Sudbury Valley TrusteesConservation, Collaboration, and Community since 1953

The generous award from REI will support SVT's Conservation Steward Program, which provides opportunities to both adult and youth volunteers in land stewardship.  Steward volunteers learn new skills, become more engaged in conservation and help SVT to manage our natural areas.

SVT employs hundreds of volunteers each year.  Preserve Stewards adopt a reservation near their home or place of employment.  They monitor the trails and boundaries and conduct routine maintenance.  Steward volunteers may also carry out specialized tasks such as preparing baseline documentation, identifying and mapping invasive plants, assisting with invasive plant removal, and monitoring vernal pools.

The Youth Conservation Steward Program involves youths, aged 11-17 years old, in land conservation activities, providing leadership and skills-building opportunities.  Individuals and groups may be from Boy and Girl Scouts, schools, faith organizations and families.

Sunday, September 12, 2010: Sandy Burr Country Club, Wayland:  5:30PM – 8:00PM 

Members of the SVT Board and staff will be testing their gastronomic skills and culinary inspiration against other area groups and organizations at Wayland’s Iron Chef Competition, a fundraiser for the Wayland Council on Aging.  A timed, outdoor cooking competition will be the evening’s feature event. Judges will include professional chefs as well as entertainment personalities, including Joyce Kulhawik. Popular MC Scott Gaddis will host. Guests will enjoy tastings from area restaurants and caterers. There will be an opportunity to try your luck at Wine Bottle Ring Toss, to browse a classy White Elephant table, or to buy a raffle ticket for the “Lottery Fever” basket of scratch tickets!

Help support Wayland’s Council on Aging, cheer on SVT, and enjoy a festive and savory night on the town. 

Tickets are $50 each and are available from the Wayland Council on Aging (508-358-2990) or at the Village Bank.

The Rebel Shakespeare Company makes their debut appearance at the Sudbury Valley Trustees' Wolbach Farm on August 29, 2010 with ”Much Ado About Nothing," the comedic tale of two couples, Beatrice and Benedick and Hero and Claudio. Their very different romances wind through a "merry war" of trickery, hilarity, and deceit, and end up with a beautiful wedding, with adventures and situations which only William Shakespeare could pen. The backdrop of beautiful Wolbach Farm will be transformed into an outdoor stage for this lively and comical tale.  

There will be one show at 5pm. Admission is free and folding chairs, blankets and picnics are a must. For further information, visit www.rebelshakespeare.org or call 978-457-2344.

Boston's western suburbs abound with farms and orchards that provide residents an opportunity to lighten their ecological footprints through eating locally.  This summer SVT is celebrating the agricultural landscape of our watershed - some landscapes we've helped to protect and some we hope to protect.  We hope the resources on our website will help and inspire you.

Congratulations to Frank Vitale of Sudbury for winning "Best In Show" in the 2010 SVT Riverfest Photography Contest, with his photograph entitled "Surviving the 2010 Spring Flood" taken at the Old Manse in Concord.  Winning the under age 18 "Best In Show" is Amelia Cordischi of Sudbury, with her photograph entitled "Breakthrough".  First place in each category went to John Sklenak of Sudbury with "Fun on the Concord River" (people) and "January Morning on the Sudbury River" (rivers) and Craig Smith of Hudson with "Indian Pipes" (flora/fauna).  View the Best in Show and First Place photographs.  Thank you to everyone who entered.  Winning photographs can be viewed at Wolbach Farm on Sunday, June 13.

Celebrate the ninth annual Riverfest with SVT and over 50 regional organizations and individuals.  SVT is hosting several events; A "Riverside Picnic" on Saturday, June 12 with Executive Director Ron McAdow; a "Sunset Paddle" which closes Riverfest on Sunday, June 13; and a number of events at Wolbach Farm on Sunday June 13, featuring "A Place For Frogs" with children's author Melissa Stewart, a vernal pool program with the Walden Woods project, "Snakes of Massachusetts and the World" hosted by Rick Roth, Director of the Cape Ann Vernal Pond Team, and a slide lecture by naturalist Peter Alden.  While here, you can also view the winning photographs from the photo contest and spend time in SVT's Nature Nook with your family.

Drop offs for SVT’s SEVENTH ANNUAL PHOTO CONTEST begin May 10 and continue through June 4 (Monday through Friday, 9am-5pm, or by appointment). Bring up to three of your nature photographs, taken within the Concord, Assabet, and Sudbury River Basin to SVT headquarters at Wolbach Farm.  Pictured here is last year's Best In Show winner, "Tree Fall" by Dave Griffin.

