

Rebecca Cushing, Land Steward 

“The ECCN 'Big Night' talk and social gathering was definitely a highlight for me. I loved connecting with a diverse group of people brought together by their passion for conservation and hear about what they're doing in the early stages of their careers in the field. I also really enjoyed the presentation on managing invasive plants at the conference. The presenters shared their unique experiences in great detail and offered strategies that could be applied across different organizations with different resources and goals.” 

Sam Butcher, D.W. Field Park Initiative Project Facilitator 

“As a member of a challenged land trust board, I found Karen Grey and Jen Plowden’s talk on how to build a successful board extremely insightful and helpful. The interactive role-play format highlighted board challenges and brought audience members into the presentation, further broadening the perspective and enhancing the value of the presentation.” 

Paul Gallerani, Assistant STC House Manager 

“It was so nice to be surrounded by hundreds of people that care about the environment.  Such a new thing for me. It charged my nature battery!” 

Vernal pool certification to educate and inspire

Stewardship Programs Manager Zoë Smiarowski handles a red-backed salamander at Striar Snake River Preserve in Taunton.

By Zoë Smiarowski, Stewardship Programs Manager 

At Wildlands Trust, April 1 means one thing and one thing only: April Pools’ Day! In our book, protecting vernal pools is a more fun and fitting way to celebrate the arrival of spring in Southeastern Massachusetts than sitting on a whoopee cushion. 

In observance of our favorite holiday, Wildlands staff and volunteers visited Striar Snake River Preserve to gather evidence of vernal pools on our 84-acre Taunton property. Vernal pools are one of the most delicate yet biodiverse ecosystems in our region, so Wildlands is working with the state to identify the ones we protect on our lands. 

You may be wondering, what is a vernal pool? According to the Massachusetts Division of Fish & Wildlife’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program (NHESP), “vernal pools are small, shallow ponds characterized by a lack of fish and annual or semi-annual periods of dryness. Vernal pool habitats are extremely important to a variety of wildlife species, including some amphibians that breed exclusively in vernal pools, and other organisms such as fairy shrimp which spend their entire life cycles confined to such locales.” Organisms that depend on vernal pools for at least part of their life cycle, such as wood frogs, spotted salamanders, and fairy shrimp, are called obligate species. Organisms that frequently use vernal pools but can survive in other habitats, such as spring peepers, gray treefrogs, and American toads, are called facultative species.  

Wood frog egg mass discovered at Striar Snake River Preserve in Taunton.

Vernal pools occur widely across Massachusetts, wherever small depressions in the ground collect water in the spring. The important thing is no fish can enter the pool. Only when these predators are absent can certain frogs, salamanders, and invertebrates survive and reproduce there. 

You can’t protect what you don't know is there. So, the state has mapped out where vernal pools might exist on the landscape. NHESP staff used aerial photographs between late March and early May of 1993, 1999, and 2000. Using stereo pairs (essentially two images, from slightly different angles, side by side), approximate centers of vernal pools were identified and then digitized onto the aerial photographs, creating a GIS data layer called “Potential Vernal Pools.” According to MassGIS, the data layer identifies more than 29,000 potential vernal pool habitats. 

So how does a vernal pool go from potential to certified? 

Potential vernal pools are based on aerial imagery alone. They must be ground-truthed to confirm a vernal pool community is actually present. With the right resources, anyone can submit data to help certify a vernal pool! MassWildlife provides guidelines for scientists, land managers, and community members alike to submit evidence for vernal pool certification. There are two certification methods: the obligate species method and the facultative species method. Since obligate species require vernal pools to breed, breeding evidence of these species, such as egg masses, larvae, or spring choruses, is a strong indication of a vernal pool. Evidence of facultative species is helpful, but not as definitive, so this method requires more information about the physical characteristics of the pool. As a result, the obligate species method is easiest for community scientists. 

Vernal pool at Striar Snake River in Taunton.

Here’s how you can help certify a vernal pool: 

1. Find potential vernal pools near you: explore the map here. Enter your address in the top search bar for local results. 

