Message from the Executive Director

Spring is finally in the air! If you have not yet visited the newly repaired Paget Marsh Boardwalk, now is the perfect time, while the sun is shining and it’s not too hot. We are excited to have the wheelchair-accessible boardwalk open again and urge everyone to visit this special place. Entrance to the reserve is off Lover’s Lane. If you missed the news, you can read about the restoration here. We are very grateful to Aspen Bermuda, the Conduit Foundation and some anonymous private donors for funding this restoration project.

The last month was very busy with two very successful events - the Plant & Bake Sale and the Auction & Jumble Sale. Thank you to everyone who supported by donating and purchasing items and an especially big thank you to the amazing teams of volunteers who make it all happen. We are so fortunate to have a number of experienced volunteers who ensure these fundraisers run smoothly and train up the newer recruits.

Next up, it’s time to put on your walking shoes and join us for the Palm Sunday Walk on 24 March. This year the walk will wind its way through Warwick, starting and finishing at Lindo’s supermarket. It will take in Southlands Park, Astwood Cove, BNT’s Sherwin Nature Reserve at Warwick Pond and many other interesting sites along the way. Bring the whole family! You can register here.

Finally, don’t forget to send in your nominations for the BNT Annual Awards. I’m sure you know an individual, organisation or school that deserves to be recognised for a project or initiative that protects or promotes natural or cultural heritage.

Karen Border

Executive Director

Natural Heritage Updates

Myles Darrell, Head of Natural Heritage

Higgs Nature Reserve, Warwick

It was a cloudy, cold Saturday morning, but our die-hard volunteers showed up nonetheless at last month’s Higgs Nature Reserve Community Day. Thank you all!

It was a fantastic opportunity to improve this Warwick community asset – just west of the Esso station - as well as improve the general aesthetics of the area, especially around the entrance to the Eliza DoLittle centre. We planted Mulberry, Guava and Moringa trees to provide shade and healthy snacks for those spending time in the reserve.

As luck would have it, we encountered KBB doing a cleanup on Stadium Lane, just around the corner. Coming together meant we could accomplish so much more. Motorcycles, bicycle parts and domestic waste were all removed.

Gilbert Nature Reserve, Somerset

Sandys Middle School Science teacher Akinyi Apopa works with one of her students to remove litter from the Anita Wingate Trail at Gilbert Nature Reserve

We are excited to have Sandys Middle School M2 students back in Gilbert Nature Reserve where they are engaged in ‘integrated contextualised learning’, an educational form that links subjects and provides real life learning experiences. We are working with the team this term to tackle invasive species and continue to plant more native and endemic trees, shrubs and ground cover in our pursuit to transition the reserve to a stronghold of Bermuda’s Natural Heritage.

Eco Club

Eco Club volunteer Oliver Leverock watering plants that will find forever homes in our nature reserves.

Our Friday afternoon Eco Club team members are steadily propagating native and endemic flora as part of efforts to preserve and protect Bermuda’s natural and cultural heritage for everyone, forever. Native and endemic plants have become challenging to obtain from nurseries, so we decided to grow our own. The team’s work is essential to ensuring we can continue bringing back Bermuda’s biodiversity.

Cultural Heritage Updates

Dr. Charlotte Andrews, Head of Cultural Heritage

Many hands make enlightening work

BNT and the Smith's Island Archaeology Project team, led by Dr. Michael Jarvis, are looking for volunteers to help inventory artefacts from past digs. The work will take place at our Waterville HQ in Paget.

Experienced archaeologists will help you to sort, count and describe an array of excavated artefacts. If you can spare two hours or more between 9:30am and 4:30pm Monday through Friday 10-15 March, please contact our Volunteer Coordinator Jean at jean.flath@bnt.bm or 236-6483 ext. 226 to book a volunteer slot.

Xander Cook and a fellow volunteer process artefacts at Waterville

BNT sends congratulations to Bermudian Xander Cook as he embarks on his PhD in Archaeology at Cardiff University. Xander completed his BA in Archaeology at Cardiff and an MA in Maritime Archaeology at the University of Southampton. He has long volunteered for the Trust on archaeological and heritage projects. His doctorate will be Bermuda-focused and we hope to give him guidance and support as he undertakes his research journey.

Focus on the City

The Department of Planning has released the Draft City of Hamilton Plan 2024 following extensive public consultation. Once adopted, this land use plan will supercede the City of Hamilton Plan 2015. The latest plan takes a different approach in attempting to create ‘a high quality pedestrian friendly urban environment’ by ‘focusing on the quality of place’.

The public consultation continues and it’s not too late to submit your comments in the form of objections or representations. You have until Friday, 26 April to do so via the Department of Planning’s Customer Self Service (CSS) system. Take the opportunity to give your feedback on the future of our city!

Heritage Education Updates

Anna Stevenson, Heritage Education Manager

Our Heritage Education programme was very much on theme for Black History Month in February. We partnered with the Department of Education (DoE), the African Diaspora Heritage Trail (ADHT), the Friends of St Peter’s Church and Rev. Lorne Bean to deliver an on-site learning experience in St George’s for all government school P5s and a group from Whitney Middle School. Rev. Bean, Maxine Esdaille (ADHT), and Nekesha Holdipp (DoE) took the children around three sites on the African Diaspora Heritage Trail – the Free Black and Enslaved cemetery, the home of Pilot James “Jemmy” Darrell, and the John Stephenson memorial. The children were clearly deeply absorbed in the experience.

It was also a busy month at Verdmont, with over 40 students from Cedarbridge Academy and 60 students from Whitney Institute exploring the property as a site of enslavement. One student from Whitney commented, “It’s one thing to learn about it in the classroom, but it’s a whole different thing to see it in real-life.”

Can you help?

We’re presently looking for volunteers to help with the following:

Palm Sunday Walk on 24 March
Children’s Nature Walk at Spittal Pond on 2 April
Restoration of a small iron garden table and chairs

Please contact Jean Flath at jean.flath@bnt.bm or 236-6483 ext. 226.

Built To Last

Prospect Camp and Fort Prospect photographed in the 1990s for Bermuda Forts 1612-1957 by Dr Edward Harris.

Fort Prospect

This is part of a series of architectural articles by the Bermuda National Trust that will highlight some of Bermuda’s endangered historic buildings.

The Forgotten Fort: Fort Prospect is the largest of the three forts that made up the Prospect Hill Position. Langton and Hamilton followed. Sadly, the three were said to be obsolete almost before they were completed and by the end of the 19th century not one of them was regarded as an effective defence.

Click here to read the full article.