Sudbury Valley TrusteesConservation, Collaboration, and Community since 1953

By Christa Collins.  This week SVT will be submitting comments on the Draft Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment for the Nyanza Chemical Waste Dump Superfund Site.

http://www.mass.gov/dep/cleanup/sites/nrd/nydrpea.pdf. 

This Plan is the result of many years of settlement negotiations among the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US Fish & Wildlife Service over Natural Resource Damages resulting from the Nyanza Superfund site in Ashland. 

SVT is extremely grateful to Andre and Christine Navez of Hopkinton for their donation of a conservation restriction (CR) on their home property.  The six acres that are now permanently protected through the CR are part of what was a much larger parcel: in 1991 Mr. Navez donated 42 acres to the state, which was added to the 2,600 Upton State Forest and is managed as a wildlife preserve. This new CR provides a buffer to important habitat in the wildlife preserve and also protects important agricultural and forest soils. The Navezes have been  excellent stewards of the land, tending gardens and orchards and pasturing heirloom sheep, and we wish them continued enjoyment of the land for many years to come!

On December 29, SVT purchased approximately 56 acres on Ball Hill Road from Barry Eager.  SVT will resell the property to the town of Berlin, which was awarded over $200,000 towards the purchase through a state LAND (Local Areas for Natural Diversity) grant last week. SVT will hold a conservation restriction on the property, which nearly abuts our Wrack Meadow Reservation in Boylston. Look for more info on this exciting project on our website later this month.  For more information, contact Christa Collins, Director of Land Protection.

By Ron McAdow, Executive Director

Thank you for checking out Sudbury Valley Trustees website.  While you look around, we hope you will take the time to make an end of calendar year gift.  SVT is a regional land trust that conserves land and protects wildlife habitat in the Concord, Assabet, and Sudbury river basin for the benefit of present and future generations.  Support of SVT comes from individuals and businesses in the region that care about conservation.  If you'd like more information, please contact Michael Sanders, Director of Membership.  Thank you for your support!   

By Audra Valaitis, Americorps Land Steward

SVT’s land protection and stewardship work provides the communities in our watershed with valuable opportunities for outdoor recreation, wildlife viewing, local farming, and more.  But SVT doesn’t work in a vacuum.  It takes cooperation, sometimes across a number of different towns, groups, and individuals, to make conservation happen.  That’s why SVT is joining with conservation partners throughout our region in the West Suburban Conservation Council.

Founded in 2009, the West Suburban Conservation Council is a consortium of local and regional land trusts, town conservation commissions, representatives of government agencies, and landowners based in Metrowest Boston.   By bringing so many groups to the table to share ideas and collaborate, the Council makes it easier for its members to find the strategies, contacts, and know-how they need to help make complex conservation projects happen in their own backyards. Over the past year, the Council has enabled partners from all over our region to put their heads together on a variety of issues, including deer management, multi-partner land protection projects, sustainable forestry, grassland habitat management, conserving local farmland, and protecting coldwater streams.  SVT is taking a leading role in these efforts by hosting regional meetings and coordinating Council activities.  

But it doesn’t stop with eastern Massachusetts.  Through its involvement in the West Suburban Conservation Council, SVT is linked to conservation partners working in all six New England states.

Richard Sebring, SVT member and Associate Principal Horn for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Principal Horn of the Boston Pops, shot a series of photographs of natural ice formations while cross-country skiing on the frozen Sudbury River after an ice storm.  The Boston Pops featured these spectacular photographs as a part of the 2009 Holiday Pops, accompanied by Richard's arrangement of "Coventry Carol" and "Silent Night".  We are extremely grateful to Richard Sebring for sharing this photo with SVT for our 2011 Holiday Card. 

Quantities are limited!  Price for cards is $2.00 each or $17.00 for a package of 10.  Blank card or inscribed with Happy Holidays.  To avoid disappointment, pre-orders welcomed and preferred.  Purchase online or contact Nancy Hallen.

By Christa Collins, Director of Land Protection

George and DD of Framingham are familiar faces around SVT, in part because George is a past Director and President of SVT, and now serves as a regular office volunteer; in part because the number of conservation donations they have made are almost too numerous to count on one hand. 