2. Review the MassWildlife vernal pool certification guidelines. 

3. Submit the necessary photo and video documentation to MassWildlife’s Heritage Hub. 

4. All done! NHESP will notify you if your submission has been accepted for vernal pool certification.  

As you can see, vernal pool certification is an involved process. You may be asking, what’s the point? 

Certification can help protect vernal pools from human destruction or degradation. Some vernal pools are protected under the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act (WPA). That means that all proposed work that may alter these vernal pools must undergo a careful review by the local community’s conservation commission. Not all vernal pools fall under WPA jurisdiction, but several other state and local regulations extend protections to these sites, as well. Vernal pools must be certified by NHESP to trigger a review under any of these laws. 

Stewardship Programs Manager Zoë Smiarowski wades in a vernal pool at Striar Snake River Preserve in Taunton in search for amphibian egg masses.

Given the somewhat complicated nature of the vernal pool certification process, what better way to learn the ins and outs than from the very organization that approves vernal pool certifications? In May of 2024, Wildlands teamed up with NHESP to lead a training at the Stewardship Training Center on vernal pool ecology, stewardship, and certification. Jacob Kubel, NHESP conservation scientist, and Matt Burne, a senior ecologist at the BSC group and Vice President of the Vernal Pool Association, led 15 land trust volunteers and staff in a seven-hour program, both in the classroom and out in the field. Attendees remarked on the excitement of discovering a salamander egg mass for the first time. I couldn’t help but agree. It's a magical, near-indescribable feeling!  

Back at Striar Snake River Preserve on April 1, we found 77 egg masses of both wood frogs and spotted salamanders in pools throughout the property. (And that’s just the ones we were able to see, as we aimed to minimize disturbance in the center of the pools and focused when possible on what was visible from the shoreline.) Spotting and documenting amphibian egg masses feels like one of the most special experiences a person can have in the woods. Last year, Wildlands helped certify vernal pools on Duxbury Rural and Historical Society properties through a Community Stewardship contract. Even through some of the rainiest days of New England spring, the egg mass excitement carried us through! 

Matt Penella, Town of Kingston Conservation Agent and Wildlands volunteer, searches for vernal pool evidence at Striar Snake River Preserve in Taunton.

Wildlands preserves are home to 10 certified vernal pools so far: five at Striar Conservancy in Halifax, four at Willow Brook Farm in Pembroke, and one at Brockton Audubon Preserve in Brockton. Dozens of potential vernal pools are located on Wildlands properties throughout Southeastern Massachusetts. 

Previously, I mentioned that one of the strongest reasons for vernal pool certification is protection. So, what’s the use on properties that are already protected in perpetuity? 

Indeed, vernal pools are safe and sound on Wildlands preserves. But certifying vernal pools on our properties gives our stewardship staff (and our supporters!) a better idea of the amazing natural resources we have the opportunity and responsibility to care for. Vernal pools are incredible features of our landscapes that support critical and unique habitat for some of our favorite little creatures. Spring peepers, wood frogs, spotted salamanders, and several other species rely on these habitats. We benefit from them, too, as they give us wonderful signs of spring. In springs to come, we hope to certify more vernal pools to teach our neighbors and supporters about their ecological importance and to help our community discover their otherworldly magic.  

Human History of Wildlands: The Taunton River Watershed

Striar Snake River Preserve in Taunton. A project is underway to improve public access at this preserve.

By Skip Stuck, Key Volunteer

Those of you who have been following our "Human History of Wildlands" series know that the approach so far has been to tackle one preserve or one community at a time and to dig as deeply into that story as historical resources allow. However, when I started researching the history of Wildlands Trust’s Great River Preserve in Bridgewater, it occurred to me that there was a different kind of story here, not just of one preserve, but of an entire region—namely, the Taunton River watershed. Here, I take a broader look at this 500-square-mile area, one within which Wildlands Trust and its partners protect a variety of landscapes that are important as individual parcels but carry even greater significance in the context of their shared history. In upcoming entries to this series, we will zoom back in to the stories of individual preserves in the watershed, like Great River Preserve, Striar Conservancy in Halifax, and Wyman North Fork Conservation Area in Bridgewater. Today, we will take this broader view.  

