A Volunteer's Reflection on 2023

Ann rakes the new trail at North Fork Preserve in Bridgewater.

By Ann Chadwick-Dias

On the last day of 2023, I arose from bed in eager anticipation of a morning group hike around Halfway Pond in Plymouth led by Malcolm MacGregor, fondly known as the "Trail Guy" of Wildlands Trust. The Halfway Pond trail loop, jointly protected by Wildlands and the Massachusetts Department of Fish & Game, has always been one of my favorite hikes in Plymouth. I try to do this hike at least once a month with my ex-husband, Steve.

So, I spent my morning bidding farewell to 2023, doing my favorite hike with my favorite conservation group along with an awesome group of like-minded hikers on what happened to be an absolutely beautiful day.

Last Day Hike with Malcolm on December 31, 2023, at Halfway Pond Conservation Area in Plymouth. (Ann is hiding behind the woman in the turquoise fleece!)

Fittingly, I spent the first day of 2023 hiking Tucker Preserve in Pembroke, which is another lovely property protected and maintained by Wildlands Trust. Did you know that recent research shows that spending time in nature combats depression and anxiety? Attending group hikes (and otherwise recreating outdoors) is crucial for my physical and mental health, and a perfect way to usher in or out a new year. It's also a great way to spend all those days in between. It is my year-round way of life—to hike, run, bike, and spend as much time as I can outside. 

Wildlands offers me countless opportunities to engage my passions in conservation and recreation. The staff at Wildlands Trust is a small yet amazing group of intelligent, motivated, educated, and truly kind people who continually push their organization to improve and expand. They now protect properties in 55 Southeastern Massachusetts communities! 

In addition to attending hikes and other programs, Steve and I volunteer for Wildlands, assisting the stewardship staff with various trail work and maintenance tasks. Through their regular volunteer events, we get great exercise and enjoy plenty of laughs and camaraderie. Wildlands is a lively and fun group. I feel truly accomplished when I work on a new preserve from start to finish. 

Hike with Malcolm on May 7, 2023, at Myles Standish State Forest in Plymouth. (Ann is second from the left in the front row!)

At every volunteer outing, the Wildlands stewardship crew stresses that they only want us to do whatever work we're comfortable doing for as long as we're comfortable doing it. They are always truly appreciative of our help. Their appreciation often catches me off guard because I feel like I should be thanking them for giving me a healthy way to engage in the protection of our natural resources. 

I recently turned 60. At my age, you find yourself in conversations about what your legacy will be after you no longer walk this planet. For many, "legacy" often equates to financial or real estate assets. But to me, the work I do with Wildlands is the legacy I feel most invested in and proud of. I like to imagine my children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren walking these trails and thinking, "My (grand)mother helped to build and maintain these trails. She spent many hours walking and enjoying these lovely paths and vistas." My optimistic self likes to believe that people will enjoy and benefit from these trails for hundreds of years. What better legacy could one dream of leaving behind? 

Volunteer appreciation lunch & hike on December 9, 2023, at the Stewardship Training Center in Plymouth. (Ann is crouching in the middle!)

I should add that any involvement you choose with Wildlands Trust is likely to be multi-generational. While retirees might have the most time to offer, the Wildlands team is what I would call young, and many participants use their employer’s or school’s allotted volunteer time to spend the day advancing a cause they care about. Wildlands also engages students directly through year-round service-learning programs, fostering a whole new generation of environmentalists committed to preserving this beautiful planet! 

Lastly, Wildlands makes it possible for me to continually learn new things. I learn something new during every hike and project I do with them, since their staff offers expertise in various environmental fields. This year, I got CPR and basic first aid certified through a program they offered. I've attended talks and training sessions on invasive plant species, regional rewilding projects, fireflies, and more. My involvement with Wildlands even inspired me to seek appointment to Carver’s Conservation Commission, which I am currently serving. 

Now, back to the Last Day Hike with Malcolm. It felt good ending my year the same way I started it—outdoors, with a lovely group of nature appreciators. I stood up on the Big Point lookout (an awesome vista) and reflected on my 2023—a year of joy, fulfillment, and constant learning. 

