Spring Open House Ends Our 50th Year in Sun & Style

On Saturday, June 8, Wildlands closed out our 50th anniversary year the same way we started it—in deep gratitude for the people who support our work. 

Our Spring Open House drew almost 150 friends and neighbors to our headquarters at Davis-Douglas Farm. Farm-to-table Brazilian food from Gnarly Vines Farm, local beer and kombucha from IndieFerm Brewing, live music by the Butch McCarthy and Bob Calderara Duo, guided hikes at Emery Preserve, and kids’ nature crafts were among the highlights of this public celebration of springtime in Southeastern Massachusetts, and of the conservation lands and leaders that make our region special.  

“It is always a special time when we can bring new and longtime members of the Wildlands community together,” said Programming Coordinator Max Phelps. “Our Open House was a big success, thanks in large part to our wonderful volunteers, who safely parked cars and led two hikes in Emery Preserve.” 

The event also featured 12 raffles featuring prizes generously donated by farms and retailers across the region. We debuted our grand prize of a Current Designs Solara 100 kayak, courtesy of Billingston Sea Kayak and the Friends of IndieFerm. Kayak raffle entries will be accepted until the drawing on August 9. All raffle proceeds directly support our restoration campaign at Willow Brook Farm. 

While most of the fun took place outside on this sunny spring day, inside the Conservation Barn lay our “50 Remarkable Years, 50 Remarkable People” photo gallery, featuring the faces and stories of some of the key contributors to our mission over the last half-century. Set apart from the rest of the honorees and adorned with flowers was the display of Malcolm MacGregor, our longtime “Trail Guy” who passed away last month. Visitors seized the opportunity to write their fond memories of Malcolm on a poster to be presented to his family. 

On behalf of the Wildlands community, thank you for making this celebration—and our entire 50th anniversary year—a moment we will never forget. We cannot wait for the next 50 years, turning your continued support into more of the places you love. 

Click through the gallery below for photos from our Spring Open House.

Brockton Gives a Hoot About Conservation

Barred owl, presented by Eyes on Owls at Give a Hoot About the Park on May 19. Photo by Janet Trask.

The verdict is in. Brockton gives a hoot about local conservation! 

An eventful month has left no doubt that this city of over 100,000 residents in northwestern Plymouth County is invested in the protection and stewardship of its natural spaces. 

On Sunday, May 19, our Give a Hoot About the Park event attracted nearly 200 people to D.W. Field Park, a 700-acre urban oasis in Brockton and Avon. Despite considerable rain, friends and neighbors of all ages flocked to see live owls, presented by Eyes on Owls. Free lunch, catered by Lady C&J Soulfood, rewarded those who braved the inclement weather!  

About a dozen community groups joined us, as well, offering information about how the public can get involved in local conservation efforts. 

“This event put local environmental stewardship on display and continued our efforts to build community at D.W. Field Park,” said Wildlands Chief of Staff Rachel Bruce. “The success of Give a Hoot was largely due to the collaborative efforts of our partners at Old Colony Planning Council, the D.W. Field Park Association, the Town of Avon, and the City of Brockton. The dedicated folks of the D.W. Field Park Initiative will continue to work to provide opportunities and resources for this community, who show up to support the park time and time again!” 

The public celebration, as well as the Town of Avon’s recent acquisition of 30 woodland acres abutting D.W. Field Park, were partially funded by the Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness grant program. 

Less than a week later, a determined group of students from Brockton High School ventured to Wachusett Reservoir to demonstrate that the future of our region’s natural resources is in capable hands. On May 23, the Brockton High School Envirothon team competed at the 2024 Massachusetts Envirothon, putting their environmental knowledge, skills, and leadership to the test. The students rose to the occasion, placing in the top five in two categories, Wildlife and Current Issue, where this year, students presented on Clean Energy for a Sustainable Future.

“Our Envirothon team this year was almost entirely new to the competition,” said Programming Coordinator Max Phelps, who co-coached this year’s team. “It was wonderful to see their growth in knowledge and confidence over the school year culminate in amazing presentations. I can’t wait to see what they accomplish in the future.” 

On June 4, the Envirothon team received citations from the Brockton Mayor’s Office in recognition of their excellence at the state competition. Thank you, Mayor Sullivan and the City of Brockton, for celebrating these passionate young leaders! 

Wildlands has co-coached and sponsored the Brockton High School Envirothon team since 2015, with Manomet co-coaching since 2021. Learn more here. 

