Special places summer 2007

Special PLACES F OR M EMB E R S A N D SUP P O RTE R S O F T H E T RU S T E E S O F R E S E RVAT I O N S

SUMMER 2007 VOLUME 15

NO. 2

Fabulous, Feisty – & Fragile

T H E T R U S T E E S O F R E S E RVAT I O N S

We’ve been thinking a lot about what we need to do. Our recently adopted strategic plan lays it out in detail. You can download a copy at our website, www.thetrustees.org, but it boils down to this: no time for business as usual.

We are over 100,000 people like you who want to protect the places they love or who simply like to be outdoors.

Together with our neighbors, we protect the distinct character of our communities and inspire a commitment to special places across the

A Landscape in Motion When I look at Massachusetts, I see a landscape in motion. Even the seemingly timeless hills west of the Connecticut River are evolving in subtle ways. Looking at the barns that dot the Highlands, I feel transported back in time, yet pulled toward an uncertain future. Because people care, some lucky barns and this peaceful landscape will survive, and we, in turn, will continue to be nourished by its existence.

By contrast, there are places where time, space and options are quickly running out.

Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket are confronting forces that threaten the islands’ sense of community. And islanders are speaking out.

Preserving the past for the future is a dayto-day responsibility. But today, our challenge is much tougher, much larger, and much, much more urgent: the places we care about are going fast, and the forces undermining them – including climate change – are moving faster.

We need to tap the wellspring of people’s joy – in our communities, our heritage, and the natural world – and mobilize a whole new generation to care.

landmarks that we care for – as we know how

2

valuable they are to our lives every day.

Andy Kendall President

We need to lead by example Each of our reservations is actually an invitation – an invitation for people to act. Every time someone finds pleasure, beauty, solace, or fun through one of our special places, it’s an opening, a chance to spark their own sense of urgency and inspire them to get involved.

Valerie Burns President, Boston Natural Areas Network Vice President, The Trustees of Reservations Kathy Abbott Vice President Field Operations Melanie Ingalls Vice President Education & Outreach Richard Ryan Vice President Finance & Administration, CFO

We need to be bold In founding The Trustees in 1891, Charles Eliot was radically creative. Now it’s our turn.

To win the battles of our own time, we must push ourselves, in everything we do, to be just as daring, imaginative, and bold.

Wes Ward Vice President Land Conservation

On Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket lifelong islanders and newer residents resolve to keep community-based values from washing away.

Chris Kennedy Islands Regional Director Steve McMahon Berkshires Regional Director

10

Wayne Mitton Northeast Regional Director

Dip your paddle into a serene stretch of this beloved waterway – and explore a riverscape that connects some of The Trustees’ finest properties.

Dick O’Brien Central Regional Director Steve Sloan Southeast Regional Director

12 DESIGN

PRESIDENT

TIMELESS

Big on Barns

Nicole Polillio Design & Production Manager

Icons of farming life, barns continue to link the Highland Communities landscape between the Connecticut and Housatonic rivers.

Kate Wollensak Creative Director

We invite your articles, photographs, letters, and suggestions. Please send them to:

Andy Kendall

P E O P L E A N D P L AC E

Reverie on the Charles

EDITOR

Michael O’Connor Writer / Editor

C OV E R S TO RY

Fabulous, Feisty – & Fragile

Jocelyn Forbush Pioneer Valley Regional Director

Kate Saunders Vice President Advancement

The planet starts here.

16

Special Places Moose Hill Farm 396 Moose Hill Street Sharon, MA 02067 TEL 781.784.0567 FAX 781.784.4796 EMAIL mingalls@ttor.org

L A N D C O N S E RVAT I O N

A Helping Hand A 19th-century poor farm in Westport is transformed into a 21st-century public treasure.

For information about becoming a member please contact us at 978.921.1944 x1858, email

17 CALENDAR OF EVENTS

us at membership@ttor.org, or visit our website at www.thetrustees.org.

In March, we learned that Naumkeag has been designated a National Historic Landmark! This summer is a fine time to discover the beauty of the Berkshires and the Choates’ summer ‘cottage.’ We’ll be having a celebration in September. Watch our website for details. We hope you’ll join us!

28 FIND YOUR PLACE Special Places, Summer 2007.Volume 15, Issue Number 2. Special Places (ISSN 1087-5026) is published quarterly and distributed to members and donors of The Trustees of Reservations.

Copyright © 2007. All rights reserved. Printed on recycled paper.

ON THE COVER: Cape Poge Wildlife Refuge,

Martha’s Vineyard © R. CHEEK

SUMMER 2007 VO L . 1 5 NO. 2

W W W. T H E T R U S T E E S . O R G

Please recycle this magazine by passing it on to a friend or donating it to a school, library, business, or wherever it might be read.

Crane Beach at the Crane Estate, Ipswich

© E. MONNELLY

KENDALL’S CORNER

everyone the irreplaceable landscapes and

© R. CHEEK

© T. KATES

Commonwealth. Our passion is to share with

We need to multiply ourselves If we succeed, we’ll succeed by recruiting. If we’re going to save the things we care about, we have to inspire people – many, many other people like you! – and we need to spur their personal commitment and practical help.

Contents

S P E C I A L P L AC E S

COVER STORY

Islanders Speak Up for Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

STORY AND PORTRAITS BY JOHN BUDRIS

2

THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS

|

www.thetrustees.org

W H E N C H A R L E S D A R W I N WA S N ’ T T H I N K I N G A B O U T

finches and natural selection he pondered goats.

Exploring the Galapagos in the 1830s, Darwin observed that islands possess a fragile equilibrium far more delicate than continents.

Intrusions that go unnoticed on the mainland are often disastrous on an island. The stray goat left on the mainland becomes someone’s dinner. Left on an island, everything becomes the goat’s dinner.

Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket are each in varying stages of being altered, threatened even – and not by goats. Increasing numbers of people – from day-trippers and vacationers to second home owners and year-round residents – are impacting the islands in ways both obvious and not yet understood.

In a generation, the year-round populations of both islands have soared. Nantucket, which since before World War II had a stable winter census of about 3,500 residents, hit 12,000 this year. The Vineyard’s 7,500 year-round tally of the mid-1970s has doubled to about 15,000 today.

Its mid-summer population, in fact, could approach six figures.

The tourist season was once measured between the bookends of Memorial Day and Labor Day. No longer. From the first daffodils to late fall, the ferries and flights are often full. Gridlock, once a term reserved for the Southeast Expressway, now also applies to island roadways in July and August.

Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket have a complex kind of magnetism that seemingly gets stronger with each passing tide, drawing to their shores an ever-widening human catch. Some are “wash-ashores” who took a summer job and never left. Some are island-born who emigrated, only to discover that there’s no place like home. Others made deliberate choices to leave the city behind and build a new life, with the Atlantic Ocean as a buffer.

But all share a common conviction that the Vineyard and Nantucket are uncommon places, whose shorelines, oak/pine woods, salt ponds – and saltier inhabitants – are worth defending.