Volunteer trail work day at North Fork Preserve in Bridgewater. (Ann is fourth from the right in the back row!)

So, if you want to be happier, healthier, and more productive, self-aware, and informed, I strongly recommend getting involved with Wildlands. While a financial contribution is certainly helpful, I think you have even more to gain by hiking or volunteering with them in the very spaces they work to protect. 

An environmentalist I truly admire is John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club. If you become a member of Wildlands, you will surely realize his life advice: “Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” 

I have taken more dirt paths than I will ever be able to count, in large part thanks to Wildlands Trust. In doing so, I feel happier, healthier, and more connected to nature and my community. I have made lasting and meaningful friendships and left a small but significant legacy that I hope others will enjoy well after I am no longer here. But, while I AM still here, if you decide to get involved with Wildlands, I hope to see you along one of those dirt paths one day. I promise that we will both leave that trail better for it. Happy 2024!

Ann Chadwick-Dias

Want to get involved? Visit our Events page for hikes, presentations, and more, and our Volunteer page for opportunities to lend a helping hand! 

Protected: Picone Farm, Middleborough

Picone Farm in Middleborough. Video by Reel Quest Films. (Click the center arrow to play.)

By Scott MacFaden, Director of Land Protection

In a series of closings in late August, the effort to permanently protect the 190-acre Picone Farm in Middleborough finally reached its long-sought conclusion. The project involved the Town of Middleborough, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR), Wildlands Trust, and the Hanover-based Greensmith Farm. 

Success wouldn’t have been possible without this diverse partnership that mobilized to secure the farm’s preservation. In December 2020, a 378-unit manufactured home development was proposed for the farm. Because the farm was enrolled in Chapter 61A, the Town had a Right of First Refusal on the property. This Right of First Refusal enabled the Town and its partners to devise the optimal preservation strategy, which proved to be dividing the farm into two halves: a “Town” component and a “farm” component. The Town of Middleborough acquired the Town component, and Greensmith Farm acquired the farm component. Wildlands will hold a Conservation Restriction (CR) on the Town component, and MDAR and the Town will hold an Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) on the farm component to ensure its permanent protection. 

As one of Middleborough’s largest and most significant remaining farmland tracts, Picone Farm had been a long-standing preservation priority for the Town and several of its open space partners. In addition to its extensive areas of prime farmland, the property includes approximately 6,000 feet of frontage on the Nemasket River. Juxtaposed with that river frontage are scenic rolling fields, a pond, several pockets of mature woodland, and a small stream that drains into the Nemasket. 

In the larger landscape context, Picone Farm was the largest remaining unprotected assemblage along the lower Nemasket River corridor north of Route 44 and one of the largest unprotected assemblages anywhere along the Nemasket’s 11.2-mile extent.  

The Town’s portion of the property will include community gardens and walking trails extending into the adjacent Town-owned Oliver Estate. The farm component will be privately owned and operated by Greensmith Farm, which plans to establish a farmstand offering agricultural products grown on site. 

Help us protect more of the special places of Southeastern Massachusetts: donate to Wildlands today.

Wildlands Hosts Volunteer Appreciation Lunch

By Max Phelps, Programming Coordinator

At Wildlands Trust, volunteers are integral to the work we do. We always appreciate our volunteers, but sometimes we must put sandwiches and cookies where our mouths are; our volunteers deserve no less.  

On December 9, Wildlands hosted an appreciation lunch for our Adopt-A-Preserve (AAP) and hike leader volunteers at the Stewardship Training Center. Volunteers gathered in our holiday-decorated home beside a (virtual) fire to see old friends and meet new ones.  