Our work in Brockton continues! For updates about our D.W. Field Park Initiative, visit dwfpi.org. 

Remembering Malcolm MacGregor

Wildlands Trust fondly remembers Malcolm MacGregor, who passed away on May 31, 2024. He was 81. 

Following the heartbreaking news, President Karen Grey shared the following with the Wildlands family: 

Malcolm came to Wildlands for a nine-month sabbatical and stayed 11 years, endearing himself to so many of us during that time. Wildlands benefitted from Malcolm’s skills, which were vast and deep. He helped us with GIS mapping, led hikes, took on woodworking projects, and most importantly, helped us navigate Plymouth town hall politics. Malcolm served on the Plymouth planning board for many, many years and was one of those rare individuals who earned the respect of everyone, even those who didn’t agree with him. 

We will remember Malcolm as a healthy and vibrant person, hiking 50-ish miles a week, and helping in any way he could to advance the Wildlands mission. 

Please get out for a hike and think of Malcolm, forever our “Trail Guy.” 

Hear also from Francis Mand, Vice President of the Southeastern Massachusetts Pine Barren Alliance, about his longtime partner in Plymouth conservation: 

Along with dozens of hand-made ornaments on the town's holiday tree that represented local non-profits, there were also nearly a hundred images of the individual volunteers who give their time and effort to those organizations including—if you looked closely—one with the image of Malcolm MacGregor. 

Malcolm was elected to numerous terms on the Planning Board, was an important contributor to the work of the Wildlands Trust, and was a tireless advocate for the establishment of hiking trails throughout Plymouth. 

In the past 20 years or so Malcolm probably spent more time in the woods than out of it. Whenever I drove down Long Pond Road, or down Bourne Road, his yellow Miata was often there, peeking out of the woods—though he was nowhere to be seen. 

He didn't need any encouragement, or company, to 'take a walk,' but oftentimes he led friends down trails that you had to 'believe' were there, because you couldn't often see the path he seemed to be following. 

It wasn't actually 'bushwhacking,' maybe more akin to 'trail blazing,' so if you went with him you had to have faith he knew where he was going. 

He did. He does.  

Malcolm is free to roam at will now, and undoubtedly we will be hearing his footfall as long as Plymouth can preserve the wild places he loved so well. 

Walk on, Malcolm: we'll try to keep up. 

Malcolm’s full obituary can be found in the Plymouth Independent here.

A letter to the editor by Anatol Zuckerman recounted his friend’s early understanding of the incompatibility of status-quo development planning with the rising threat of climate change: read it here.

Above: we interviewed Malcolm in July 2023 as part of our 50 Remarkable Years, 50 Remarkable People series. You can view his entry in our anniversary book here.

Finally, learn more about Malcolm’s time with Wildlands in his staff bio: 

Malcolm MacGregor is affectionately known as “The Trail Guy” here at Wildlands. Retired from a lifelong career at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, he now spends much of his time doing what he loves most—hiking. On average, Malcolm gets out on the trails about 3-4 times a week, covering a total of 20-25 miles! He has more experience than most with the wooded trails in his hometown of Plymouth, MA, and he frequently shares his local knowledge (and continues to find and explore new routes) on the group hikes that he regularly leads. One of his favorite places to spend the day is in the woods of Plymouth’s Pine Hills, but Malcolm’s also happy when working on GIS mapping.  

Malcolm is dedicated to using his experience and knowledge to understand and anticipate the local impacts of global climate change. He was drawn to Wildlands because he believes that the protection of land, particularly forest land, is critical. He points out that while forests help to control the amount of carbon dioxide in the air everywhere, they are of particular significance in Plymouth, where vast tree cover currently protects invaluable, extensive groundwater resources. But, if you were to ask Malcolm directly about how he came to do GIS mapping here at Wildlands, he’d probably offer a more humble response, like, “Wildlands needed it, and I could do it.” 

Throughout his life, Malcolm has had an extensive public service career. He recently retired as the chair of the Plymouth Planning Board, where he served for 35 years. In total, he has spent 50 years in Plymouth’s Town government, including positions on the Conservation Commission and as the Chairman of the Board of Health. While serving the Town of Plymouth, Malcolm also established a noteworthy career in higher education. In his tenure at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Malcolm began as a professor of math and physics, but later shifted his primary instructional focus to GIS mapping for the degree programs in Emergency Management and Marine Safety and Environmental Protection that he created at the school. An academic by nature, Malcolm holds degrees from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the University of Connecticut, and conducted post-doctoral research at both the Naval Research Laboratory, in Washington D.C., and the University of Chicago. 

We miss Malcolm dearly and express our profound condolences to all of his friends, family, and admirers, who surely numbered in the thousands across Plymouth and beyond.

Please leave your memories of our beloved “Trail Guy” in the comments below.

Hartwell Family Preserve donated in Pembroke

Belle [Hartwell] Barnes with the new Hartwell Family Preserve sign at Davis-Douglas Farm in Plymouth.

In land conservation, context is key. Even a relatively small parcel can derive significant value from the people and places it connects through space and time. 

In Pembroke, an unassuming woodland looms much larger than its 7.9-acre frame when viewed within its geographic and historical context. Thanks to a generous family donation, this small yet meaningful property will carry an outsized impact on the local and regional landscape for generations to come. 

Last December, Belle and Michael Barnes donated the Hartwell Family Preserve to Wildlands Trust in honor of Belle’s mother, Thelma Hartwell. Thelma placed a Conservation Restriction (CR) on the land in 1980, when the state CR program was in its infancy. 

“Thelma was a conservationist ahead of her time,” said Wildlands Director of Land Protection Scott MacFaden. In addition to protecting her own land, Thelma served on the Pembroke Conservation Commission and wrote nature-based articles for local newspapers. 

Hear from Belle and Michael Barnes themselves about their decision to donate the family land: 

We are privileged to be able to donate the “Hartwell Family Preserve” in memory of Everett and Thelma “Teddy” Hartwell to Wildlands Trust. In 1953, Everett and Thelma Hartwell built their home at 347 Pleasant Street in East Pembroke, on a portion of property that had been in the Hartwell family since the early 1920s. They raised Everett’s sons Bob and Karl, and their children Belle and Wayne, to appreciate both the importance of stewardship of the land and the amazing habitat of flora and fauna it contained. Teddy was a die-hard conservationist with a passion for protecting our natural resources, especially wetland areas. Her career as an educator involved her teaching history, biology, and chemistry for many years. When her children were born, she housed a private kindergarten at the property and taught her students an appreciation of the nature around them. In later years, when she returned to working outside the home, she taught “Outdoor Education” for the Audubon Society in several area school systems. In the late ’70s, when she could no longer work outside the home, she wrote several articles for the Silver Lake News, focusing on subjects about protecting and enjoying our natural resources. She served on Pembroke’s Conservation Committee for several years. She helped to create two nature trails, one in Pembroke and one at Camp Wing in Duxbury. She was considered a visionary by some for putting the majority of the property’s acreage into a Conservation Restriction to forever protect this amazing ecosystem. For the above reasons, we chose to donate this land, and are thankful to Wildlands for carrying on our family’s legacy. 

– Belle [Hartwell] and Michael Barnes, April 2024 

In addition to this rich cultural legacy, the Hartwell Family Preserve holds significant ecological value: 

• Protects wildlife habitat of statewide importance: The property lies within multiple areas identified by the Commonwealth’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program as significant wildlife habitats, including: 

  •  BioMap Core Components 

    • Aquatic Core 

    • Rare Species Core

  • BioMap Critical Natural Landscape Components

    • Aquatic Core Buffer 

    • Landscape Blocks 

  • BioMap Elements

    • Core Habitat 

    • Critical Natural Landscape 

• Provides habitat and recreational connectivity: The property directly abuts a 268-acre expanse of open space owned by the Town of Pembroke. Said expanse formerly contained a reservoir used by cranberry growers, but the dam holding the reservoir breached in the early 1990s. The former reservoir area now contains a rich diversity of wetland types along the daylighted riparian corridor. 

Wildlands will manage the Hartwell Family Preserve as Forever Wild, giving local flora and fauna a permanent place to thrive in a rapidly changing world. 

We sincerely thank Belle, Michael, Thelma, and the rest of the Hartwell family for their commitment to preserving the natural beauty of our region.

To explore opportunities to conserve your land with Wildlands, click here.

Conferences Send Wildlands Across State and Country

From left: Communications Coordinator Thomas Patti, Key Volunteer Skip Stuck, Land Protection Assistant Tess Goldmann, Membership & Digital Media Coordinator Kyla Isakson, and Programming Coordinator Max Phelps at the Wildlands table at the Massachusetts Land Conservation Conference in Amherst, MA.