SpecialPLACES | SUMMER 2007

©R. CHEEK / MENEMSHA HILLS, MARTHA’S VINEYARD

Fabulous, Feisty – & Fragile

3

COVER STORY Sometimes Linda Sibley feels like the Dutch boy with her finger in the dike as a tsunami rolls in. For 16 of the almost 40 years she and husband Don have lived full-time in the West Tisbury woods, she has served on the Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC), the island’s sole regulatory agency with jurisdiction in all six towns.

The elected, unpaid position consumes countless hours. For her efforts, Linda’s been threatened, sued and cheered for her stances on projects that come before the commission. Shopping centers, country clubs and large houses built on speculation arouse Vineyarders on both sides of the table. She holds up a tee shirt emblazoned with the first words of the commission’s enabling legislation: The Island of Martha’s Vineyard possesses unique natural, historical, scientific, cultural and other values and there is regional and statewide interest in preserving and enhancing these values. These values are being threatened and may be irreversibly damaged by uncoordinated or inappropriate uses of the land.

KAREN QUIGLEY

If you live in S’conset – short for Siasconset – on Nantucket’s east end, Karen Quigley probably knows your name and number. And likely much of your business. As the unofficial “mistress” at S’conset’s post office, not much passes by without her taking notice. Karen Quigley and Nantucket go way, way back.

“I’m a Coffin, one of those first 10 families who bought the island with some beaver pelts,” she says, grinning from behind the counter of a portable post-office trailer, a Katrina loaner, while the vintage corner depot undergoes restoration.

As customers pop in, all smiles and first-name salutations, she talks about growing up in S’conset village, a member of one of the last classes of the one-room schoolhouse which closed in 1964. “We had 18 kids in the room, from the first to the eighth grade,” says the 50-something Karen. “It was quite a shock to have to go all the way to town for the rest of school.” Except for a few months living in Boston after high school, she’s never lived anywhere but S’conset.

The village was once a fishing hamlet, in the days when cod was king and cash was rare. Today, that calculus is reversed. About the only cod around are displayed on silk-screened tee shirts; scrapped-

4

THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS

|

www.thetrustees.org

together gear shacks built by fishermen have been transformed into upscale beach retreats. Yet while private jets parade along the airport tarmac and Martha Stewart style has found a niche, there’s a timelessness to the island that’s somehow immune to it all.

It helps that the roots of a strong conservation ethic have been in place for generations.

Karen Quigley notes that some 40 percent of Nantucket’s 40 square miles are under the blanket of conservation protection.

Without it, she has no doubt of what her island 30 miles off Cape Cod would resemble: “Ocean City, Maryland, concrete on every square inch, many stories high.”

But despite the changes, Karen Quigley still finds comfort in a village where, she notes, “when you hit hard luck, your neighbors are there without you needing to ask.”

The wind and fragrances of S’conset are in her blood, the fine sand under her nails; constants that offer reassurance despite a real-estate boom that would benefit her. “I could buy a house almost anywhere with the money, but where on earth would I find home?”

How does she rate the MVC in fulfilling its mission?

“Pretty good, especially when it concerns how things look here, our roadside appearance,” Linda says. “The face of the Vineyard would be very different without the Commission.”

But what about the Vineyard’s body?

The Sibleys’ move to the Vineyard from Cambridge in 1971 took some sacrifice. In those days of far fewer boats and less full-time employment, they each commuted: Linda to graduate school, and Don to his job teaching at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, an off-island journey he still makes three days a week.

And he still makes time for Mytoi, The Trustees’ serene, Japanese-style garden on Chappaquiddick. In 1991, Hurricane

Bob flattened the garden; Mytoi was reduced to a morass of broken trees, crushed plants and upturned roots. “I guess I’ve been involved as one of the garden’s builders and designers for the past 16 years,” says Don, one of an active group dedicated to sustaining the unique property. He’s served as both staff member and volunteer at Mytoi, and the connection is clearly fundamental to who he is, Sibley acknowledges.

“As an artist-type person, half of my professional work is paintings related to the garden,” he says, “and the other half is the garden itself.”

The most damaging change to the Vineyard’s greater ecology, according to the Sibleys, is the fearsome jump in land prices over a single generation. The Vineyard was once a place where both beatniks and Brahmins could live in an economic equilibrium – or at least truce. Not anymore.

“Little wonder why prospective teachers stop off at the real estate offices before their interviews, and then turn around and go home,” says Don, who served 12 years on West Tisbury’s planning board.

“We had a saying at town hall back in the 1980s, ‘If we’re not careful, the Cape will turn into Long Island, the Vineyard will turn into the Cape, and Chappaquiddick will turn into the Vineyard.’”

The Sibleys are quick to absolve conservation properties – which with wetlands comprise about 40 percent of the Vineyard’s land – from helping to launch real estate into orbit.

“That’s the developer’s PR myth. The astronomical cost of real estate is demand-driven, not due to short supply,” Linda says.

Despite their dismay, the Sibleys remain grounded on the Vineyard, with no intention of leaving. But if they were again 30-somethings in Cambridge, would they choose Martha’s Vineyard today?

“The honest answer is no,” says Linda. “How could we?”

“‘If we’re not careful, the Cape will turn into Long Island, the Vineyard will turn into the Cape, and Chappaquiddick will turn into the Vineyard.’”

-DON SIBLEY WITH WIFE, LINDA.

5

COVER STORY “Bay Scallops are the islands’canaries in the coal

PAUL GALSCHNEIDER

For 20 Months in the late 1990s, Paul Galschneider languished in a federal prison. How the Czechoslovakia-born painter and sculptor was incarcerated is a Dickensian tale of a lost government letter, a missed immigration hearing, and a messy divorce. But during that time of deprivation and uncertainty, Galschneider sustained himself with memories of Nantucket light, which had affected him so deeply when he first visited the island some years earlier. His notebooks are full of pencil sketches of the beaches, the cliffs, the moors, and other beautiful places, each a precious image of his adopted home. “It’s what kept me going, kept me from giving up,” says Paul.

He originally came to Nantucket during the daffodil festival 13 years ago. Stunned by the natural wonder of the island, he was further enthralled by the Nantucketers themselves. “For the first time, really, strangers did not talk to me like I was just some fivebuck-an-hour immigrant,” says Paul. “I was used to that in New Bedford and New Jersey, where I’d lived.”

Despite his thick accent, Nantucketers engaged him, asked questions about his language, his family back in Europe. “I’d never been anywhere so friendly; I knew I wanted to live here, with people like this,” he recalls. The shoreline splendor was a bonus. A heating specialist trained in Switzerland, Paul found no shortage of work during the boom days. One Nantucket contractor even fitted him out with tools and a truck to start his own business. “This does not happen driving a cab in Newark,” he notes wryly.

Now back on the island, remarried and with three children, Paul supports his family full-time with his painting. His work hangs on café walls and in the homes of Nantucket’s glitterati. Though he did not first intend his artwork to advance a conservation message, some stern warnings seem to come through in his canvassess. Amid the dancing light and sails, the rich colors and decidedly Nantucket land and seascapes, storm clouds gather.

At 50, Galschneider takes nothing for granted any longer.

Nor, he cautions, should the island he calls home.

mine,” proclaims Steve Bender. When no longer able to catch enough cod to make a living on Nantucket, Steve turned to what almost everyone did for winter cash: He went scalloping.