Between 1983 and 2000, the Harringtons donated three parcels of land along scenic Edmands Road in Framingham, now known as Harrington Fields. In 2007, the Harringtons made a gift of a conservation restriction on their 80-acre Baiting Brook Meadow Farm on Nixon Road, where they grow and sell Christmas trees. This November, the Harringtons conserved yet another one of their properties through the gift of a conservation restriction on 18 acres on Edmands Road, where their home is located.

Northborough's conservation lands are expanding!  SVT has accepted a gift of a conservation restriction (CR), a land interest in the form of a deed restriction, from the Town of Northborough on 55 acres of beautiful meadows and upland forests on Green Street.  This follows the Town Meeting vote to purchase the property with Community Preservation Act open space funds.

SVT's fund raising campaign for stewardship funds for the CR is now underway and we need your help!   Northborough's Community Preservation Committee graciously contributed some funds to get SVT's stewardship endowment started, but much more is still needed to provide for the permanent protection and care of the Green Street land.  Here’s why:

Birds reward attention all year long. As the seasons change, so does our bird population. Some birds nest here but go south for the winter. A few rose-breasted grosbeaks are still with us, but the last hummingbirds departed in mid-September. Other species, such as belted kingfishers and great blue herons, stay in eastern Massachusetts as long as they can find open water. Dark-eyed juncos breed farther north and spend the coldest months here.  Crossbills and pine siskins are examples of groups that usually winter to the north but “irrupt” down our way some years in response to weather, food availability, or other circumstances.

By Ashley Davies, AmeriCorps Regional Conservationist

Natural land is a beautiful resource that we all enjoy, but for some people a piece of land is the cornerstone of their family and their lives. This past week I had the pleasure of walking Pantry Brook Farm where I witnessed one family’s sincere devotion to their land.

Pantry Brook Farm, named for the brook which forms the northern edge of its fields, is a beautiful and historic 100-acre property on Concord Road in Sudbury. The farm is a well-known landmark and its scenery is treasured by local residents. Although the farm has been appreciated for hundreds of years, the beautiful landscape wouldn’t exist today if it weren’t for the hard work and dedication of Carole Wolfe and her husband Dick. 

Thank you to everyone who attended this past Saturday's Pumpkin Patch Party at SVT.  The hosts, (pictured here by Olga Photo Studio from left to right were Sarah Jacobi-Jang, Michael Sanders and Lauren Kaplan), especially thank you for making it a very enjoyable day.

Saturday, October 29, 1:00-5:00pm, SVT is hosted its first ever Halloween event.  "Pumpkin Patch" at Wolbach Farm was a a family friendly halloween and costume party.  Included in this free event was live music, storytelling, games (sack races and tug o' war), Invasion of the BiODiversitY Snatchers, seasonal food and beverage, complimentary photos and much more.  For more details, please contact Michael Sanders or visit www.svtweb.org/Halloween.

Are you familiar with Outdoors This Week?   Back in March of 2010, when I was hired by Sudbury Valley Trustees, one of my first assignments was to work on this new concept – a free weekly newsletter that would be distributed via email, listing outdoor activities in the western suburbs of Boston.  We planned to list not only our own activities and events, but those of other outdoor organizations in the area.  

Our first edition went out on March 17, 2010, with 10 participating organizations.  In addition to bicycling, hiking, birding and the like, we also included meetings, classes and speakers on topics related to outdoor activities.  Last summer, we added a section on Eating Locally, each week featuring a local farm or farmers’ market, in support of local agriculture and the “locavore” movement.  

From its modest beginnings, Outdoors This Week has become a huge success.  Starting with a couple hundred subscribers, we recently passed the 900-subscriber mark.  Our participating organizations now number nearly 30.  We’ve received much positive feedback from both subscribers and participating organizations, who say people are finding out about their events through OTW.  

We are looking forward to a year of further growth and acquainting more folks with all the great opportunities offered in our region.

