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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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New Year’s Day at the Mass Central Rail Trail

Dec 29th, 2011 by admin

Greg Davis installing the face boards on the lattice truss bridge railing. Come on the 1st to see how much more progress he's made!

Did your new year’s resolution include more exercise and eating healthy? Add in good conversation and we’ll get your year started off right!

Come to the ‘Ski and Soup’ (though we’ll most likely be walking!)

at the Mass Central Rail Trail in New Braintree and Hardwick

on New Year’s Day beginning at 10am

We’ll meet at the old New Braintree Train Station site at the intersection of Hardwick and West Roads in New Braintree.  Then ski, snowshoe, sled or walk the trail.  You can cover the ½ mile to the Ware River or the full two miles to Creamery Road and then back again!  Once you’re appetite is in full force we’ll head up the hill to EQLT’s office for a potluck luncheon, hot soup is desired to warm everyone up, but not required.  Bring a favorite dish to share.  Bring the whole family, meet new friends and celebrate the start of 2012.

Questions? Contact Cynthia at 413-477-8229 or chenshaw@eqlt.org.

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Storm damaged cleaned up

Dec 4th, 2011 by admin

In late October a snow storm rolled through the low lying areas of the East Quabbin region depositing trees and branches across the area, including many of our walking trails. The Mass Central Rail Trail, Frohloff Farm and Moose Brook Preserve were especially hard hit. Our crews of dedicated volunteers have steadily worked to clean up the trails, and in the case of Moose Brook Preserve, even clearing the road to get to the parking area! Thank you to all that participated. The trails are open for walking. Enjoy!

Jeff Smith and Harry Webb, the chainsaw crew at Moose Brook Preserve on Dec. 3rd.

Young volunteers taking a break from trail clearing at Moose Brook Preserve.

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Herb spiral created outside QRHS greenhouse

Oct 26th, 2011 by admin

Placing stones while building the herb spiral

Earlier this week Quabbin Regional High School students created an herb spiral outside the school’s greenhouse with training from Kelly Wheeler, EQLT’s Americorps Service Learning Coordinator. The students are part of Mrs. Bottomley’s greenhouse class. The lesson started with an explanation of permaculture, which is the conscious design of “cultivated” ecosystems that have the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems. An herb spiral is often constructed from rocks and creates more vertical space and varied micro-climates to grow a variety of herbs in a small space. Those that like cooler, moister growing conditions would be on the north side  and herbs preferring warmer, drier conditions are planted on the south side. The herb spiral will be planted in the spring when warmer weather arrives!

QRHS students standing with their herb spiral outside the school greenhouse

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Two days, 105 timbers down!

Oct 11th, 2011 by admin

The weather this Columbus Day weekend was beautiful and the volunteers fantastic! So much work was accomplished that the decking on the lattice truss bridge is 2/3 finished. Thanks go out to everyone that helped, including  Samantha Bertrand, Evan Bonenfant, Jared Bonenfant, William Bottomley, Ric Craig, Bill Crowther, Leland Crowther, Greg Davis, Danielle Egan, Cynthia Henshaw, Judith Jones, Ashton Lenpold, Ian Mattson, Mark Mattson, Garrett Reilly, Don Rich, Ginny Rich, Rick Romano, Tanner Stuart, Sarah Wells, and Dean Zuppio.

Getting the first batch of timbers down.

Mark and Rick flipping some timbers into place

 

The next work day to lay down timbers will be Sunday, October 23rd starting at 9am. We’ll meet at the West Road entrance to the rail trail in New Braintree.

Please join us! And let Cynthia know if you plan to come. Thank you!

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Birding platform rises!

Oct 2nd, 2011 by admin

Pegging together part of the frame before it's raised

Despite the rainy weather on Saturday, the hearty crew of volunteers successfully raised the platform for the Chris Ellison Memorial Birding Platform. The platform is a post and beam structure twelve feet off the ground. The view will be incredible! We’ll add pictures once it’s finished and open for use.

The first step is to peg together the main timbers. Then they were raised, with the aid of a tractor and pegged together to form the perimeter. Then the floor joists were hoisted aloft by strong backs and tall ladders.

The second floor joist getting pegged into place

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dedicated (and soggy) volunteers under the birding platform

Many thanks to the numerous volunteers that helped make the birding platform a reality, including: Chris Buelow, Don Rich, Ginny Rich, Newell Shinn-Pledger, Ridge Shinn, Raymond Walker, Rod Leehy, Larry Crockett, Conner,  Lindsay Ellison, Steve, Bill, John Jones, Ed Richter, Brian, John Tomasi and Jerry Reilly.

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Decking down, more to come!