“Whole families made a good amount of their living scalloping, on the Vineyard, too, I am sure,” says Steve. “Finding them was never a problem; getting them opened and sold for the best price, that was the problem.”

On both islands, scalloping, as an industry, is now marginalized, the result of what Steve calls a perfect storm of greed and chemistry. He lifts a rough hand and rubs his fingers together in the international code for money. “Big, big bucks turn people here into puppy dogs,” he says.

Frenzied construction intrudes into the fragile scallop habitat; inefficient boat engines spew partially combusted fuel into the harbor water; and herbicides from cranberry bogs to trophy lawns are right behind, he explains. Then the former research chemist for Kennecott Copper gives a refresher chemistry lesson: Detergents – the sources of which range from septic systems to yachts moored

in the harbor – include powerful wetting agents that allow easier mixing of harbor water and the petro-chemicals.

“So instead of the poisonous stuff evaporating, it sinks and kills fish and scallop larvae in parts per billion,” he says disgustedly.

Steve tried the political route on Nantucket. As an outspoken selectman, he spearheaded installation of speed bumps on some in-town roads. With nine other fishermen, he’s now taking legal action against the conservation commission’s decision to allow a private yacht club to build piers in the scallop habitat on the harbor.

“Is there anything worth preserving anymore?” he asks. “We can blacktop the harbor with yachts and crap, or we can make it a place to dig littlenecks and get scallops. If these mean something then you have to do what it takes, and that’s not happening.”

“Is there anything worth preserving anymore? … If these [places] mean something then you have to do what it takes, and that’s not happening.”

-STEVE BENDER

6

7

COVER STORY

“So here I am, painting outside on this wonderful public property …

It’s likely someone with a big house near the shore will buy this painting, and help me make a living.”

Steve Slosek came home to Nantucket and Moor’s

SUE AND STEVE SLOSEK

End Farm in 1976 after a hitch in Vietnam and college. His father, one of the island’s last dairy farmers, was at first skeptical about his son’s plans. But with his wife, Sue, Steve gradually built a thriving road-side vegetable and flower business.

Moor’s End Farm is one of only two working farms left on Nantucket. Much of the island’s agricultural identity was lost during the recent construction boom, as farmers found few alternatives to selling off and getting out. Or as Steve muses, “What farmer wouldn’t be tempted to sell one building lot for more than he’d make in years of growing things?”

At least in part, conservation groups offer some relief. The Sloseks were able to sell 17 acres to the Nantucket Land Bank and lease back some acreage to cultivate. Residents on both islands praise The Trustees of Reservations for a user-friendly attitude toward fishing, hunting and low-impact recreation. At Long Point Wildlife Refuge, on the Vineyard, for example, hundreds of acres on the water and salt ponds remain just the way their donors left them. “The ordinary guy doesn’t have anywhere to hunt anymore, except these places,” says Steve.

But it’s not enough, he argues. With about 40 percent of the land on both islands under some sort of conservation shield, other creative solutions, such as cluster housing and long-term agricultural leases, need to be part of the future – if there is going to be a future for generations of islanders to come.

Yet, like other residents whose criticisms emerge from a fervent love of place, the Sloseks can’t get enough of Nantucket soil. Their children, like Steve before them, came home after college to the family farm. Sitting in a rocker at his daughter Abby’s house, his lap full of puppies, Steve Slosek makes time to tend to other crops besides sweet corn.

-ALLEN WHITING

Allen Whiting was a Vineyard Kid

who left the family farm and took off for something high and wild: Whiting went to Miami with notions of becoming a major league ballplayer.

A hint to his ultimate fate, however, lay in the fact that as a schoolkid Allen would return early from recess to gawk at a book filled with Frederic Remington prints.

“That should have told me something,” he says, sitting by the hearth at the family farmstead. “I came to my senses in the Museum of Fine Arts one day. It hit me that all I really wanted to do was paint.”

After a stint at Windham College in Vermont 40 years ago, he came home to do just that. In between three now-grown children, hundreds of lambs, thousands of hay bales, and myriad chores required to keep together what his great-grandfather built 150 years ago, Allen Whiting paints: the grand overlooks, the salt ponds, the rock shores, the meadows and maple groves every Vineyarder knows.

Some scenes he has preserved on canvas just before the chainsaws and earthmoving machines made them disappear forever.

Other subjects he paints will never disappear: bucolic properties forever protected by the Land Bank – which in turn is nurtured by funds generated from taxes on the very building booms responsible for much of the problems on both islands. At such a paradox, the painter/farmer feels conflicted. “So here I am, painting outside on this wonderful public property, where anyone can come with a kayak and go into the pond. It’s likely someone with a big house near the shore will buy this painting, and help me make a living,” says Allen, next to a sheetrock-size work-in-progress. “Every day I remind myself how lucky I am for such a job.”

Both the Vineyard and Nantucket will need more than luck to survive as places remotely resembling those of Allen Whiting’s and Steve Slosek’s boyhoods. Much still needs to be reconciled on islands where environmental fragility and economy meet and part like the shore and tide.

John Budris is the editor of Vineyard Style Magazine and Hall of Fame Magazine. He’s lived on Martha’s Vineyard since 1980.

SpecialPLACES | SUMMER 2007

9

PEOPLE AND PLACE

Charles

A Serene Stretch of this Much-Loved Waterway Links Generations of Paddlers – and Connects People to a Deeper Current. BY MICHAEL TOUGIAS PERHAPS THE BEST PADDLE ON THE ENTIRE, 80-MILE

© K. JOHNSON

Charles River is a five- to six-mile stretch starting at the Sherborn/Medfield town line and ending at the South Natick Dam. You will pass through forest, observe wildlife and admire some handsome, man-made structures.

Begin your trip at the Route 27 bridge, and the meandering river will soon carry you through Rocky Narrows. With such a name you would expect this area to be a white water froth.

But the river is actually quite peaceful, and I’ve noticed only one spot where the river narrows enough to cause a swirl or boil where perhaps the current passes over a granite ledge.

Owned by The Trustees of Reservations, Rocky Narrows extends along the west bank and slopes directly down to the river, giving the paddler the sensation of drifting through a tiny canyon. Exposed rock and ledge can be seen in the steepest spots. In three or four places, where the hills meet the river’s edge, you can see an impressive stand of eastern hemlock. To me, hemlocks signify the hilly country to the north, and the Charles supports few of these majestic trees – except, of course, those that are found much farther downstream at Hemlock Gorge in Newton and Needham.

Rocky Narrows is worth exploring by foot. Beach your canoe at a designated area then hike to the top of a bluff for a better view. Red-tailed hawks must also like the view, because I often see them here riding thermals above the river.

Only four or five houses can be seen along the stretch from Route 27 to the Farm Road/ Bridge Street bridge, which links Dover and Sherborn, and these homes add to the scenery rather than detract from it.

A few hundred feet beyond the Farm Road Bridge is a sign on the right bank welcoming you to Peters Reservation, another Trustees property. I once watched a big buck leave the woods here. Floating along, I gazed into the thick stands of trees and thought how different these woods in the Sherborn/Dover area might have looked in the days before the arrival of the colonists. Certainly the trees would have been bigger; the forests we now see are second or third growth. Incredibly, there are no large tracts of virgin forest left in the state.

