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Construction projects nearly done!

May 5th, 2012 by admin

Working to install railings at the birding platform.

Generators were heard buzzing at Mandell Hill over the past two days as work on the Chris Ellison Memorial Birding Platform and a nearby stile were under construction. Great progress was made! By the end of this coming week we expect both projects to be finished.

Under the direction of master carpenter Greg Davis, the productive crew of Harrison Achilles, John and Jane Freeman, and Jim Cameron installed the rails, balusters and railing caps around the observation deck and started down the stairs. A big thanks to them for volunteering their time and expertise to get the platform ready to welcome property visitors just in time as bobolinks and meadowlarks get back to the fields at Mandell Hill.

Linda, Gladys and Jim perched at the new stile at Mandell Hill.

 

With the birding platform expected to be a highlight of everyone’s trip to Mandell Hill, the blue diamond loop trail is being rerouted to include the platform and then pass back over the stone wall on its way to the woods. This requires a stile to be sure walkers can pass safely. A sturdy ‘A’ frame stile was built to do just that! Thank you to Linda Leehy, Jim Cameron, Gladys Mountain and Caren Caljouw for giving up their Saturday to make the stile a reality!

Bring your family and friends to Mandell Hill to check out the birding platform and walk the loop trail!

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Celebrating Conservation!

Apr 29th, 2012 by admin

Crowd gathered for the opening remarks at the West Brookfield Wildlife Management Area

Over eighty people came to celebrate opening of the new West Brookfield Wildlife Management Area on Saturday. The enthusiasm for conservation of such a large, important part of town was palpable as the crowd applauded for Myland McRevey and the whole McRevey family for their critical role in conservation of the land. The beautiful fields along Wickaboag Valley Road, wooded hillsides and a mile long section of Mill Brook make up the new Wildlife Management Area.

Looking across the Mill Brook wetland complex towards the slopes of Whortleberry Hill.

 

After the formal remarks there was a guided tour of the property, including an overview of the meandering wetlands that are full of native plants and crossing Mill Brook to explore the Whortleberry Hill side of the stream. Visitors are invited back to make their own investigations of the land. A parking area along Wickaboag Valley Road provides access to the field and Mill Brook.

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Bring on the rain!

Apr 21st, 2012 by admin

All done! The happy rain garden installers taking a moment to enjoy the final product. There are nearly 200 water loving plants under the hay!

Many thanks to the Quabbin Regional High School Envirothon team and their teacher Becky Bottomley for their hardwork creating a rain garden at the Frohloff Farm!! Envirothon teams representing schools and community organizations across the state prepare through the year for a statewide event in May that tests their knowledge of forest, wildlife, water, and soil resources, and current environmental issues. The program stresses the interdependence of human and natural systems and emphasizes hands-on, team-oriented problem solving and community involvement.

The Envirothon theme this year is ‘Storm Water’, so creating a rain garden is a fabulous practical project for the students to participate in. Typically a rain garden is designed to capture rain from impervious surfaces like roof tops and parking lots. Rain gardens use native plants to slow down the water, filter out any pollutants and provide habitat for native insects and other animals.

The area before installation of the rain garden.

 

 

The rain garden was created at the exit of a culvert that brings water from the west side of Church Street over to the barn side of Frohloff Farm. Kelly Wheeler, EQLT’s Americorps Service Learning Coordinator, worked with the Envirothon team members to design several rock wall embankments that slow the water and create visually diverse layers. In advance, the team members learned about the plant species to determine the best location for planting.

Mixing in a combination of shredded leaves and planting mix to help absorb water and provide more nutrients.

Despite the lack of rain across the region, including Ware, there was water trickling out of the culvert. The team members jumped right into the swale to dig up the remaining grasses and sedges, and then spent considerable time stomping in the leaf/planting mix to create a better medium for the actual planting. Nearly 200 plant plugs were installed including blue flag iris, blue verbena, red cardinal flower and swamp milkweed, plus two common elderberry and two high bush blueberry. A layer of hay was put down to act as mulch, so right now you can’t see the plants well, but just wait a few weeks when they get established! It’s going to look fabulous.

