The James Brook culvert is now in at Bates and looks good. The next steps are that John Smigelski will be disking the meadows and Bennett Black will be clearing the logs, invasives and a large dead tree from the area between the picnic area and the first back meadow. He will also be finishing some work on the parking area. He will then be constructing the accessible path, preparing the meadows for seeding and then seeding wildflowers and native grasses, hopefully over the next couple of weeks. The drought helped with constructing the culvert since James Brook was dry, but once we seed the meadows, we will be rooting for wetter weather.

The improvements at the Bates-Blackman Land, including the new accessible crossing and the restoration of the meadows, have been made possible in part by grants from the Town of Groton Community Preservation fund, and the Environmental Preservation & Animal Welfare fund from the Community Foundation of North Central Massachusetts. We thank the Groton voters and the Community Foundation for your support.

90F temperatures couldn’t keep a dozen people away from Trustee Michelle Ruby’s entertaining and informative walking tour of two Groton Conservation Trust properties, on Sunday August 7, 2022. The tour passed through the West Throne Hill conservation property and continued to an 1800s-vintage house foundation on Lawrence Land. Both properties are wooded, with the canopy providing much appreciated shade on this hot day.

Along the way, Michelle described many of the local fauna, including sassafras (Sassafras albidum - white sassafras) readily recognizable with three very distinct leaf shapes with 1, 2, and 3 lobes; the diminutive American chestnut tree (Castanea dentata - toothed chestnut); and the species of tree with bark resembling “burnt potato chips” (black cherry, Prunus serotina). She also provided intriguing insights regarding both natural phenomena (e.g. why did this tree fall? Why do we still see small chestnut trees despite the ravages of the chestnut blight fungus?) and historical insights (e.g. why was the stone wall built, and why does it look different from another wall not far away? Why does this tree have wide branches while all of the other trees nearby in this section of forest are more vertically inclined?). The audience was clearly engaged, asking many questions throughout the journey.

Did you know that there is a nondestructive method to estimate the age of a tree? Michele demonstrated that with only a tape measure and knowledge of the tree species, one can use look-up tables to estimate age from diameter. To make the task even easier, she has specialized tape measures that gently attach to the tree, facilitating measurement by solo foresters. Furthermore, her tape measures conveniently scale the measurement by a factor of pi to directly convert circumference to diameter!

Susan Hughes, VP of the GCT, was also present on the tour, answering questions and offering her own insights. Not far from a vernal pool in Lawrence Land, Susan mentioned that everyone is invited to the GCT’s annual vernal pool tour in the early springtime. This is a popular hands-on (waders-on), exploratory family event with GCT Trustee guides. Susan also shared the excitement of the first-known discovery of marbled salamander larvae in Groton in 2018.

These are just a few of the many interesting topics packed into this 90 minute tour.

See the sidebar for upcoming adventures.

If you have not joined the GCT, now is a great time to do so. You can make a paperless donation online at our secure website.

Bonus: we have a new map! With every renewal or new membership (through the mail or online), you can request a 2022 edition of our beautiful new map of all conservation land in Groton.

As always, thank you for your support.

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday September 24th at our booth at Grotonfest. You'll have a chance to see our new 2022 Groton Conservation Land map (free with a new membership) and we'll have activities for kids.

Dr. Scott Edwards on his COVID adventure, ~3800 mile, 76-day bicycle ride across the US. He will share his experiences - and the birds he saw - with us in March.