Continuing downstream, on the left is the Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary, owned by the Massachusetts Audubon Society. And just beyond Broadmoor, watch along the right bank for a statue on a large boulder, which some refer to as “the mysterious Praying Woman Statue.” Many people have heard the legend that the statue was placed here because a young boy drowned, but in reality the statue was a gift from Daniel Sargent, the former owner of this land, to his wife.

Sargent also built the ornate footbridge that spans the river here.

Below Sargent’s Bridge, the Charles widens above the South Natick Dam. Pull out on the right side before the dam, enjoy the small park on either side of the river, and revel in the feeling of having enjoyed one of the finest paddling experiences in the state.

Michael Tougias is a veteran Charles River paddler. He is the author of Ten Hours Until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the Can Do in the Blizzard of ’78 and AMC’s Best Day Hikes Near Boston, which highlights numerous Trustees properties.

© G. SEAMAN

Reverie on the

PADDL ERS GUIDE ONE CAR: Launch from the Farm Road/Bridge Street bridge on the Dover/Sherborn line. Head upstream through a small marshy area and into Rocky Narrows.

Or launch at the little park above the South Natick Dam and paddle upstream one mile to view the enchanting footbridge and “Praying Woman Statue.”

There is also a small launch site next to Route 16, about 200 yards upstream of the statue on the right.

TWO CARS: Leave one car at the South Natick Dam

and then drive upstream to launch at the Route 27 bridge on the Sherborn/ Medfield line.This excursion takes you through the bluffs of Rocky Narrows, under the Farm Road / Bridge Street bridge, through acres of forest, past Broadmoor Wildlife Sanctuary, past the “Praying Woman Statue,” under the footbridge, and then into the broad waters above the South Natick Dam.

RIVER WALKS The 150 acres of Rocky Narrows is accessible by canoe, or from Route 27 by foot.The canoe landing is on the west (Sherborn) side of the river.The granite ledges, towering hemlocks, and wildlife make this a special place.The colonists regarded this as “The Gates of the Charles” and built a fort here for protection against the Indians during King Philip’s War.

SpecialPLACES | SUMMER 2007

11

TIMELESS

TIMELESS

to their barns, occasionally influenced by decorative elements on their houses.

Side-hill barns could be several stories high; to make the most of their height, builders constructed ramps or “high drives” into the upper story’s gable end, so that feed could be pitched to several floors of livestock below. Manure was dropped to the first level and removed through doors to the fields.

Certainly, nowhere was gravity put to use with more economy than in these barns.

By the third quarter of the 19thcentury, the English barn from 150 years earlier was being revived for specialized use as a horse-andcarriage shelter, or as a small cow barn in residential areas. Termed

“There is a fundamental beauty to barns that goes beyond function.”

© B. PARSONS © TTOR

By mid-century, farm journals were describing how dairy herds consumed less food in winter if they were kept warmer, so farmers closed the gaps between barn boards that previously had been left unsealed for air flow. An unfortunate result was that while cows ate less, they also got sick more often in the damp, still air; the moisture also caused barns to deteriorate. In response, the journals promoted new air-flow concepts, including the use of ventilators or cupolas placed on barn roofs.

Farmers adopted other pivotal practices. One was the collection of manure for spreading on fields. Collection was made less tedious when farmers began building or moving their barns to a slope, so that a basement level, open on one side, was created. This “side-hill” barn allowed the farmer to toss manure to the lower level where it was stored and transported only once, directly onto the fields. Farmers soon moved their stables to the lower level, so fodder could be dropped to animals from above, thus easing the process of feeding large herds.

BIG ON BARNS

By Bonnie Parsons

STOP IN A HIGHLANDS COMMUNITY AND ASK A RESIDENT

if there are any “good barns” in town: you’ll likely get a quick response, if not exact directions. Almost 300 years after colonial farmers first raised roof beams in these hills and valleys, the Highlands – 38 rural towns between the Connecticut and Housatonic rivers – retain an abundance and rich variety of barns that span centuries. This bounty may be attributed to regional economics and to the persistence of agriculture, but credit must also go to the people who’ve preserved them over generations.

And there’s a growing community who appreciates them.

Building a barn was always one of a farmer’s costliest endeavors: in time, timber and other materials, and in the hiring of skilled framers. Rather than replace them, sage farmers adapted their barns to changing agricultural practices. Barns were moved, or disassembled, and their timber reused. They were expanded and patched; raised on new foundations; re-sided; and opened up with windows and ventilators.

12

Just as they followed familiar English building practices for their homes, settlers built their barns as they had known them in England. An “English” barn, built as a rectangle beneath a gabled roof, was typically windowless until about 1800, when a transom light may have been included above the main doors, as well as a few wall windows. Up until then, air circulated through narrow gaps between the siding boards. The technical excellence of these barns and the sturdy hardwoods used in their construction ensured that they survive throughout the region.

After the American Revolution, farmers needed more space for larger herds, more hay and equipment; barns were expanded with additional bays. Eventually, even extended and reconfigured English barns were deemed too small and inefficient. Thus, another innovation: the “New England” or “gable-front” barn.

By framing a barn lengthwise, with doors at each end, it became a labor-saving building to which any number of additional bays could be added. Appearing by 1830, the newly configured structure quickly became popular in the Highlands region.

ABOVE : A barn © B. WARREN

THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS

|

www.thetrustees.org

© B.WARREN

The Bryant Homestead barn evolved over several generations.

This 1880s carriage barn in Chesterfield sheltered both carriage and cow.

While 18th- and early 19th-century English barns were built at a distance from farmhouses, by the mid-1800s farm journals were advocating that barns be built close – or even connected – to dwelling places, to concentrate activity. A barn could also serve as a windbreak for a house. Connected complexes do appear, but more commonly farmers in the Highlands built their barns at right angles to their houses to create protected yards. It was also during this period that farmers began to apply architectural styles

Sliding doors were making farmers’ labor easier as early as 1850.

“eaves-front” to distinguish them from earlier English barns, they may be seen today in many town centers of the Highlands region.

Many barns feature additions made to accommodate the ever-evolving processes farmers were adopting. One of the best examples of this type is the impressive red barn at The Trustees’ William Cullen Bryant Homestead in Cummington. The New England section was constructed in the 1840s using timbers from an earlier barn; the right wing was added in the 1860s; and the left wing built 30 years later.

stands as silent sentinel over a field in Cummington.

SpecialPLACES | SUMMER 2007

13

© W. SWEETSER © B. PARSONS

© B.WARREN © B. PASRONS

Louvers in the cupola of this “side-hill” barn in Cummington helped release heat and dampness.

Today, the greatest challenge to barn preservation is not keeping a barn’s roof intact; rather, it is keeping it intact over an economically viable use. Fortunately, there is a burgeoning movement of people and organizations determined to preserve as many as they can.

Mack Phinney’s connection to barns is both personal and professional: As a timber framer and blacksmith, he personifies trades rich in historical and community value; as a teacher, he passes along such semi-forgotten work traditions to a new generation; and as member of the Barn Task Force of Preservation Massachusetts, he defends them, from roof peak to manure pile.

