What’s New at Wildlands
Corporations for Conservation: Wildlands Trust Gets South Shore Businesses Outdoors
Creative cross-sector partnerships a win-win-win for ecosystems, communities, team morale
By Thomas Patti, Communications Coordinator
REI Hingham and Wildlands Trust staff pose outside of the Stewardship Training Center in Plymouth.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Plymouth, MA — On April 19, Wildlands Trust welcomed REI Hingham staff to its new Stewardship Training Center (STC) in Plymouth for a volunteer workday. Wildlands Trust is eager to engage more corporate partners in conservation and community service as the STC embarks on its first year serving land stewardship volunteers and professionals from across the state.
The April workday marked REI’s fourth volunteer engagement with Wildlands Trust, including its third at the STC. Paul Vicino, softgoods lead at REI Hingham, began organizing the staff outings when similar company-led events were phased out.
“I was already a volunteer with [Wildlands Trust], so I thought I could get some people to help with the new trails,” Vicino said. “We also wanted to celebrate Earth Day while giving back to our community.”
Among other tasks, the REI staff completed gardening projects around the STC and helped build new walking steps between two trails.
“It’s a good team-building and community-building activity,” added Debbie Hill, operations lead at REI Hingham. “The staff that participates feels connected, and we talk while we’re doing it and get to know each other a little better. All of us who work at REI know how important it is to help be good stewards of our environment.”
REI Hingham and Wildlands Trust staff complete gardening projects at the Stewardship Training Center.
The STC, acquired by Wildlands Trust in 2022, sits within a 460-acre conservation area surrounding Halfway Pond in South Plymouth. Wildlands Trust aims to work with town, state, nonprofit, and corporate partners at the STC to advance skill development and address land stewardship needs throughout Massachusetts. To learn more about the STC, visit wildlandstrust.org/training.
“I appreciate the enthusiasm you all bring to our trails,” Vicino concluded. “Not to mention lunch. We’ll do something again with Wildlands, for sure.”
To schedule a corporate workday at the STC or a different Wildlands Trust preserve, contact Stewardship Coordinator Zoë Smiarowski at zsmiarowski@wildlandstrust.org or 774-343-5121 x109.
About Wildlands Trust: Wildlands Trust is one of the largest and oldest regional land trusts in Massachusetts. Since 1973, the Plymouth-based nonprofit has helped protect nearly 14,000 acres of natural and agricultural land across Southeastern Massachusetts, keeping local communities healthy and connected to the natural world. Visit wildlandstrust.org for more details.
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Seasonal Restrictions in Effect at Shifting Lots Preserve
By Thomas Patti, Communications Coordinator
Symbolic fencing at Shifting Lots Preserve. Photo by Jerry Monkman.
Shifting Lots Preserve in Plymouth could be considered prime real estate for people and wildlife alike. For people, the warm sand, cool waters, and quintessential South Shore views make the Wildlands Trust property and adjacent Ellisville Harbor State Park a can’t-miss summer destination. For wildlife, the preserve’s salt marsh estuary, sand dunes, and migrating barrier beach provide crucial habitat to an intricate web of aquatic and terrestrial species. Ensuring that Shifting Lots remains a place for all species to enjoy requires seasonal adjustments to how we humans engage with the property.
In late March, volunteers and staff from Wildlands Trust and the Friends of Ellisville Marsh installed symbolic fencing around the historic nesting area of Piping Plovers within the preserve. This fencing, composed of simple wooden stakes and twine with bright-colored educational signs, may not provide much of a physical barrier between shorebirds, people, and predators, but it can help alert beachgoers to the small, sandy-colored birds that are otherwise almost impossible to spot. Alongside habitat loss from beachfront development and predation from gulls, raccoons, and other species attracted to nest sites by food waste and garbage, Piping Plovers face death and nest failure from more direct human conflict, including pedestrians and offroad vehicles trampling eggs and unleashed dogs frightening parents and chicks. Consequent population declines have contributed to their protected status under both the state and federal endangered species acts since 1985.
Volunteers of Wildlands Trust and the Friends of Ellisville Marsh installed fencing at Shifting Lots in late March.
However, the dedicated efforts of local, state, and regional organizations and agencies have demonstrated that a little intervention can go a long way toward protecting these vulnerable shorebirds. Over the past four decades, symbolic fencing, nest monitoring, and public education have contributed to a sevenfold increase in Piping Plovers in Massachusetts, from 135 pairs in 1986 to 956 pairs in 2021. Collaboration among conservation groups—including the longstanding partnership between Wildlands Trust, the Friends of Ellisville Marsh, and Mass Audubon’s Coastal Waterbird Program—has proven particularly effective at securing the space that Piping Plovers need to thrive along our shoreline.
For plovers to continue calling our region home, we all need to do our part! Please obey all signage at Shifting Lots Preserve, especially by keeping out of fenced areas. Every year between May 15 and September 15, the Shifting Lots parking lot is closed in order to moderate visitation during peak breeding season. Vehicles may drop off passengers at the parking lot gate and park at Ellisville Harbor State Park, a short walk from Shifting Lots.
Piping Plovers.
Thank you for helping us uphold our duty to protect the vulnerable wildlife of Shifting Lots Preserve. If you observe vandalism or other suspicious behavior on the property, please take photos or videos and notify the Plymouth Police Department and/or Wildlands Trust at info@wildlandstrust.org or 774-343-5121. For your safety, please do not approach any active or hazardous situation.
To learn more about shorebird conservation at Shifting Lots Preserve and beyond, check out this 2021 webinar presented by Wildlands Trust, Mass Audubon, and the Friends of Ellisville Marsh.
Wildlands to Launch New Training Center
The Stewardship Training Center will advance land conservation through skill-building for volunteers and continuing education for professionals.
The Stewardship Training Center will advance land conservation through skill-building for volunteers and continuing education for professionals.
Plans for the Wildlands Trust Stewardship Training Center are coming together thanks to the guidance of wise land professionals from far and wide.
In December 2022, Massachusetts joined 17 other states in establishing an Office of Outdoor Recreation. This is good news for Wildlands Trust, our members, and the growing numbers of people discovering hiking, biking, birding, kayaking, and other passive recreation as a means for achieving mental and physical health.
“Whether it’s a weekend camping trip with the family, a bike ride with friends, or a hike through a state park, spending time outdoors is beneficial to our physical and mental wellbeing,” said Baker Administration’s Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Beth Card. According to a 2021 report from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the outdoor recreation economy accounted for $9.5 billion in value added to the Massachusetts economy.
But, with a growing focus on getting more people out into nature, Wildlands and other land-holding entities are concerned that expectations around the care and management of our open spaces will be an added burden on an already stressed and under-resourced land stewardship system. Strapped resources for stewardship are the norm at our State Parks, on our townlands, and on land trust properties. Without additional funding and innovation directed toward caring for land, we risk an erosion of public confidence and the degradation of the biological and social values we seek to protect, especially as more people are encouraged to hit the trails.
Responding to the need for more and better stewardship of our public lands, Wildlands Trust is taking the lead to establish a Stewardship Training Center (STC) focused on developing volunteer land stewards. Programs at the STC will also promote continuing education of professional staff involved in land protection. An advisory committee comprised of conservation professionals and highly experienced volunteers has been convening monthly since the fall of 2022 to advise Wildlands Trust on its nascent STC concept.
Halfway Pond Conservation Area, Plymouth, MA
Located on Halfway Pond in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the Stewardship Training Center will offer a wide range of training programs to (1) help municipalities, and land-holding organizations build stewardship capacity and (2) encourage continuous learning for professional practitioners.
Wildlands Trust has developed an exemplary stewardship model that blends professional staff with reserves of trained volunteers. Well-trained and committed volunteers help Wildlands ensure that we fulfill our obligation to steward the lands in our care and custody. We believe that more towns and land trusts could benefit significantly by building teams of trained volunteers to provide leadership and labor.
The Property will be available to other organizations that would like to offer trainings related to the mission of the Stewardship Training Center.
To receive more information about the opportunities available at the Stewardship Training Center, sign up for our email list.
D.W. Field Park Survey Closing Soon
The D.W. Field Park community survey will close at the end of February. If you visit the park or live in Brockton, Avon, or the surrounding area, please take 5 – 10 minutes to complete our survey!
Patrick Quinn, Presidents of the D.W. Field Park Association nonprofit, assists Wildlands in promoting the community survey to park users.
Wildlands Trust is leading the D.W. Field Park Initiative to revitalize the park for people and planet. In close partnership with the City of Brockton Department of Parks and Recreation, we are bringing experts and community members together to create a master plan that will address ecology, infrastructure, recreation, and education throughout this 700-acre city park.
The results from this community survey will be used to better understand current park usage and inform development of improvement projects. Project partners will use this data and other public input gathered throughout the process to create a master plan that reflects the wants and needs of the community this park serves. The survey is being conducted by the Old Colony Planning Council on behalf of Wildlands Trust and can be taken in five languages. All responses are completely confidential.
Learn more and sign up for targeted emails about the D.W. Field Park Initiative:
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