Thank you to members of the Quabbin Regional High School Envirothon team, Becky Bottomley, Ginny Rich, and Kelly Wheeler for all their assistance with the rain garden installation. Thank you to Matt Koziol for helping clear out the swale. Many thanks to the Edward J. Urban Foundation for financial assistance to support creation of the rain garden!!

 

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Compass use and preserve boundary identification

Apr 1st, 2012 by admin

Volunteers discussing the role of preserve stewards at Mandell Hill

On Saturday a group of volunteers attended the first training session for Preserve Stewards, which was geared towards getting to know preserve boundaries and the tools available. During the indoor session we discussed how to use topographical maps and aerial maps to know what to expect during a field visit, how to use a compass to guide you across the landscape and GPS to take waypoints, and safety precautions when working outdoors. Outdoors the group reassembled at Mandell Hill, on Barre Road in Hardwick to review existing maps, boundary markers and the unique ecological management objectives for the property.

There will be additional trainings offered, the next in May for anyone interested in participating in routine monitoring of the bobolink and meadowlark populations at Mandell Hill. This training is open to anyone interested in assisting the land trust in our bird population monitoring program. A second training specifically for Preserve Stewards is planned for the fall. If you want to learn more about becoming a preserve steward, please contact Caren Caljouw at Caren @eqlt.org. We welcome multiple preserve stewards at each property, so don’t be shy!

 

 

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Beet greens!

Mar 23rd, 2012 by admin

Enjoying beet greens, trying a new and tasty treat!

Yesterday the Kid Stop School Age Program was caught red handed–eating raw beets!  In preparation for their summer farming program at Frohloff Farm the children were learning about different plant foods.  They were given a picnic basket loaded with a variety of vegetables and asked what they were and what part of the plant the edible part came from.  They learned that corn, wheat, oats, rice, and sugar all come from large grasses.  They also learned that although a potato grows underground, it is botanically considered a modified stem, not a root.  The best part came when we cut all the veggies up and ate them for snack.  Who would have guessed you could get kids to try raw beets and they would like them!  They were even more excited when I told them the beet greens were also edible.  When they came through the snack line they asked, “Can I have more of the weeds please?”  It just goes to show that educating kids about food in a fun way has amazing and unexpected results!

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Very Successful Eleventh Annual Dinner and Silent Auction

Feb 22nd, 2012 by admin

Pam and Ray Robinson looking over the silent auction items

The Eleventh Annual Dinner and Silent Auction last Saturday night was a great success! With over 200 people in attendance, it was the biggest crowd to date. People came from throughout the East Quabbin region, representing all eight towns plus others across the area.  Everyone had the opportunity to make new friends, renew acquaintances and greet old friends.

A big thank you to our sponsors, including: New Harbor Financial, Country Corners Storage, Cultural Center at Eagle Hill, Dresser and McGourthy Attorneys at Law, FamilyFirst Bank, Five Star Services Plumbing, Hardwick Sugar Shack, and Rose 32 Bread.

The evening included toasts to Magi Durham Ziff and Ray Buelow, two good friends of the land trust that passed away in 2011 and are dearly missed. We celebrated the many successes of last year, especially with the conservation of the McRevey Family Trust property of 324 acres in West Brookfield that is now the West Brookfield Wildlife Management Area.

 

Several coming activities in 2012 were highlighted, including:

1) Book discussion of The Nature Principle by Richard Louv,

2) Frohloff Farm Youth Garden,

3) Conservation of Landworks Farm in Petersham,

4) Preserve Steward volunteer training, and

5) Station Loop Ramble 5-mile race.

The evening was rounded out by a performance from the Band of Voices, who shared several songs that focus on our connection with the land. In addition, the song “This Land is Your Land” was debuted with regionally associated words written by Sam Wels, which is the East Quabbin Land Trust’s new theme song.

As a fundraiser the evening was a terrific success! The silent auction raised over $12,000, thanks to the many donations of incredibly diverse and interesting items available. In addition, a 1:1 challenge to the audience was made and encouraged over $15,000 in additional pledges to support the East Quabbin Land Trust.