“I’m definitely an ambassador for barns,” says Phinney, who guided a team of staff and volunteers in constructing a shed at The Trustees’ Copicut Woods in Fall River. “Our group’s objective

Ground-level stable barns first appeared in the late 19th century.

is to preserve barns instead of tearing them down.”

He can speak of “English” and “New England” designs with authority and is awed by the skill and ingenuity of those barns’ original builders.

“In the beginning, they didn’t even have sawmills, so they could only square up trees with axes, and use pegs made from wood,” Phinney marvels. “As time went by, sawmills cut timber into planks, but everything was still built with hand tools, no real machinery.”

A knowledge of mathematics and physics was also crucial, he says. “They had some ingenious levering arrangements. You could do a lot with manpower, ropes, animals – and intelligence.”

Barns certainly mean plenty to him. And he is as delighted as anyone at how they are being transformed.

Ramps brought access to the upper levels of “high drive” barns.

This English-style barn in Goshen is one of the oldest in the region.

In Shelburne, a barn complex serves as communal storage and a place for weddings, all of which helps maintain its value to the group of families who own it in common.

A barn in Tyringham also has been transformed into a rustic venue for weddings and other celebrations that bring rental income.

The Highlands are home to several barns that have been put to cultural uses. One of the most prominent is at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket. Another barn in Ashfield is home to the Double Edge Theater. Barns are large spaces than can be businessfriendly as well; conversions include offices and work areas for a landscape architecture firm and a golf course clubhouse. In New Marlborough, a pair of barns has been converted into a hotel/spa.

Even if they have found new uses, there is a fundamental beauty to barns that goes beyond function, Phinney says.

“Especially if they’re on land a family has owned for many years; if you know a barn’s history, you appreciate it more. Or if you’ve just bought a property with a barn on it, and do some research, it just means more,” he says.

Perhaps their ultimate worth, however, is found in the eye of each beholder. “I just think they’re fantastic,” Phinney says with a chuckle. “I slow down so much when I see one, I’m surprised I haven’t been tail-ended. I just have to look.”

© B.WARREN

Cupolas: functional and decorative.

Bonnie Parsons is Senior Planner and Manager of Historic Preservation Programs for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.

Hot off the presses!

Barns in the Highland Communities is the latest in a series of HCI-sponsored monographs on the historical and cultural resources of the Highlands.

14

TIMELESS

Meet the Author / Meet a Barn

To get your copy, mail a check for $5 to:

Saturday, July 14 | 10AM -1PM

B ARN B OOKLET

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT HOMESTEAD, CUMMINGTON

Highland Communities Initiative PO Box 132 ■ Haydenville, MA 01039

Bonnie Parsons will discuss and sign copies of her booklet, Barns in the Highland Communities (FREE to attendees), at one of the Highlands’ iconic structures, the bright red barn at the boyhood home of William Cullen Bryant, America’s premier 19th-century poet. Master restorer Jack Sobon and Trustees assistant superintendent Pat Toomey will showcase the barn’s recent restoration.

Members: FREE. Nonmembers: $8.

Or download a free PDF copy from www.highlandcommunities.org

Stop Stalling Want to help preserve barns in your own community? Check out these online resources: www.highlandcommunities.org www.preservationmass.org www.barnagain.org

SpecialPLACES | SUMMER 2007

15

LAND CONSERVATION

SUMMER EVENTS!

A Helping Hand

JUNE THROUGH SEPTEMBER 2007

Find more to do online – visit us at www.thetrustees.org

Westport Town Farm Preserves an Integral Part of a Community’s Past

BERKSHIRES REGION

Sundays in July | 2-3PM

Saturday, July 14 | 10AM-12 NOON

Music in the Gardens

Live Birds of Prey with Tom Ricardi

Daily, April – December |

NAUMKEAG, STOCKBRIDGE 413.298.3239 X3000

BARTHOLOMEW’S COBBLE, SHEFFIELD 413.229.8600

Musicians spanning many traditions perform against an exquisite outdoor backdrop.

Members: FREE. Nonmembers: FREE with admission.

Wildlife rehabilitator and former state wildlife biologist, Tom Ricardi, shows his collection of hawks, falcons, owls and a bald eagle – up close and personal – and tells the story of their lives.

Please pre-register. Members: Adult $8, Child (6–12) $4. Nonmembers: Adult $10, Child (6 –12) $5.

SUNRISE TO SUNSET

Rocks, Roads, and Revolution Quest BARTHOLOMEW’S COBBLE, SHEFFIELD 413.229.8600

Take a self-guided journey back through time to the days of the Mohicans and the earliest European settlers and see if you can find their hidden treasure. Quest clues and map available at Bartholomew’s Cobble Visitor Center.

Members: FREE. Nonmembers: FREE with admission.

reached out to the town’s impoverished and infirm, the community and The Trustees of Reservations are working to honor that worthy past and secure a future for one of the loveliest properties on the South Coast.

From 1824 until 1956, the former Willcock Farm, situated between Drift Road and the East Branch of the Westport River, served as a poor farm for needy families and other unfortunates (those beset by “intemperance” or “idleness” were also sent there).

At the time it closed, there were only a few people still cared for at what was by then called the “town infirmary.”

Since the 1950s, the Westport Town Farm has survived threats from deterioration, demolition and development; local citizens are to be commended for their steadfast commitment to the property.

Geraldine Millham, chair of the Westport Historical Commission, personifies their gritty determination.

Millham recalled that when she moved from northern California to Westport 30 years ago, “I noticed this old property was in my neighborhood and I just really took to it.” Somebody had to; the farm had already fallen into disrepair and there was little local interest in saving it.

©K. MCMAHON

ALMOST TWO CENTURIES AFTER THE PEOPLE OF WESTPORT

Millham and others helped put together a plan for town approval to install two apartments in the main building. The rental units generated sufficient town revenue to keep developers at bay.

Now, The Trustees have joined forces with volunteers to convert the farm back to a more public use.

“This has been an underutilized treasure for years and years, and much admired by so many people,” says Anthony Cucchi, Trustees regional land protection specialist. “We’ve been lucky that there has been such an active group of neighbors and volunteers.”

Earlier this year, Westport selectmen granted The Trustees preliminary approval to manage the 40-acre mix of upland woods, open fields, pastures, wetlands and tidal riverfront. Long-term improvements, pending a formal agreement with the town, could include restoration of buildings, more active farming programs, and boardwalk access to the river.

The immediate goal this summer is to re-introduce the public to this spectacular property. A tour for Trustees members is set for Saturday, June 16 (please pre-register by calling 508.679.2115); the Town Farm’s official opening takes place Saturday, July 21. The celebration will feature a ribbon-cutting ceremony, guided tours, and a variety of family-friendly activities.

Having The Trustees manage the property for the town should be the best of both worlds, Millham suggests. “It’s really a perfect solution, and the right sort of organization to take the farm to a higher level. It’s going to be in very good hands.”

Geraldine Millham is among the dedicated citizens who have helped make Westport Town Farm a reality.

©K. MCMAHON

ABOVE :

LEFT :

The property affords visitors spectacular views of the East Branch of the Westport River.