October 7-10, Columbus Day weekend.  Four days!  SVT is the official Donation Partner for EMS-Northborough's Grand Opening, at 8104 Shops Way in the new Northborough Crossing plaza at Route 9 and 20 in Northborough.  All items will be 20% off, with a portion of all sales donated to SVT.  This is a great opportunity to purchase your outdoor gear.

In conjunction with opening festivities, SVT will host a Trail Walk at Mount Pisgah on Saturday, October 8, 10:00am-Noon.  The Mount Pisgah Conservation Area complex of lands is wild, rural, and quiet, with few roads through the surrounding area. Along with an extensive trail system, several beautiful vistas provide looks at the surrounding landscape.  

Check out the EMS newsletter to see what else is happening Grand Opening weekend, including a kayak trip on Lake Chauncy in Westborough and a fun trail run.

SVT would like to introduce two new Americorps Mass-LIFT members that will be joining us for the year!  Ashley Davies is serving as Regional Conservationist for the Land Protection Office and Audra Valaitis is serving as Land Steward for the Stewardship Office.

Ashley Davies is from Dartmouth, Massachusetts and is now a permanent resident of Northborough.  Ashley studied Law, Policy, and Society at Northeastern University and has a J.D. from Roger Williams University School of Law. Ashley has worked at and volunteered with several environmental and land conservation organizations including the Aquidneck Land Trust, MA Department of Environmental Protection, and the Buzzards Bay Coalition. Ashley’s main focus will be to get to know the communities in the Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord Watersheds and to assist towns, local land trusts, and Sudbury Valley Trustees in their land conservation efforts.

Audra Valaitis has a Master’s degree in Environmental Management from Duke University and studied Environmental Science and Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. She has worked throughout New England and the U.S. on a wide variety of wildlife monitoring and management projects, including work with several declining or endangered bird species. Audra will be turning her focus to land stewardship and management over the coming year with Sudbury Valley Trustees.  She will be completing management plans, baseline documentation, and monitoring activities on a number of different properties.  She will also facilitate regional meetings and land management initiatives for the West Suburban Conservation Council.

SVT’s 58th Annual Meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 5th at the Beatrice Vokes Theatre in Wayland. A social hour, from 6:30PM to 7:30PM will provide an opportunity to connect with old friends and visit with SVT supporters. The business meeting will begin at 7:30PM.

Four individuals will be honored for their contributions to regional conservation, with the presentation of the following awards: The Lewis Conservation Award to Greg Peterson from the Carlisle Conservation Foundation; The Morgan Volunteer Award to Dan Foster of Stow, The Distinguished Public Service Award to John Campbell of Northborough; and the Steward of the Land Award to William Coder of Northborough.  Please join us in thanking these conservation leaders for their commitment and achievements.

The meeting’s featured speaker is Whit Beals of Southborough, current Director of Land Protection at the New England Forestry Foundation, former SVT staff member, and farmer of Southborough’s Chestnut Hill Farm. 

When I’m not busy doing land protection for SVT, I get to wear the hat of chief gardener.  And since land protection does take up most of my time, SVT has been lucky to have some terrific volunteers who have helped us design, plant, weed and mulch our gardens.

Two years ago, the Wayland Garden Club, under the direction of then-SVT board member Cile Hicks, installed a gorgeous entry garden in front of our headquarters here.

Have you noticed these funny little boxes appearing more and more often lately?  They’re called QR (Quick Response) codes, and they’ve become a popular way to quickly share information with a mobile device, such as your phone.  SVT has recently started using them to share information with you through our web site.  Perhaps you noticed one in our Spring newsletter?  If you scanned it, then you landed on a page that links to all of our social media outlets.  You’ll also notice one on the cover of the new SVT Activities Calendar.  Scanning it will bring you to our Calendar Page where you’ll see a list of all of our events and can register on-line.  You may have even noticed one at your favorite reservation.  We’ve started posting them on our map boxes, as a way of sharing paperless trail maps with our visitors.

To take advantage of these codes you’ll need a mobile device with a camera, a scanning application and access to the internet.  There are several free apps that will work in both the iTunes Store and in the Android Market.  Just search “QR” in the store from your mobile device and download one to get started, and then scan the image above to see where it will take you.