Kayak the Crane Estate Piers Park III Becomes Newest Member of High Line Network

• Guided trips for all ages & skill levels through the North Shore’s foremost kayaking destination

• Corporate and private tours available

Grant Secures $6 Million Investment for Boston Community Gardens

The Trustees has recently announced a $6 million investment to support renovations and expanded food access at its 56 community gardens across eight Boston neighborhoods. The anonymous grant provides a transformational opportunity for the gardens, which total more than 1,600 plots and feed nearly 8,000 people each year. “This generous grant not only allows us to respond to the enormous demand for more garden plots in the city, it improves the quality of life for Boston residents whose reliance on open space has been at the heart of our mission for more than 130 years,” said Interim President and CEO Nicie Panetta. “These gardens aren’t just food sources, they are community hubs that reflect the vibrant culture of their neighborhoods and where people gather in community to share not just the bounty of their harvests, but also the richness of their stories and so many special moments in their lives.” Funding from the grant will be enable much needed capital improvements and enhanced maintenance of existing gardens, as well as construction of potential new garden sites. Cultivation and expansion of the gardens in turn provides more access to green space, allows the food grown to reflect the culture of the community, and creates space for cross-cultural interactions and friendships. Hybrid programming—which currently serves 18,000 people annually—will be expanded, with workshops on gardening skill-building, health and mindfulness classes, art installations, concerts, and seasonal celebrations. “There are roughly 125,000 people who live within a quarter mile of one of our 56 community gardens,” said Trustees Vice President of Urban Outdoors Vidya Tikku. “Our goal is not simply to create an audience of people who have garden plots, but to invite all of the surrounding community to reap the benefits of these special spaces.”

Innovative Climate Adaptation Research Planned for Notchview’s Forests

This past fall, The Trustees was awarded a three-year grant from The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Climate Adaptation Fund to implement climate-smart silviculture practices to improve resilience and support the transition of the Acadian forest at its Notchview Reservation in Windsor. With more than 3,100 acres in western Massachusetts, Notchview provides key forest ecosystem functions including carbon sequestration, healthy soils, clean water, and wildlife habitat. Facing increasing temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns due to climate change, the impetus for future functionality of this ecosystem necessitates The Trustees to implement interventions to improve resilience and support the transformation from the spruce-fir forest to a more hardwood-dominated forest that will be suitable to the future climate. The grant will allow The Trustees to implement some of the practices identified in its 2019 Forest Stewardship Plan, created as a set of guidelines to improve the climate resiliency of its forests. Innovative techniques will be piloted, such as reducing deer browse of seedlings using slash walls and planting future climate-adapted

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Piers Park III in East Boston—the Trustees’s first new park on the harborfront created as part of the organization’s Boston Waterfront Initiative, One Waterfront—was recently welcomed into the High Line Network as a new member project. In February, the Network welcomed 10 new members, including Piers Park III, into its community of nonprofit infrastructure reuse projects. The Trustees’ park is the only project in New England to earn this distinction. The High Line Network serves as a support system for people and organizations who are working to bring green spaces to their communities through the reuse of existing infrastructure. The group welcomes projects that center local communities, build civic connections, support environmental resilience, and foster equitable community development. “The bold vision for Piers Park III is inspired in part by many of our peers in the High Line Network,” said Nick Black, Managing Director for the Trustees Boston Waterfront Initiative. “We are excited to be a part of this impressive group of leaders in infrastructure reuse and for this opportunity to learn from our peers around the country, while offering valuable insights from our own experiences in East Boston building an accessible park on Boston’s waterfront.” Parks already represented in the Network include many that have inspired the vision for Piers Park III, including the High Line, its namesake park in New York, NY, as well as Waterfront Seattle in Seattle, WA, Gathering Place in Tulsa, OK, and more. The peer-to-peer exchange offered through membership in the High Line Network will build upon the One Waterfront team’s ability to understand best practices and deliver a park that centers the East Boston community and climate resiliency. Piers Park III is currently in the community design phase, which began in 2021. The current design includes coastal community spaces, a salt marsh, a reclaimed rail line, gravel beach, coastal meadow, tide pool, fishing pier, and a kayak launch. Construction is expected to begin in 2024. For more information, visit thetrustees.org/onewaterfront. tree seedlings. Although the existing forest at Notchview is currently withstanding shifts in climate, this grant provides the opportunity to establish species in the forest that will be able to handle the future climate as existing tree species and their seedlings are no longer able to withstand the climate conditions. Trustees ecologists will collaborate with UMass researchers to document the work and make it available for future researchers. “This project expands our climate adaptation work from the coast to our interior forests,” says Trustees Vice President of Conservation & Resilience Tom O’Shea. “What makes this project noteworthy is its innovative, forward-looking approach to building resilience in some of our most vulnerable forests in Massachusetts and the region, as well as the opportunity to showcase climate adaptation interventions in a forest context.” The Trustees looks forward to providing updates on this project’s progress and learnings with other forest landowners and managers, as well as with members and visitors, in the months and years to come.