As part of our Volunteer Bark Ranger Program earlier this year, our Bark Rangers were on the lookout for trail visitors who practiced good dog-walking behavior. We added the names of these folks to a free drawing for a prize basket of dog treats, toys, and a $25 gift card donated by Mary Clark of Loyal Companion in Sudbury.

The winners are Andy Wineman and his family, who frequent Greenways Conservation Area in Wayland. The Winemans have two dogs: Percy and Sampson, black labs who are brothers from the same litter. 

The Winemans are exemplary trail users. They always pick up after their animals, and they keep Percy and Sampson on leash to ensure the dogs don't chase ducks or other wildlife. The Wineman children know they must ask permission before petting other dogs, and the entire family appreciates it when other doig walkers prevent their animals from jumping.

When the family stopped by Wolbach Farm to retrieve their prize, Andy acknowledged that there are many responsible dog walkers at Greenways, and he said he appreciates having access to such an amazing and beautiful property for his family to enjoy. One of his sons wanted to remind everyone to kindly pick up after their dogs.

Since the Town of Wayland offers both waste bags and waste removal at Greenways, doing the right thing is easy!

Save the date for SVT's 2019 Annual Meeting:

Thursday, September 19

Framingham Village Hall
2 Oak Street (off Edgell Road), Framingham

6:30 pm: Social Hour & Light Refreshments

7:15 - 9:00 pm: Meeting

During the Meeting, we will recap SVT's successes from the past year, elect new board members and officers, and present our Annual Awards to outstanding conservationists from around the region.

In July, the Westford Conservation Commission and SVT acquired a conservation restriction (CR) on 45 acres of Salt Box Farm on Hildreth Street and Wright Lane in Westford. The scenic property includes open meadow, hay fields, woodlands, wetlands, and a vernal pool.

Salt Box Farm also connects several other existing conservation lands: Westford’s Prospect Hill Conservation Area (where SVT also holds a CR), the Hildreth Hills Conservation Land, and 65 acres of Town Conservation Land.

To fund the purchase of the CR, the Town of Westford allocated $1.163 million, and the Westford Land Preservation Foundation (WLPF) is raising $185,000 from individual donors (see "Fundraising Campaign," below). SVT provided technical assistance during the acquisition and will help in the long-term monitoring of the property as a co-holder of the CR.

The CR will permit some farming and grazing as well as forestry and other conservation uses. The view of the property from Hildreth Street will be permanently preserved via a scenic buffer. There are also plans to create a public trail that will connect Hildreth Street to the Burns Hill Trail on the Town Conservation Land.

Thank you to all who supported this important effort!  

WHY PROTECT THIS LAND

Given its topography and road frontage, Salt Box Farm was a prime target for residential development, which would have permanently degraded the conservation values of the land.Its protection now offers a wide range of conservation and recreation benefits, including linking existing conservation land, preserving more than 10 acres of deciduous wooded swamp and a large certified vernal pool, expanding a local trail network, and preserving Westford’s scenic character.

Protection of the property will create a 189-acre conservation corridor by connecting the Hildreth Hills Conservation Area to the north with Town-owned conservation land to the south and a 3-acre parcel recently protected by the Westford Conservation Trust to the west. The CR also includes a public trail easement, which will connect to and expand an existing 2-mile trail network. Finally, protecting the farm will help preserve the scenic character of Westford and maintain a valuable working landscape.

Fundraising Campaign

Our partner, the Westford Land Preservation Foundation, is just $35,000 from reaching its goal of $185,000 to support this important purchase. To learn more about how you can help and take advantage of a challenge matching gift, please visit the WLPF website.

SVT and several of our conservation partners have determined that several thousand acres of land in Harvard, Littleton, and Boxborough provide much-needed habitat for wildlife while protecting important natural resources for humans.

These partners include the Littleton Conservation Trust (LCT), Harvard Conservation Trust (HCT), and Boxborough Conservation Trust (BCTrust). Along with other representatives of the three towns, this partnership has identified an area running along the Shrewsbury Ridge (south of Oak Hill in Littleton) as being of the utmost importance to conserve.

“The Shrewsbury Ridge is a remarkable area,” said Ashley Davies, Senior Land Conservation Specialist at SVT. “The ridge has vast undisturbed areas of forests, meadows, wetlands, and streams that provide habitat for countless plant and animal species.”

“In fact, The Nature Conservancy has identified the area as a ‘resilient site,’ which means it should continue to support a diverse array of plants and animals in a changing climate.”

Davies added that the extensive forests near the area’s many waterways also filter impurities out of our air and water, so they directly contribute to the health of the region’s wildlife and people.

She continued, “As a result of the important ecology of the region, SVT and our partners in the three towns consider this area to be a high priority for conservation. We’re cooperating on a project we call the ‘High Ridge Initiative’ in order to protect these important landscapes from wide-scale development that would have a negative impact on local health.”

Three properties have already been protected as part of the High Ridge Initiative: Horse Meadows Knoll in Harvard, Smith Conservation Area in Littleton, and Elizabeth Brook Knoll in Boxborough. All three properties have hiking trails that are open to the public.

The landscape of the region has undergone many changes over time, which has contributed to its rich wildlife habitat and interesting geologic formations. Twelve thousand years ago, the area around Oak Hill was covered by the waters of glacial Lake Nashua. As recently as the 1600s, forests filled the landscape, but these were cleared by colonial settlers for lumber and firewood. More recently, new forests have grown in abandoned agricultural fields, and these are interspersed with working farms and orchards.

During our recent BioBlitz event, SVT and our partners identified hundreds of species of plants and animals in the area.

To encourage the public to learn more about the natural resources and geology of the High Ridge region, we hosted a "Habitats of Horse Meadows Knoll" walk on July 17, and we are hosting two “Geology of Smith Conservation Area” tours of the Smith Property that spans the Littleton-Harvard line. Expert geologists will describe ponds, vernal pools, an esker, and numerous erratics that were left behind by the last glacier. Participants will also see bedrock exposures and learn how different types of rock fit into the general plate tectonics of the area.

The tour on July 22 is full, but there are still spaces available in the July 30 outing, which is scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m. Registration is required.

More than 30 intrepid volunteers took part in our first BioBlitz on June 22, 2019, to search for wildlife on conservation lands in the Harvard-Littleton-Boxborough area. We collaborated on this project with several conservation partners: Harvard Conservation Trust, Littleton Conservation Trust, Town of Harvard, Town of Littleton, and Boxborough Conservation Trust.

Volunteer naturalists checked in at Prospect Hill Farm in Harvard early on that sunny Saturday morning before heading out to their assigned areas. After spending the morning cataloging their observations, these naturalists returned to Prospect Hill to enjoy a hearty lunch provided by Wegmans.

On Thursday, June 27, we shared the results of our observations during a celebratory event at Prospect Hill. Altogether, we observed 346 species with over 850 individual observations made!

We uploaded the findings--and several photographs--to the iNaturalist app. Our findings will help SVT and our conservation partners better manage our lands, and they will also help other researchers study wildlife patterns.

Visit the BioBlitz iNaturalist page to see our results, including the results from our Discovery Days when we trained volunteers in the skills they would need for BioBlitz. And if you are so inclined, you can help us identify some of the more mysterious species we encountered!

(To learn which properties were included in the BioBlitz, download the PDF that we provided to participants.)

Thank you to everyone who participated, and special thanks to Community Harvest Project at Prospect Hill Farm for hosting these events.

SVT 2019 BioBlitz: Cool Observations

Check out this slide show of just a few of the species we observed between May and June: