What’s New at Wildlands
Wildlands Trust Statement on the Closure of Shifting Lots Preserve
On February 9, 2023, for the first time in 50 years, Wildlands Trust was forced to close a property under our care and custody, the Shifting Lots Preserve in Plymouth. The property will remain closed until further notice. We received several phone calls about hunters staged on the trail entrance to the beach; we also heard from property visitors about two off-leash dogs attacking and maiming wildlife. At that point, to protect the public from known safety issues and to protect defenseless wildlife, we instructed the Wildlands’ stewardship staff to lock the parking lot gate and to post the property as “Closed.”
Wildlands Trust was founded 50 years ago as a community-based non-profit dedicated to advancing land protection in Southeastern Massachusetts. Since 1973, we have permanently protected nearly 350 parcels of land across 52 towns.
On February 9, 2023, for the first time in 50 years, Wildlands Trust was forced to close a property under our care and custody, the Shifting Lots Preserve in Plymouth. The property will remain closed until further notice.
Our stewardship staff and volunteers have worked to address and manage disruptive, dangerous, and abusive human behavior at Shifting Lots Preserve for two decades. The ongoing incidents at this coastal property include illegal hunting, illegal camping, illegal dumping, violation of property rules intended to protect endangered wildlife, assaultive behaviors against our staff and volunteers, and the destruction of property, such as gates, kiosks, signage, and fencing.
The recent closing of Shifting Lots was directly related to an onslaught of illegal hunting on the property. Over the past three months, Wildlands Trust and Shifting Lots neighbors have notified the Environmental Police and the Plymouth Police Department of the illegal hunting. Yet, hunters have continued to use the property and recently set up decoys in an area that is a popular walking spot for the public.
On Thursday, February 9, we received several phone calls about hunters staged on the trail entrance to the beach; we also heard from property visitors about two off-leash dogs attacking and maiming wildlife. At that point, to protect the public from known safety issues and to protect defenseless wildlife, we instructed the Wildlands’ stewardship staff to lock the parking lot gate and to post the property as “Closed.”
Social media posts have been active, and some disagree with our decision. However, Wildlands Trust will stay focused on doing the job the public has entrusted us with, including protecting the resource and ensuring public safety on our lands.
Karen Grey
President
Eagle Scouts Make a Difference!
Read Time: 3 min
Along with our other volunteer opportunities, Wildlands Trust often works with scouts looking to complete their Eagle Scout service projects. An Eagle Scout service project provides scouts with planning, fundraising, and managing experience. Past Eagle Scout projects you may have seen include the Little Free Library at Willow Brook Farm in Pembroke, and the interpretative signage at the Indian Head River Trail in Pembroke/Hanson/Hanover. This summer we had two scouts complete their projects at our properties!
For his Eagle project, Eagle Scout candidate Noah Sherman installed 15 new signs at Halfway Pond East Conservation Area in Plymouth. The trail system on the east side of this preserve can be confusing at times, so reworking the signage was a really helpful project for Noah to take on! The new signs are easy to read and make navigation much easier for preserve visitors, and we are very delighted that Noah was able to install them this summer. Between the new signage on the east side and the brand-new Leona’s Loop on the west, Halfway Pond has plenty of great new reasons to visit!
In addition, Eagle Scout candidate Max Cunniff built a 20-foot-long bridge across the Drinkwater River at town-owned Melzar Hatch Preserve in Hanover. Max made sure that the bridge was high enough for vegetation flowing down the river to pass under it. He also took great care to make the ramps onto and off the bridge flush to the ground. He and his friends enjoy biking on the trails and the previous bridge was very difficult to bike over. This new bridge is already much more accessible for all and has received high praise from members of the Hanover community. Wildlands Trust is thrilled that Max made this exceptional bridge for our preserve! You can see and the new bridge at Melzar Hatch. We expect it to be there for a very long time though, so there’s no rush!
We have some other Eagle Scout projects in the works, including Chickadee boxes at Great River Preserve in Bridgewater, and Blue Bird boxes at Sylvester Field in Hanover. If you are interested in completing your Eagle Scout Project with Wildlands Trust, contact our Stewardship Coordinator Zoë Smiarowski at zsmiarowski@wildlandstrust.org.
Thank you again to Noah for the signage and to Max for the bridge!
Eagle Scout candidate Noah Sherman installing new signs at Halfway Pond East Conservation Area in Plymouth.
Eagle Scout candidate Max Cunniff standing on the newly completed 20-foot-long bridge across the Drinkwater River at town-owned Melzar Hatch Preserve in Hanover.
Wildlands' Trail Updates
By Erik Boyer, Director of Field Operations
Wildlands’ Stewardship Staff and volunteers have been hard at work this fall! A couple highlights include the new trail constructed at our Halfway Pond Conservation Area, and new access to Sylvester Field in Hanover.
Halfway Pond Conservation Area, Plymouth
This past August, we began construction on 1.7 miles of new trail at Halfway Pond. Many thanks to a volunteer group from the Sierra Club, who worked alongside Wildlands staff and volunteers to begin this project. We completed the trail this fall with the help of volunteers from REI Hingham. The new trail, “Leona’s Loop,” is named after one of the founding members of Wildlands Trust, Leona Asker. Leona’s Loop connects to Gramp’s Loop and essentially creates a figure eight, providing hikers the opportunity to hike a nearly 4-mile loop. The trail, best accessed from the southeast corner of Gramp’s Loop, begins with a series of switchbacks to the top of a hill. Then, the trail follows a ridgeline running south, providing beautiful views of Halfway Pond from up high. The trail then jaunts west, traveling through pitch pine barren habitat reminiscent of many portions of Gramp’s Loop. Leona’s Loop then links back up with Gramp’s Loop as it heads north. With this new trail, there is now over 6 miles of single-track trail at Halfway Pond, making the preserve a great stop for those looking to add on the miles!
Sylvester Field, Hanover
Sylvester Field in Hanover is now home to a new three-car parking lot, constructed by Richie Ohlund from Ohlund Landscape & Masonry Design. Wildlands staff installed a new preserve sign and trailhead kiosk. The kiosk highlights the agricultural past of the land, as well as the ecological importance of its location on the Third Herring Brook (a tributary of the North River). Sylvester Field did not previously have a parking area, so this construction gives a new audience access to the preserve. There is a 0.3-mile trail that hugs the outside of the field down to a scenic spot on the Third Herring Brook.
Thank You and Farewell to Mitch Hennings
Land Steward for Wildlife and Habitat Mitch Hennings ended his time with Wildlands Trust this month to pursue a career in physical therapy.
Land Steward for Wildlife and Habitat Mitch Hennings ended his time with Wildlands Trust this month to pursue a career in physical therapy.
Mitch joined Wildlands after completing his degree in Environmental Science at the University of New England in May of 2021. After a successful summer as a Seasonal Land Steward, Mitch became a full-time staff member and resident bird and wildlife enthusiast. During his year and a half with Wildlands, he piloted Wildlands’ bird box monitoring program at Cushman Preserve in Duxbury, led stewardship projects for our youth Green Team at D.W. Field Park in Brockton, and attended the ALPINE Summer Institute in Cambridge, where he completed a research project about local cranberry bog restoration.
Mitch enjoyed working outside with his hands and will miss spending time at the more remote preserves that people don’t often see. At Wildlands, we will miss his work ethic and contagious smile. The next stop for Mitch is Quincy College, where he’ll spend the next two years in the Physical Therapy Assistant program while working as a Certified Nursing Assistant. Please join us in thanking Mitch for his time and hard work and wishing him success in his new career!
Click here to read Mitch’s ALPINE Summer Institute research project on cranberry bog restoration.
Wildlands’ Community Stewardship Program Builds New Trails and Amenities in Wareham
Since January of 2022, Wildlands’ Community Stewardship staff and volunteers have been assisting the Town of Wareham at its Minot Forest property.
By Owen Grey, Stewardship Manager
Wildlands Trust established our Community Stewardship Program in 2015 to help towns and conservation groups in Southeastern Massachusetts that lack staffing resources to care for conservation lands. Staffing constraints often mean that communities cannot fully benefit from the investments they have made in open space protection: management plans are not established, new trails are never built, and older trail systems and amenities are not properly maintained. As the region protects more open space, it is important to care for these conservation lands and, when appropriate, to establish access for safe public use and enjoyment.
Since January of 2022, Wildlands’ Community Stewardship staff and volunteers have been assisting the Town of Wareham at its Minot Forest property. Minot Forest, Wareham’s largest municipal conservation area, is contiguous with Wildlands’ 104-acre Great Neck Conservation Area, making it a perfect Community Stewardship site. The Wareham Land Trust and New England Forestry Foundation also own land in this area, and combined, the four groups protect 484-acres of conserved land with 8.5 miles of trails. Wildlands viewed this project not only as a chance to add trail improvements at a popular conservation area, but also as an opportunity to build a large and cohesive trail system that allows users to access a variety of protected lands.
Our work at Minot Forest began with a site visit in late January 2022 with representatives from Wildlands Trust, Wareham Land Trust, Wareham Natural Resource Department, and the Minot Forest Committee. We were excited by the potential the property had for public access and many miles of trails weaving throughout the property. The group unanimously agreed that the extensive trail system, while well established and heavily used, desperately needed some TLC. In the following months, Wildlands worked with Wareham Natural Resource Department to put the group’s vision into effect. We improved old trails, formalized trail loops, built new trails, and created an updated trail map. Once the trail loops were formalized, we marked each loop with color-coded trail markers called blazes. We have constructed ten wooden benches to be placed along the trails and are currently constructing three trailhead kiosks, which will hold maps and other important information for trail users. All work done by our staff and volunteers at Minot Forest was funded by a Massachusetts Recreational Trails Grant acquired by the Town of Wareham.
The work at Minot Forest is expected to be completed by December 2022. We encourage anyone who enjoys passive outdoor recreation and exploring new places to head over to Minot Forest; you will not be disappointed! Building relationships with Community Stewardship partners makes us feel lucky to have this program at Wildlands Trust. Our work with the Town of Wareham at Minot Forest has been a pleasure for our team and we look forward to continuing the relationship moving forward.
Want a guided hike of Minot Forest?
Join Wildlands Trust for Hike & Hops on November 20 – learn more and buy tickets here.