June 20, June 27, July 11, July 14 | 10AM-2:30PM

The White Glove Gang NAUMKEAG & MISSION HOUSE, STOCKBRIDGE; WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT HOMESTEAD, CUMMINGTON 413.298.3239 X3012

Earn your own pair of white gloves! Learn from professional conservators how to care for antiques, then put your knowledge to work as a volunteer (at least 25 hours) in The Trustees’ historic houses. Topics: furniture, textiles, manuscripts, and ceramics. Pre-registration required. 4 sessions, includes materials and transportation fees. Members: $25. Nonmembers: $50.

Daily, July & August

Look Closely with Kipper: A Children’s Garden Adventure NAUMKEAG, STOCKBRIDGE 413.298.3239 X3013

A self-guided activity program for children (recommended for ages 4–9). Using a backpack of tools and clues, discover the gardens of Naumkeag from a child’s-eye view. All children must be accompanied by an adult. Members: $5 backpack rental fee. Nonmembers: admission plus $5 backpack rental fee.

Mondays, July & August | 2 PM

Monday Afternoon in the Gardens: A “Touch of Nonsense” at Naumkeag NAUMKEAG, STOCKBRIDGE 413.298.3239 X3000

Enjoy a guided walk through Naumkeag’s famed gardens and explore Mabel Choate’s and landscape-architect Fletcher Steele’s creation of wit, whimsy and beauty in the Berkshires.

Members: FREE. Nonmembers: FREE with admission.

July 1 | Come join us for a peaceful interlude as singer-songwriter Bruce Mandel performs his blend of folk music.

July 8 | Sky Trio performs new instrumental music, incorporating elements of Celtic, jazz and classical traditions.

Volunteers needed!

July 15 | Enjoy the timeless serenity of this singular property as Teresa Mango performs on the harp.

July 22 | Jon Suters performs on classical guitar.

July 29 | Visit us at www.thetrustees.org.

Sundays, July 1 – 15 & August 5 – 19 | 8:30-11:30AM Sundays, September 2 – 30 | 9AM -12 NOON Labor Day, September 3 | 9AM -12 NOON

Housatonic Paddles BARTHOLOMEW’S COBBLE, SHEFFIELD 413.229.8600

Paddle the winding Housatonic with a naturalist/ guide and explore the rich and varied habitats of this resurgent river. Look for bald eagles, great blue herons, kingfishers and bank swallows.

Equipment is provided. Please pre-register.

Members: Adult $24, Child (6–12) $12.

Nonmembers: Adult $30, Child (6–12) $15.

Saturday, July 7 | 1:30-3:30PM Sundays, July 15 & August 12 | 1:30-3:30PM

Reptile Roundup – Fun for Families BARTHOLOMEW’S COBBLE, SHEFFIELD 413.229.8600

Search fields and wetlands for snakes and turtles with a naturalist/guide. Learn about the habits and homes of these animals. Amphibians and other critters won’t be overlooked!

Appropriate for ages 6 and up. Please pre-register.

Members: Adult/Child $4; Family $12.

Nonmembers: Adult/Child $6; Family $15.

PYRAMID STEPS 1940

Friday, July 27 | 6-9PM

The Garden Party at Naumkeag NAUMKEAG, STOCKBRIDGE 413.298.3239 X3000

Cocktails at sunset, an excellent buffet, music, fireworks and Silent Auction.

Party benefits the restoration of the Pyramid Steps at Naumkeag. For information call 413.298.3239 x3000. Tickets must be purchased in advance.

17

©TTOR

Saturdays, July 21 & August 11 | 10AM-12NOON

Incredible Insects – Fun for Families BARTHOLOMEW’S COBBLE, SHEFFIELD 413.229.8600

A fun-filled search for beetles, ant lions, dragonflies, butterflies, and other amazing insects.

Strictly catch and release. Appropriate for ages 6 and up. Please pre-register. Members: Adult/Child $4; Family $12. Nonmembers: Adult/Child $6; Family $15.

Sunday, July 22 & August 26 | 9AM-2PM

Canoe Trip – Sheffield Covered Bridge to Bartholomew’s Cobble BARTHOLOMEW’S COBBLE, SHEFFIELD 413.229.8600

Explore an extraordinarily scenic, nine-mile stretch of the Housatonic River, rich in wildlife and local history, with a naturalist/guide. Bring a picnic lunch. Call for more information.

Please pre-register. Members: Adult $28, Child (10 –12) $16. Nonmembers: Adult $35, Child (10 –12) $20.

them into your own cuisine. Please pre-register.

Members: Adult $6, Child (10 –12) $3.

Nonmembers: Adult $8, Child (10 –12) $4.

Daily, May 28 – October 8 | 9AM, 12NOON, & 2PM ( TOUR LASTS 1.5 HOURS )

Daily, June – October | 1-2PM

Cape Poge Lighthouse Tour*

GREAT POINT LIGHTHOUSE, COSKATA-COATUE

CAPE POGE WILDLIFE REFUGE,

WILDLIFE REFUGE, NANTUCKET 508.228.6799

Tuesday, August 21 | 2PM

CHAPPAQUIDDICK 508.627.3599

Mum Bett Day Celebration

Journey by oversand vehicle, drink in the views from atop the lighthouse, and learn of the men who watched over Cape Poge waters for nearly 150 years. Members: Adult $15, Child (15 and under) $10. Nonmembers: Adult $20, Child (15 and under) $12.

The lighthouse is open.Trustees members are invited to climb the Great Point Lighthouse and enjoy the view, while learning about this historic structure.Transportation to Great Point is not provided. Members only. FREE.

TOWN HALL, MAIN STREET, GREAT BARRINGTON 413.298.3239 X3013

Join the commemoration of a courageous woman, Mum Bett, who successfully sued for her freedom in 1781 and was instrumental in ending slavery in Massachusetts. Follow a selfguided tour along the new Upper Housatonic African American Heritage Trail, ending with a talk in the cemetery in Stockbridge, where Mum Bett is buried. Open House at the Colonel John Ashley House from 12NOON-3PM. FREE. Saturday, August 25 | 1-4PM

Naumkeag Farm Day – Recommended for Families NAUMKEAG, STOCKBRIDGE 413.298.3239 X3000

Sunday, July 29 | 8-10PM Tuesday, August 28 | 7-9PM Wednesday, September 26 | 6-8PM

Celebrate our agricultural heritage with games, pony rides, crafts and fun for the whole family.

Members: FREE. Nonmembers: $20 per car.

Enjoy a moonlight paddle with a naturalist/ guide and look for beaver, bats and evening wildlife. Please pre-register. Members: Adult $24, Child (10 –12) $12. Nonmembers: Adult $30, Child (10 –12) $15.

NAUMKEAG, STOCKBRIDGE 413.298.3239 X3000

Venture beyond the house and formal gardens for a guided tour of Naumkeag’s barn (ordinarily closed to the public) and learn how the farm was an integral part of this family country estate. Members: FREE. Nonmembers: FREE with admission.