In late March, Wildlands Trust staff and volunteers ventured far and wide to learn new and improved ways to advance our mission in Southeastern Massachusetts. Two conferences—one in Georgia and the other in western Mass—left our team inspired and empowered to elevate our service to the people and places of our region. Read on to learn more about both.

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Sustainable Trails Conference – Lake Lanier Islands, Georgia 

By Erik Boyer, Director of Field Operations 

From March 19 to 21, Stewardship Operations Manager Owen Grey, Stewardship Programs Manager Zoë Smiarowski, and I attended the Sustainable Trails Conference on Lake Lanier Islands, Georgia. Since a focus of this year’s conference was on building diverse trail communities, we thought it would be a great opportunity to learn from stewardship practitioners across the country and world about their past successes and failures as we ramp up our own community-building efforts here in Southeastern Massachusetts, including volunteer programming at the Stewardship Training Center. 

Several workshops left us with valuable insight to apply to our work moving forward. Jordan Sellers of the Blue Ridge Conservancy spoke about the benefits of surveying the plant and animal life along prospective trail corridors and incorporating the findings into subsequent trail design. This method seemed like a promising way to balance recreation and habitat values on conservation lands, always a priority at Wildlands. 

In another illuminating session, Stephen Kasacek and Michael Smith of the Outdoor Sport Institute presented a dynamic partnership working to build a trails culture in rural Maine. Raising awareness and resources for public outdoor recreation comes with unique challenges in rural communities, and their holistic approach offered some exciting solutions. 

Then, Peter Jensen of Peter S. Jensen & Associates, LLC shared a few creative renovation options for trails degraded by extreme overuse. For example, covering roots and rocks along the trail can both improve accessibility and reduce erosion caused by visitors moving around the obstacle. 

A final roundtable discussion explored opportunities to minimize conflicts on multiuse trails, such as those between hikers and mountain bikers. Improving visibility around tight turns, for instance, can help trail users spot and avoid potential collisions. On the other hand, tight turns can also serve to slow mountain bikers down, keeping bikers and pedestrians safe. 

All of these sessions, not to mention the many informal conversations we had with land stewards from around the world, left us with plenty to think about on our long trip back to Plymouth and still today. A key takeaway: as Wildlands extends its reach beyond our traditional coverage area and into more rural and urban communities, we must go outside of our comfort zone to engage new audiences in our work. After all, a trail system is only as effective as its host community is aware, enthusiastic, and invested in its success. We look forward to applying both the technical and social lessons of the conference to our mission of connecting more people with the mental, physical, and spiritual benefits of outdoor recreation. 

Director of Field Operations Erik Boyer and Stewardship Operations Manager Owen Grey at Slow Pour Brewing in Lawrenceville, Georgia.

Massachusetts Land Conservation Conference – Amherst, Massachusetts 

Meanwhile, Wildlands staff members Max Phelps, Kyla Isakson, Tess Goldmann, and Thomas Patti, along with key volunteer Skip Stuck, ventured to Amherst, Massachusetts, for the annual Massachusetts Land Conservation Conference, hosted by the Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition. The night before the conference, the Wildlands staff members joined the Early Career Conservation Network at MacLeish Field Station in Whately, where interdisciplinary artist Gina Siepel presented their project “To Understand a Tree” and field station manager Paul Wetzel gave a tour of the grounds, featuring an American chestnut tree orchard. 

At the conference itself, the Wildlands team learned about such diverse topics as planned giving, farmland protection tools, creating antiracist land trusts, and watershed-scale collaboration to advance climate resilience. We left no stone unturned! 

The highlight of the conference was the keynote address by Darren Ranco, PhD, a citizen of the Penobscot Nation, Professor of Anthropology, Chair of Native American Programs, and Faculty Fellow at the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions at the University of Maine. Dr. Ranco’s presentation, “Centering Indigenous Peoples and Nations in Land Protection and Conservation: Wabanaki Possibilities,” explored his work with the Wabanaki Commission on Land and Stewardship. By moving at the speed of trust, Dr. Ranco said, land trusts and Indigenous people can restore their relationships with each other and with the lands they mutually cherish.  

All the while, we spread the word about our Stewardship Training Center among fellow conservationists from across the state at our Wildlands table. 

It was another great year at the Massachusetts Land Conservation Conference! We look forward to continuing to support and attend this important opportunity for the state land conservation community to exchange stories and ideas for the benefit of our shared missions.