A watershed is a land area within which all rainfall and snowmelt funnels into the same place. A raindrop in Foxborough, even if it’s 15 miles from the headwaters of the Taunton River, will eventually work its way down smaller streams or in groundwater to the Taunton and empty into Mount Hope Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. So, the point where that raindrop first splashed down in Foxborough is part of the Taunton River watershed. 

The map below will help convey the size of the Taunton River watershed and its importance to Wildlands’ work. Of the 57 cities and towns that Wildlands Trust serves, 30 lie at least partially within the Taunton River watershed, which encompasses 562 square miles across Southeastern Massachusetts. Wildlands protects over 2,150 acres of land in the Taunton River watershed through outright ownership, Conservation Restrictions, and deed restrictions.

The Taunton River watershed is home to geographical and historical features that exist nowhere else in Massachusetts. It features the longest undammed coastal waterway in the state. This is in part because it drops only 20 feet from its source in Bridgewater to its mouth in Fall River, curbing its power generation potential. The Taunton River is tidal up to the City of Taunton, meaning it contains salt and brackish water for about half of its length. 

The watershed is home to over 500,000 people across 43 towns and cities, covering portions of three counties. Despite the dense settlement around it, the Taunton River is a federally designated Wild and Scenic River. The region is also home to the largest freshwater swamp in southern New England, the nearly 17,000-acre Hockomock Swamp. 

These features and many others play important roles in the area's human history. Now, let’s move back in time. 

Pre-history 

As the glaciers receded between 12,000 and 13,000 years ago, they left a landscape scraped and scoured, with piles of rocks, rubble, moraines, eskers, and other geological features. Across central Southeastern Massachusetts, a large moraine created a debris dam that prevented melting glacial water from draining into the ocean. The result was Glacial Lake Taunton, which spanned 54 square miles and plunged 130 feet deep. The lake lasted for about 300 years before the dam broke.  

View fullsize

Glacial Lake Taunton. From “Understanding Geological History when Selecting Trenchless Installation Methods” by Haley & Aldrich.

When the dam finally breached, the rushing water spread a mix of gravel and mud across the watershed area, building the foundation for some of the richest forests and farming soils in Southeastern Massachusetts. It also created today's Taunton River and its many tributaries.  

People soon arrived. We know a good deal more about the pre-European history of the Taunton River watershed than of much of the rest of Southeastern Massachusetts. In fact, some of the oldest archeological evidence of human habitation in New England comes from digs, finds, and studies in Bridgewater, Middleborough, and the "Titicut" site, dating back more than 9,000 years. The watershed was heavily populated for the time. Several area names survive. Cohannet, Tetequet, Titiquet were all used by the resident Wampanoag Tribe to describe the river and its valley.  

The flat, slow-flowing river also became a major route for Native Americans to trade and move seasonally to productive hunting and fishing areas. The 72-mile Wampanoag Canoe Passage was a well-traveled route that allowed relatively easy passage between Cape Cod Bay and Narragansett Bay via the North River and the Taunton River. The passage has been restored and cleared in some areas and can be followed today.  

Along the route, Natives likely passed through the Hockomock Swamp, derived from "Hobomock," the deity tied to death and disease, but also to the spirits of ancestors. It was also an area favored as a sanctuary and for its rich game and hunting resources. 

Great River Preserve in Taunton.

European Settlement 

After 1620, the English settlers of the Plymouth Colony soon moved west and found that the Taunton River area held great promise. Good soil. Easy river travel. And while the main river's current was too slow to produce power for mills, tributaries such as the Town, Matfield, Winnetuxet, Nemasket, and Three Mile Rivers all tumbled into the valley with sufficient energy to provide waterpower and to support the largest spring runs of alewives and river herring in the state. 

The watershed was initially part of the "Duxbury Purchase," but settlement soon created towns such as Taunton in 1637 and Bridgewater in 1645, and ultimately Plymouth and Bristol Counties. Farms thrived upriver, while ironworks and shipbuilding made Taunton a growing city. Eventually, Taunton earned the name "the Silver City" due to its reputation for silversmithing and jewelry making. 