Sep 26th, 2011 by admin

Becky Bottomley, teacher at QRHS, taking a photo at the end of the workday

Students from Quabbin Regional High School spent their Saturday morning at the Hardwick/New Braintree section of the Mass Central Rail Trail. The students were participating in Moving Planet, a day of events across the world intended to get people out of their cars and into action either walking, bicycling, or working to improve the opportunities to do both.

Most of the students didn’t know that the Mass Central Rail Trail went through the communities in which they live. Now they can say they had a hand in opening up the rail trail that ultimately will run 104 miles from

Starting to lay the decking with more timbers coming on the tractor

Northampton to Boston. The section in Hardwick and New Braintree that the East Quabbin Land Trust is working on is 3.2 miles and includes four bridges.

The students started laying down the deck timbers and others clipped back brush and weed whacked around the other bridges. Their work combined with two passes of the brush mower is keeping the ever-increasing vegetation down at the edges. The students completed twenty five feet of decking in two hours and worked out a system for the simplest installation process. Very impressive!

 

Students from QRHS and adult volunteers happy the succesful workday is over!

We’re hoping to schedule the next workday to continue laying down the timbers for Columbus Day weekend. If you’re available, please email Cynthia at chenshaw@eqlt.org. Funding for rehabilitation of the lattice truss bridge is from the Mass. Recreational Trails Program and supporters of the East Quabbin Land Trust.

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Saturday Activities at the Frohloff Farm

Sep 12th, 2011 by admin

Margarita and Fred Brown with produce for sale at the Frohloff Farm Saturday

 

This past Saturday was a beautiful day in Ware. Bright and sunny. Perfect weather for a morning workday and afternoon of visitors to the Frohloff Farm.

During the morning, the hardworking crew continued clearing brush along Church Street, cleaned off some stonework, finished exposing the stone culvert near the pond, swept the barn, removed trees shading the pollinator garden, and set up the Story Walk. There are now several more brush piles getting “seasoned” for a winter workday!! Many thanks to Mark, Ian, Paul, Jerry, Dennis, Janice, Caren, Peter and Cynthia.

 

Isabella reading the story to Ginny, page by page, as they walk through the field to the Ware River

Visitors came by in the afternoon to explore the

property. Groups walked along the trail through the field to the bluff over the Ware River. The water level is still pretty high after all the rain of the last two weeks! Along the way the story written by the Quabbin Regional High School students this summer was posted as a story walk. The story was a result of their exploration of the Frohloff Farm and continued preparation for the MCAS. We hoped to be able to leave the story up for a while longer, but vandals damaged many of the supports, and in the process destroyed artwork created by youth at the Hardwick Fair. An unfortunate result from an interesting concept of combining educational prose with a beautiful walk on the Frohloff Farm.

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AmeriCorps Graduation

Aug 26th, 2011 by admin

Sarah Mildren accepting her recognition award from Dee Robbins, MassLIFT Coordinator

Sarah Mildren and eighteen other AmeriCorps volunteers have successfully finished their year of service through MassLIFT. Congratulations to them all for their wonderful service to communities across the Commonwealth. The number of events and projects they completed was truly impressive and they are off to bright futures.

The East Quabbin Land Trust is grateful to Sarah Mildren for all her efforts getting a Service Learning program off the ground. Through activities such as bird box building, trail clearing and pond exploring the youth in the East Quabbin region had the opportunity to get out on conservation land and get a closer look and feel for the natural world that supports us all. Relationships with teachers and youth leaders were built over the past year through Sarah’s efforts that will continue to expand the opportunities for service learning for years to come. Thank you Sarah!

MassLIFT AmeriCorps members 2010-2011

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Metal beam bridge in place

Aug 26th, 2011 by admin

Dan Hanson with his tractor after successfully lifting and lowering the metal beam bridge at the Mass Central Rail Trail

Yesterday the new metal bridge was lowered into place on the cement abutment, thanks to Dan Hanson and his mighty tractor. The front wheels got squished as the tractor lifted the heavy metal, but it worked perfectly and saved us several hours of jacking, then lowering, then rejacking, then lowering… Well you get the idea. It is a process to take the wooden blocks out from underneath the four corners of the new bridge.

This was the culmination of many stages (and there are a few more to come!). In late July Joe Bassett delivered the bridge that he’d welded in his shop. It came to the rail trail on his ramp truck, which was lowered down and with the aid of a metal pipe rolling along the wooden beams was centered over the span. Then the wooden beams had to be removed from underneath the metal bridge. Mark Mattson was the master-mind behind removing the beams and set of blocks at the river side of the bridge.

Now we’re ready to make the final adjustments and bolt the bridge in place. Then for the decking. If you can help with any of this work please contact Cynthia.

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