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Fun roasting hotdogs and making s’mores

Feb 8th, 2012 by admin

Roasting a hotdog at the Frohloff Farm

The weather on Saturday was terrific for the scheduled Full Moon Snowshoe Walk and Bonfire, only no snow! A crowd of over fifty people descended on the Frohloff Farm after dark to explore the land, swap stories and meet others interested in the land. Kids of all ages roasted hotdogs and marshmallows using willow sticks to get the food to the perfect shade of brown. As always happens a few landed in the coals and others got burned, but hey, what’s a bonfire without burning some of the food!

 

Some of the participants that wandered to the Ware River bluff under the light of a full (or almost full) moon.

 

A good size group, maybe 25 strong, trooped through the fields, past the farm pond and down to the bluff at the Ware River. The moon was high overhead and plenty bright for the walk. We all brought flashlights just in case! There is still a lot of brush down from the October snow storm, so we made it to the bluff but couldn’t walk along the edge as we looked out over the river. It was beautiful to see the moonlight reflecting on the water.

 

Burning brush before the bonfire to be sure there were hot coals for roasting!

Many thanks to Paul, Kristen, Josh, Susan and Boz for their help earlier in the day Saturday. The weather was perfect to burn the many brush piles along the road that had piled up with damaged limbs from the roadside trees. This pile was burned in anticipation of the bonfire, to be sure there were good hot coals ready for hungry visitors. There is plenty more to do at the Frohloff Farm to get the property and trails back opened for the spring. Please join us at our next workday on the farm. Check our event page to get the most up to date listing of work days.

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Going Wild at the Woods Memorial Library!

Feb 3rd, 2012 by admin

Making pine cone bird feeders at the Woods Memorial Library

The Barre Library’s weekly story time was a little more wild than usual this past Wednesday, February 1st.  Kelly Wheeler, our Service Learning Coordinator from Americorps brought a treasure trove of native animal skins and skulls to share with the children.  When the children walked in the library, their eyes lit up with excitement.  They learned about the native wildlife in their backyards and were able to touch the firs.  They saw otter, mink, fishers, moose bones, a Great Blue Heron skull, a bobcat skull and many more.  They also found out that deer have no top teeth!  The last thing they were shown was a large white tailed deer skin that was laid out on the floor.  All at once, all the children dove on the skin, except the one or two who couldn’t decide whether or not these animals were alive and ready to bite them!

After the skins were safely put away, we brought out the peanut butter and pine cones to make bird feeders.  These feeders provide the native birds a much needed source of food in the leaner winter months.  The kids were really excited to go home and hang up their feeders to see what birds they could spot.  If you have little ones, the Woods Memorial Library has a weekly story time every Wednesday morning at 10:30.

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Beautiful Day to Burn Brush!

Jan 28th, 2012 by admin

Burning brush in the Mandell Hill orchard

 

Today was a really beautiful day for burning brush; sunny, cool and a slight breeze. It took some effort to get the fires started but once they got going all the brush piles got burned. Check out the cleaned up orchard the next time you drive along Barre Road in Hardwick!

Many thanks to Chris, Jeff, Mark and Caren for their hard work today!!

 

 

 

Next Saturday we’ll be burning more brush at the Frohloff Farm on Church Street in Ware in advance of the Full Moon Bonfire and Walk, which starts at 6pm. Bring the whole family to walk to the bluff over the Ware River and share hot dogs, s’mores and hot cocoa at the bonfire. Hope you can join us!

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Welcome 2012!

Jan 1st, 2012 by admin

Hikers at the lattice truss on January 1, 2012.

Over forty people, and several dogs, welcomed 2012 by walking the Hardwick and New Braintree section of the Mass Central Rail Trail on January 1st. After building up an appetite walking the full two miles and back, many walkers shared a lunch of delicious soups, bread and Robinson Farm cheese at the land trust office. What a wonderful way to start off the new year! Hope you will join us in 2013!

You and your family are invited to explore the 2-mile section of rail trail when you have the time. It’s a wonderful walk and just a 1/2 mile from the former New Braintree Train Station site at West and Hardwick Roads in New Braintree.

 

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