Our Adopt-A-Preserve program is an incredibly helpful and simple way for people to volunteer with Wildlands, but it can be somewhat solitary, so it’s important to build community through social gatherings. Most of our hike leaders started as AAP volunteers, so it was great to bring both groups together. After sitting down to a meal of sandwiches, soup, and salad, volunteers shared how they first got involved with Wildlands Trust. Stories ranged from running into staff members on the trails to posting photos of downed trees on Instagram to feeling a debt of gratitude after our preserves became a safe haven during the pandemic. Our longest-tenured volunteer has been working with us since 1999. Regardless of how or when their stories began, all our volunteers expressed a love for the work they do and an appreciation for what Wildlands does for the community and natural world.  

Zoë, our Stewardship Programs Manager, and I shared exciting volunteer numbers from 2023, including 120 miles hiked during Wildlands programs and 8,300 acres monitored by Adopt-A-Preserve volunteers. Afterwards, many attendees joined us for a three-mile hike at Halfway Pond Conservation Area along Leona’s and Gramp’s Loops, trails that our volunteers helped build. After an especially busy summer and fall at Wildlands, it was great to take the time to relax with our volunteers and express our gratitude for the time, knowledge, and hard work they donate to Wildlands. 

Thank you to all our volunteers! If you’d like to contribute your gifts to the Wildlands mission, explore our volunteer opportunities at wildlandstrust.org/volunteer or contact Zoë Smiarowski at zsmiarowski@wildlandstrust.org. 

Communities Unite to Expand D.W. Field Park

Waldo Lake in D.W. Field Park in Brockton and Avon. Photo by Jerry Monkman.

By Thomas Patti, Communications Coordinator

When we think about the benefits of nature, we often picture deep and dark woods, a majestic mountaintop vista, or vast, rolling fields. But acre for acre, city parks may do more for people, wildlife, and the planet than any other natural setting. When highly developed areas make room for nature, the social, economic, and ecological benefits are multiplied, making communities happier, healthier, cleaner, safer, and more resilient to climate change. 

D.W. Field Park serves hundreds of thousands in and around Brockton and Avon, two Environmental Justice communities in our region. Featuring miles of woodland paths, a public golf course, and five water bodies sprawled across 700 acres in the heart of this urban hub, the park represents a lot of things to a lot of people. A spiritual refuge from the commotion of city life. An outdoor gym for walking, running, and bicycling. An ecological haven for diverse wildlife. For many, the park is about family, and local generations past, present, and future: “I used to come here as a kid, and now I bring my son here,” said one park supporter. “A beautiful place that brought peace to my late husband and continues to bring peace to me,” said another. 

D.W. Field Park. Photo by Jerry Monkman.

Thanks to these supporters and more than 215 others in the Brockton, Avon, and Wildlands communities, D.W. Field Park is set to continue creating diverse meanings for the people and wildlife it sustains. On December 2, just 10 days after our campaign launch, Wildlands secured the 200 donations needed to unlock critical funding for the addition of 32 acres to this beloved urban sanctuary. These donors rose to the challenge of an anonymous foundation, whose generous contribution to the project was contingent on this show of community support. With these funds and others awarded by the Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) grant program (and approved by a positive town vote), the Town of Avon is finalizing the purchase of this woodland parcel west of Waldo Lake. (Read about our celebration of the MVP award here.) 

“The community continues to show up for D.W. Field Park,” said Wildlands Director of Special Projects Rachel Bruce. “Last time we asked for support, over 1,400 people answered a lengthy survey about park use. This most recent outpouring of generosity shows our current and future funders what we already know—that this park is cherished by those who use it, and that we need to do everything we can to keep improving this vital resource. I’m proud to be part of such an inspiring project and to work with so many caring people in Avon and Brockton.” 

D.W. Field Park. Photo by Jerry Monkman.

So far, 219 donations totaling $7,238 have affirmed the public’s investment in the future of D.W. Field Park. Pending completion of the land transaction, these funds will be integral to our efforts to improve natural access at this parcel. Planning and design work will take place through spring 2024, with implementation to follow. Stay tuned for updates on Facebook, Instagram, our E-News, and wildlandstrust.org/dwfieldpark as we carry on this vital work! 

To those who have donated: please accept our profound gratitude for your support. We are humbled by your generosity and eager to put it to good use, revitalizing the park for people and planet!