Sunday, August 5 | 9:30AM (RAIN

OR SHINE)

Hike Into History MONUMENT MOUNTAIN, GREAT BARRINGTON 413.298.3239 X3000

Retrace the footsteps of Melville and Hawthorne, who met on a picnic hike here in 1850. Co-sponsered by the Berkshire Hisorical Society. FREE. Saturday, August 18 | 1-3:30PM

Wild Edibles BARTHOLOMEW’S COBBLE, SHEFFIELD 413.229.8600

Learn to identify dozens of wild edibles, how to collect them ethically, and how to incorporate

18

THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS

Daily, May 28 – October 8 | 9AM & 2PM ( TOUR LASTS 2.5 HOURS )

Cape Poge Quest

Wildlife Canoe / Kayak Tour*

CHAPPAQUIDDICK 508.627.3599

CAPE POGE WILDLIFE REFUGE,

A remarkable journey awaits on this self-guided treasure hunt. Search by oversand vehicle through 516 acres of wildlife refuge for the quest box. Materials available at Chappaquiddick Gatehouses. Oversand vehicle permit required.

Daily, May 28 – October 8 | 9AM-5PM

Daily, year-round | SUNRISE ( QUEST TAKES 3 HOURS )

Reap the benefits of Trustees membership as you paddle through Poucha Pond at your own pace with a self-guided trail map in hand. Members only. 4 hours for $25; 8 hours for $35 (per canoe or kayak).

CHAPPAQUIDDICK 508.627.3599

Paddle through the marine habitats of Chappaquiddick with a naturalist and learn how humans affect the animals and plants that call Cape Poge Bay home. Members: Adult $30, Child (15 and under) $15. Nonmembers: Adult $35, Child (15 and under) $18.

CAPE POGE WILDLIFE REFUGE,

TO SUNSET

Menemsha Hills Quest MENEMSHA HILLS RESERVATION, CHILMARK

if you register in advance.

508.693.7662

BARTHOLOMEW’S COBBLE, SHEFFIELD

Daily, June – October | 9:30AM & 1:30PM ( TOUR LASTS 2.5 HOURS )

413.229.8600

Natural History Tours

Discover the many treasures of Menemsha Hills during a self-guided family treasure hunt.

Materials available at Menemsha Hills entrance bulletin board. FREE.

Help clear the Cobble of invasive species. Learn how to identify and conserve our native plants.

Call for more information. FREE.

COSKATA-COATUE WILDLIFE REFUGE,

Thursdays through October | 9-11:30AM

Volunteer Work Party

Tuesdays, August | 11AM

From Barnyard to Breakfast Table: The Farm at Naumkeag

Daily, May 28 – October 8 | 9AM-5PM ( QUEST TAKES 3 HOURS )

*Transportation from the ferry is available

Moonlight Paddle BARTHOLOMEW’S COBBLE, SHEFFIELD 413.229.8600

Open Lighthouse

CAPE COD & THE ISLANDS

NANTUCKET 508.228.6799

A naturalist will guide you on this oversand vehicle ride through Coskata-Coatue. Discover the human history and natural wonders of Nantucket’s most expansive salt marsh.

Members: Adult $30, Child (12 and under) $15.

Nonmembers: Adult $40, Child (12 and under) $15.

Daily, May 28 – October 8 | 9AM & 2PM ( TOUR LASTS 2.5 HOURS )

Cape Poge Natural History Tour* CAPE POGE WILDLIFE REFUGE,

Daily, May 28 – October 8 | 8:30AM & 1:30PM ( TOUR LASTS 4 HOURS )

Fishing Discovery Tour* CAPE POGE WILDLIFE REFUGE, CHAPPAQUIDDICK 508.627.3599

Learn the art of surf casting and the life histories of some amazing fish. Our accomplished fishing naturalist will lead you by oversand vehicle across legendary fishing beaches. Members only: Adult $60, Child (15 and under) $25.

NEW FEE SCHEDULE AT LONG POINT WILDLIFE REFUGE EFFECTIVE APRIL 1, 2007 Individual member (one adult): FREE admission, plus a $5 parking fee; Family member (two adults): FREE admission, plus a $5 parking fee; Contributing level and above: FREE admission and FREE parking.

Nonmembers: $10 parking fee; adult $3; children (ages 15 and under) FREE.

Quest Coskata Woods NANTUCKET 508.228.6799

Discover the enchanting Coskata Woods as seen through the eyes of the students of The Nantucket Lighthouse School. Oversand vehicle permit required to access the Woods.Walkers welcome. Materials available at the Wauwinet Gatehouse. FREE. Daily, June 15 – Labor Day Weekend | 8:30AM, 11AM, & 1:30PM ( TOUR LASTS 1.5 HOURS )

Wildlife Discovery Tour LONG POINT WILDLIFE REFUGE, WEST TISBURY 508.693.3678

Kayak through Tisbury Great Pond, witness this timeless landscape, and discover how it’s been molded by the hands of humans and the forces of nature. Leaves from special toursonly parking area at the off-season entrance gate at the end of Deep Bottom Road.

Members: Adult $15, Child (15 and under) $10.

Nonmembers: Adult $20, Child (15 and under) $10.

Garden Volunteer Days 508.627.3599

Spend some time caring for the only Japanesestyle garden on the Islands.

Friday, July 27 & Saturday, July 28 | 7-8:15PM Thursday, August 23 & Saturday, August 25 | 6:30-7:45PM

(Not-So-Creepy) Creatures of the Night – Moonlight Family Hike LONG POINT WILDLIFE REFUGE, WEST TISBURY 508.693.7662

Wednesday, July 25 | 6-8PM Wednesday, August 22 | 5:30-7:30PM

Paddle into the Night CAPE POGE WILDLIFE REFUGE, CHAPPAQUIDDICK 508.693.7662

Discover the beauty of this special place as the light of day turns to night on the water.

Weather permitting. Pre-registration required, space is very limited. Members: Adult $38.

Nonmembers: Adult $47. Meet at Dike Bridge.

Family night hikes give proof that our island is home to animals that fly, hoot and sometimes screech under the cover of darkness!

(Best suited for families with children ages 4– 8).

Pre-registration required, space is very limited.

Both parents are FREE with child admission.

Member: Child $5. Nonmember: Child $10.

CENTRAL REGION June 9, July 14 & August 11 | 10AM-12NOON

Wednesdays & Saturdays in July & August | 2-2:30PM

Take a Fall Back in Time at Doane’s Falls

Explore the Shore

DOANE’S FALLS, ROYALSTON 978.248.9455

LONG POINT WILDLIFE REFUGE, WEST

Join volunteer ranger, Jan Libert, for a short, guided walk into the past.You’ll learn where the mills once stood, who the mill owners were, and what products they manufactured.

The trail along Lawrence Brook is moderately steep, so be prepared for a moderate hike.

Meet at the Ranger Station at 10AM. Maximum of 20 people; no dogs please. FREE.

TISBURY 508.693.3678

Create unforgettable memories as your children get their hands wet, sandy, and sometimes slimy through seaside exploration. FREE. Wednesday, July 11 | 3-4PM

Great Goldfish Release Party MYTOI GARDEN, CHAPPAQUIDDICK 508.627.3599

Volunteers needed!

THE TRUSTEES AND LONG POINT.

Wednesdays in July & August | Call for times

COSKATA-COATUE WILDLIFE REFUGE,

West Tisbury resident permits: two adults FREE admission, plus a $5 parking fee.