As with nearly all of Southeastern Massachusetts, and much of New England, this prosperity was not to continue without setbacks. The most notorious one was King Phillip's War from 1675 to 1676. Initially good relations between European colonists and the Wampanoag Tribe and its chief Massasoit, crucial to the Plymouth Colony's early survival, had in two generations deteriorated into war. The Tribe, led by Massasoit's son Metacomet (who chose the name King Philip), was feeling taken advantage of by the colonists. A revolt ensued, and the Taunton River area, especially Hockomock Swamp, was its epicenter. While the hostilities eventually reached all of New England and upstate New York, the Plymouth Colony and adjacent Rhode Island bore the brunt of the fighting. Whereas the colonists feared and avoided the swamp, the Natives found safety and sanctuary there. In fact, the war only ended when the colonists finally entered the swamp and routed Metacomet and his people. In the end, King Phillip's War was the costliest in terms of property destruction and death—to both colonists and Natives—in all of colonial America. 

The Taunton River passes through the forests of Wyman North Fork Conservation Area in Bridgewater. In 2024, Wildlands acquired an additional 90 acres directly across the river from Wyman North Fork, further protecting this section of the Taunton River corridor less than two miles from its headwaters.

After the war, colonial prosperity resumed, and towns grew and flourished. Many attempts to drain Hockomock Swamp ensued, but each ultimately failed. The swamp served as a natural "sponge," absorbing water and preventing the kinds of floods that periodically disrupted life on many nearby rivers. Indeed, failures to drain the swamp substantially contributed to the Taunton River’s wild and pristine state today. Similarly, the Taunton’s incapacity for waterpower has benefited the watershed’s ecological health, as it kept the river undammed, free-running, and surrounded by forest and farmland. Thanks to its unique natural characteristics that stifled colonial industrialism, the Taunton River is now a federally designated National Wild and Scenic River.  

Today, the Taunton River watershed is home to many wonderful nature preserves. Wildlands Trust, MassWildlife, the Taunton River Watershed Alliance, and its cities and towns work together to protect this special place. Great River Preserve, Wyman North Fork Conservation Area, Striar Conservancy, Brockton Audubon Preserve, and soon Striar Snake River Preserve in Taunton are some of the Wildlands properties where you can see the results for yourself. 

To learn more, please see our website at wildlandstrust.org and visit some of our preserves in the Taunton River watershed.

Striar Conservancy in Halifax is located on the bank of the Winnetuxet River, a tributary of the Taunton River.

Learn More

Resources for this article include: 

• The Taunton River Watershed Alliance: savethetaunton.org 

• Tetiquet To The Sea: A History of the Taunton River: oldcolonyhistorymuseum.org/product/tetiquet-to-the-sea

• Wild and Scenic Taunton River: srpedd.org/environment/wild-and-scenic-taunton-river

• Archaeology of Dighton: plymoutharch.tripod.com/id157.html 

• Understanding Geological History When Selecting Trenchless Installation Methods: haleyaldrich.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/NETA 

• The Wampanoag Canoe Passage: North and South River Watershed Association, "River Watch," April 2015. 

Thanks to Thomas Patti for his editing and encouragement, to Owen Grey for his mapping assistance, and to Tess Goldmann for her analysis of Wildlands’ holdings in the Taunton River watershed.

If you have photographs, historical documents, or maps related to the history of the Taunton River watershed, we want to see them! Please send any information to communications@wildlandstrust.org. 

Poet Tzynya Pinchback: Writing the Land at D.W. Field Park

In the video above, meet Plymouth-based poet Tzynya Pinchback! This year, Tzynya is partnering with Wildlands Trust to spotlight the beauty of D.W. Field Park in Brockton.

Writing the Land is a collaborative outreach and fundraising project that partners with nonprofit environmental organizations to coordinate the “adoption” of conserved lands for poets. Each poet is paired with a land usually for about a year, and they visit the location to create work inspired by place. Learn more at writingtheland.org.

Tzynya Pinchback is a poet, essayist, and author of the poetry chapbook “How to Make Pink Confetti” (Dancing Girl Press, 2012). Her recent work centers on the Black woman body in nature and in joy as an act of resistance and appears in Deaf Poets Society, Mom Egg Review, Naugatuck River Review, Raising Mothers, and is broadcasted on WOMR’s Poets Corner. She was a finalist for 2020 Poet Laureate of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and 2020 writer-in-residence for the Cordial Eye Gallery & Artist Space. Tzynya is a Los Angeles native who is surviving cancer and New England winters in Plymouth, MA.

Stay tuned for opportunities to engage in Tzynya’s work!

Photo Update: Human History of Willow Brook Farm

Andrew and Ann Dee Pelley (left) met with Skip Stuck (right) to share historical photos and other documents connected to the Willow Brook Farm property.

By Skip Stuck, Key Volunteer

Over the last year, I have completed nine "human histories" of Wildlands Trust's preserves and the communities that surround them. With each one, I am reminded of the near-impossibility of creating a truly accurate and clear-cut account of past people and events. History is always "in the eye of the beholder." History from the perspective of Native Americans will often be at odds with that of colonists. Farmers, academics, industrialists, religious leaders, the wealthy, the poor, the young, and the old will view the same events in different ways, colored by their cultures, experiences, hopes, and biases. "Accurate" history is a laudable, yet usually unreachable, goal. 

Pictures can bring us closer to that goal. While I've discovered many written narratives on local human history, pictures, paintings, maps, and illustrations have been much harder to find. That is why I was excited a few weeks ago when the Trust was contacted by Willow Brook Farm neighbors Ann Dee and Andrew Pelley, who wanted to share some historical photos of Wildlands’ Pembroke preserve. They saw the history that we published last April and its request for more information, especially pictures. After some intensive research at the Pembroke Historical Society, Ann Dee and Andrew visited us at our Plymouth headquarters, accompanied by some amazing pictures and documents.  

Before you read further, I encourage you to revisit the original April 2024 entry of “Human History of Wildlands: Willow Brook Farm.” Click here.

Barker & Pleasant Street Houses

The Barker House was built sometime between 1783 and 1810 and burned down in 1915. Photo courtesy of the Pembroke Historical Society.

The Pleasant Street House was built in 1777 by Israel Turner. Photo courtesy of the Pembroke Historical Society.

In 1877, the Pleasant Street house was moved to Barker Street on the Willow Brook Farm property, where it remains today. It is said that it took a team of oxen six weeks to move the house. Photo from 1979, courtesy of the Pembroke Historical Society.

Above are two of the earliest dwellings on the property. The Barker house, owned by Benjamin Barker and his family, burned down in 1915. 

The property continued in Barker and relatives’ hands until 1914, when it was purchased by William Hurley. Hurley established the Willow Brook Dairy Farm, which became renowned for the quality of its Guernsey cattle.

“1st prize Breeder’s Herd | Springfield, October, 1917.” Photo courtesy of the Pembroke Historical Society.

“IMP, Cherry’s Memento, No. 27562 | 1st Prize and Grand Champion, Brockton and Springfield | October, 1917.” Photo courtesy of the Pembroke Historical Society.

Until the early 1950s, the farm thrived, adding a large barn, milking station, and many acres of pasture. 

William Hurley, owner of Hurley Shoe Company in Rockland, purchased the land in 1914. Thereafter, he built this dairy barn in the middle of the property. Photo courtesy of the Pembroke Historical Society.

Willow Brook Farm milking station. Photo courtesy of the Pembroke Historical Society.

Today, many reminders of that time remain, including the foundation of the milking station, numerous stone walls, falling fence posts, and open pastures, maintained as part of Wildlands Trust's commitment to preserving Willow Brook Farm’s agricultural history. 

We want to thank Ann Dee and Andrew Pelley for providing us with a richer understanding of the human history of Willow Brook Farm through their pictures. 

For others who have information of any kind that can help us refine our understanding of the human history of Wildlands, please contact Communications Coordinator Thomas Patti at tpatti@wildlandstrust.org or 774-343-5121 ext. 108. We may feature your insight in future “Human History” editions. 

And finally, please visit our online property description and trail map of Willow Brook Farm and explore its trails in person.