Haven’t donated yet? Act fast! Show your support by December 18 at bit.ly/expanddw. 

STC Progress Report

Leadership Council tour of the Stewardship Training Center in June 2023.

In its first year in operation, the Stewardship Training Center (STC) hit the ground running, offering pilot programs to diverse partners and developing creative and collaborative uses for its 12,000-square-foot building and 450-acre woodland campus on the shores of Halfway Pond.  

Wildlands Trust established the STC in 2022 to equip municipal and nonprofit partners with the stewardship capacity they need to maintain ever-expanding conservation lands across our region and state. 

From March to December 2023, 266 people engaged with the STC via programs, trainings, conferences, and residence. Training courses were presented by 17 different instructors and attended by staff of 16 organizations and eight municipalities. Nine organizations, in addition to Wildlands, used the facilities for their own training, research, and housing needs.  

Read on to learn more about the wide reach and varied programs at the STC this year. And stay tuned as the STC presses on into its second year!

By the Numbers

Since March, 28 organizations and municipalities have attended or led programs at the STC. These partners include Buzzards Bay Coalition, Manomet, Wareham Land Trust, New England Forestry Foundation, Berkshire Natural Resources Council, Orleans Conservation Trust, North County Land Trust, Rochester Land Trust, Mattapoisett Land Trust, Barnstable Land Trust, Friends of Conte, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Mass Audubon, Brewster Conservation Trust, Sierra Club, Mass Land Trust Coalition, Essex County Greenbelt, Sudbury Valley Trustees, South Shore YMCA, and the Towns of Duxbury, Marshfield, Kingston, Hanover, Halifax, Hanson, Plymouth, and Rockland , in addition to Wildlands.

Over the same time period, 266 people interacted with the STC through training programs, volunteer events, organizational conferences, and temporary residence supporting local conservation activities.

By the Dates

March 4-5: Basic Chainsaw Training and Safety for Land Stewards  

Bill Girard of Girard Custom Cut Hardwood (a Game of Logging training organization) instructed seven conservation professionals in basic chainsaw safety, use, and equipment maintenance. Read more here. 

June 26-27: Seasonal Land Steward Training 

Twelve seasonal land stewards from across the state converged on the STC to gain invaluable conservation skills and expand their professional network. Read more here. 

July 12: Municipal Volunteer Training – Focus Group 

Wildlands hosted a focus group of 12 municipal conservation professionals to assess training needs for local volunteers. The group will develop a tiered volunteer training program to increase stewardship capacity on municipal lands, to be piloted in 2024. 

July 15: Adopt-a-Preserve Trainer Training 

Five seasoned Wildlands Trust volunteers were trained to train the next wave of Adopt-a-Preserve participants. 

July 27: Summer of Service – Carpentry 

Through our Summer of Service program, 14 high school students from across the region learned to build bog boards, which were later installed at North Fork Preserve. 

July 29: First Aid for Conservation Volunteers 

Chris Crowther of Certified Rescue Courses taught eight volunteers how to treat basic medical incidents in the field. 

August 14-18: Sierra Club Service Trip

Twenty Sierra Club members from across the continent completed a service trip at the STC and Shifting Lots Preserve. 

September 10-11: Wilderness First Aid 

Hal Beck of SOLO Wilderness Medical School trained nine attendees how to respond to medical emergencies on trails.  

November 1: Greater Boston Regional Land Trusts Meeting 

Essex County Greenbelt and Sudbury Valley Trustees joined Wildlands at the STC to share success stories and lessons learned. 

November 3-4: MLTC Early Career Conservation Network 

Eight early-career conservationists met at the STC to bond, network, and explore Halfway Pond Conservation Area together. 

November 11-12: Felling and Storm Damage Chainsaw Training 

Bill Girard of Game of Logging instructed 10 land stewards in proper tree felling and storm damage clean-up techniques. 

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To learn more about the Stewardship Training Center, visit wildlandstrust.org/training or contact Stewardship Operations Manager Zoë Smiarowski at zsmiarowski@wildlandstrust.org.