Life Technologies of Woburn recently helped out SVT by completing a trail work day at SVT's Walkup and Robinson Memorial Reservation in Westborough.  More than 20 employees volunteered as part of their Global Volunteer Day project.  The crew repaired erosion damage on trails at the reservation and helped to remove Japanese barberry, an exotic invasive plant.

Help SVT celebrate the life of former Director Eric Menoyo by donating blood at our Wolbach Farm headquarters on Tuesday, June 1, 2:00-7:00pm.  To make an appointment, please call 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or visit www.RedCrossBlood.org.  For more details, please contact Director of Membership (and frequent blood donor) Michael Sanders.  

For the first time in 4 years of annual pulling, we have finally seen significant progress in reducing garlic mustard and increasing native plant flora abundance.  This year, eight volunteers assisted at the annual “pull.”  For the first time since control was initiated, we were able to remove all of the flowering (second year) garlic mustard.  The effort is not over; we will have to go back again for the next few years to continue to pull out the new plants that germinate and second year flowering plants.  Garlic mustard is a biennial which means that the

"Outdoors This Week" is a new weekly listing of outdoor-oriented activities west of Boston sponsored by a variety of local organizations.   If you would like to receive this free weekly bulletin, please follow this link and click “Subscribe”.

Come enjoy an afternoon of old-time fun with your family while getting to know the treasures of Wolbach Farm.  Included in this Country Fair will be scavenger hunts, raffles, a pie bake-off, and more!  Free.  Rain or Shine. For more details, click here.  Sponsored by Interstate Gas and Oil and Middlesex Savings Bank.    
 
Calling all bakers: Enter your yummy pie in our pie-tasting contest!

Students from Fay School participated in a conservation project at the Turenne Wildlife Habitat in Southborough.  Nine students and two teachers made improvements to the trail through the bird garden and also removed invasive plants from the woods near the bird garden.  The bird garden was initially established in 1995 by neighbors and volunteers.  SVT has worked over the years to control invasive plants and expanded the native plant bird garden two years ago.

This Thursday starting at Noon throughout most of the afternoon, celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day with SVT and Whole Foods Market in Bedford. Bring your whole family and enjoy a good old fashioned bake sale in support of SVT!  Items for sale will include Kleen Kanteen chocolate bar gift packs, Kaliari chocolate bars, Scharffen Berger chocolate bars, Starlight Creative’s cookies, Late July single cookies and some of Whole Fods baked goods.  100% of the proceeds will be directly donated to SVT.  Spend time with SVT staff and volunteers (including a special appearance from SVT Founder George Lewis) and learn about the ways SVT is helping to conserve land in and around Bedford. 

SVT volunteers and Town of Lincoln staff assisted with potting loosestrife root balls, initiating our Loosestrife Biocontrol project.  Other volunteers, “beetle ranchers,” will be cultivating the plants and then raising beetles.  Beetles and plants will be released to targeted wetlands sites in early July.  To learn more about purple loosestrife and SVT's Loosestrife Biocontrol project, visit our Stewardship Projects Page.  Learn more about exotic invasive plants and methods of controlling them in our Improving Wildlife Habitat in Your Backyard brochure.

A 5.6 acre parcel of land abutting the vast trail system of Callahan State Park is available, ideally to a buyer interested in protecting the non-built portion with a conservation restriction. The property includes a three bedroom home, 2-car garage and outbuilding - with ~50 mile views, ~1000ft road frontage, classic stonewalls, and former garden areas. Ideal for equestrian use, a small farmette, or quiet country living. Asking $1,200,000

For more information, please contact
Christa Collins, Director of Land Protection, 978-443-5588 x15

Reaching out into the world of Social Media, SVT is now on Facebook, hosting a Group and Fan page.  Says Michael Sanders, Director of Membership, "With the social media boon around us, SVT wanted to step forward into this realm.  When we look at the ways people hear about SVT, we realize there are multiple ways people discover us.  We think that having a Facebook page opens up another avenue to reach out to the community.  One of the strenghths of SVT is the visual imagery we provide; whether it be natural landscapes or the great collection of wildlife photographs.  Facebook is a very visual medium.  We hope you'll become a fan." 

Join SVT, OAR, and the Maynard Historical Society on Thursday March 25, 7:00pm at Wolbach Farm for a talk about the History of the Ice Trade on the Assabet River.  For much of the 19th century Boston was the hub of the ice export business, shipping ice as far as India. Thoreau writes in Walden of 100 men descending on Walden Pond the winter of 1846-47. Led by David Mark of Maynard, this talk will give you an in-depth history of the ice trade and ice houses on the Assabet River.