MassWildlife Grant Supports Desert Project
SVT and the City of Marlborough have received a MassWildlife Habitat Management Grant in support of our efforts to improve the pitch-pine scrub oak barrens habitat at the Desert Natural Area and Memorial Forest. Announced on November 17, the $49,182 grant is one of 13 grants that MassWildlife awarded to restoration efforts across the commonwealth.
The MassWildlife Habitat Management Grant Program (MHMGP) provides financial assistance to private and municipal landowners of conserved lands to improve and manage habitat in order to support a diversity of wildlife in Massachusetts.
SVT and the City will use the funds toward logging a new management area on City of Marlborough land and toward shrub mulching and creating fire breaks on SVT land.
These activities are in preparation for prescribed burn in spring of 2023 or 2024. In addition to habitat benefits to declining species of wildlife such as the whip-poor-will, these management activities will also reduce the risk of wildfires.