THANK YOU FOR CONTINUING TO SUPPORT

CAPE POGE WILDLIFE REFUGE, CHAPPAQUIDDICK 508.627.3599

MYTOI GARDEN, CHAPPAQUIDDICK

Daily, June – October | 9AM-5PM ( QUEST TAKES 2 HOURS )

CHAPPAQUIDDICK 508.627.3599

Join this oversand vehicle journey across Chappaquiddick’s barrier beaches and through rare maritime forests. Enjoy birding, beachcombing, and the sights from the Cape Poge Lighthouse. Members: Adult $30, Child (15 and under) $15. Nonmembers: Adult $35, Child (15 and under) $18.

Poucha Pond Self-Guided Kayak Discovery Tour

Bring the family to Mytoi for goldfish games, goldfish puzzles, and of course, the great goldfish release! Meet at Mytoi. FREE. SpecialPLACES | SUMMER 2007

19

Monday, July 23 | 5:30-8:30PM (Rain Date:Wednesday, July 25)

Saturday, September 29 | 5:30-7:30PM

Saturdays, June 30 & July 7 | 12NOON & 3PM

Saturday, September 15 | 10AM-2PM

Primitive Fire-making

Happy Birthday, Hawthorne!

“A Taste of the Wild”

TULLY LAKE CAMPGROUND, ROYALSTON

THE OLD MANSE, CONCORD 978.369.3909

TULLY LAKE CAMPGROUND, ROYALSTON

978.248.9455

978.248.9455

Find out what all humans once knew, the lost art of fire-making! Our guest instructor will demonstrate several fire-by-friction techniques.

FREE. Call for more information.

Celebrate Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 203rd birthday.Travel back to the 19th century with members of the Hawthorne family on a guided house tour. Please pre-register. Members: Adult $5, Senior /Student $4, Child $3. Nonmembers: Adult $10, Senior / Student $8, Child $6.

Harvest Festival & Perennial Divide (BNAN)

Join Russ Cohen, environmentalist, wild plant enthusiast and author of Wild Plants I Have Known…and Eaten. Russ will lead a foraging walk, then prepare, cook and serve wild plants (maybe even mushrooms) we have harvested, supplemented by other foraged items.

Pre-registration required. Limited to 20 people.

Members: $5. Nonmembers: $10. Children must be 8 or older. Children under 12 are FREE if accompanied by an adult.

TULLY LAKE CAMPGROUND, ROYALSTON

Sundays, July 8 – August 26 | 2- 4PM ( RAIN OR SHINE )

978.248.9455

Music at the Manse Concert Series

Come celebrate fall at beautiful Tully Lake Campground by participating in the first-annual Tully Lake Triathlon, a 5-mile paddle, 4.5-mile run and a 7.5-mile mountain bike race.

Call for more information.

THE OLD MANSE, CONCORD 978.369.3909

GREATER BOSTON

TULLY LAKE CAMPGROUND, ROYALSTON 978.248.9455

Including Boston Natural Areas Network (BNAN)

Bring your mountain bike, helmet, snacks and water, and ride a 7.5-mile trail of moderate difficulty along the Tully River and Long Pond.

Meet at the Tully Lake Campground on Doane Hill Road. FREE.

Open through October 31 Mondays – Saturdays | 10AM-5PM ( EXCEPT HOLIDAYS ) Sundays & Holidays | 12NOON-5PM ( LAST TOUR BY 4:30 PM )

The Old Manse in History THE OLD MANSE, CONCORD 978.369.3909

©T. KATES

Visit the centerpiece of Concord’s political, social, and literary revolutions. Explore the Manse’s role as the inspiration for its famous inhabitants, Emerson and Hawthorne.

Members: FREE. Nonmembers: Adult $8, Senior /Student $7, Child $5.

A perennial favorite, this series of old-fashioned lawn concerts features musicians who present a mix of folk music from different periods and places. Bring a seat, a picnic, and a friend.

Find the performance schedule at www.thetrustees.org. FREE. Saturdays, July 14, August 11, September 8, & October 13 | 10AM12:30PM

Paddling Back in Time THE OLD MANSE, CONCORD 978.369.3909

Join us for a guided trip down the Concord River to The Old Manse, and experience the landscape that inspired Emerson,Thoreau, and Hawthorne. Bring your own boat, or rent one on site. Reservations and pre-payment required.

Members: Adult $8, Child $5. Nonmembers: Adult $16, Child $10.

Saturdays, July 21, August 18, & September 15 2-5PM

Volunteer at Powisset Farm Fields

Saturday, June 23 l 4-6:30PM

POWISSET FARM, DOVER 508.785.0339

Annual Ice Cream Social Celebration

Visit our newest Community Supported Agriculture Farm. Gather for a farm tour, learn about its changing history, meet our pigs, and then work up a sweat with us in the fields. FREE.

FRANCIS WILLIAM BIRD PARK, EAST WALPOLE 508.668.6136

Enjoy music, storytelling, old-fashioned games and, of course, ice cream sundaes as we celebrate the beginning of summer! Bring a chair or blanket to set out on the lawn. FREE.

Saturday, August 4 | 10-11:30AM

TULLY LAKE CAMPGROUND, ROYALSTON 978.248.9455

Saturdays, June 23, July 21, & August 25 | 6PM

CITY NATIVES, 30 EDGEWATER DRIVE,

A Little Ro-Manse

MATTAPAN 617.542.7696

Join award-winning photographer, Gail Hansche, to discover the wonder of the metamorphosis of butterflies.This program covers the life stages of both the Monarch and Painted Lady butterflies.

Meet under the tent in the recreation field at Tully Lake Campground. FREE.

THE OLD MANSE, CONCORD 978.369.3909

20

THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS

This popular annual event includes a plant swap, apple cider press, live music, fresh produce from local growers, Learning Garden tour, children’s craft project and more. Bring your own container for plants you swap. FREE.

Adults will enjoy this 45-minute tour with Nathaniel Hawthorne, as he tells of the great romances of the house and reflects on his own writings about love. Space is limited.

Registration and pre-payment required.

Members: Adult $5. Nonmembers: Adult $10.

©K. MCMAHON

Tully Lake Triathlon

Mountain Bike Ride with Park Ranger

Butterflies: The Cycle of Life

DRIVE, MATTAPAN 617.542.7696

October 13 & 14

Saturday, August 25 | 1PM

August 20 | 8-9PM

CITY NATIVES, 30 EDGEWATER

Seed, Sow & Grow Workshop: Composting Techniques for the Community Gardener (BNAN)

What to do with a garden’s dead plant material?

Learn about sheet composting and vermiculture and the difference between passive and active composting. FREE.

For details about the annual, summerlong Boston Natural Areas Network Neponset River Greenway Festival –– which includes free canoe trips, nature walks, children’s performances and outdoor movies –– and about BNAN’s popular Sounds of the Garden free community garden concert series, please visit www.bostonnatural.org or call 617.542.7696.

Saturday, August 18 | 11AM- 4PM

Saturday, September 15 | 1-2PM

The Old Manse and the Civil War

Seed, Sow & Grow Workshop: BeeKeeping: Honey Harvest (BNAN)

THE OLD MANSE, CONCORD 978.369.3909

CITY NATIVES, 30 EDGEWATER DRIVE,

Join the ninth-annual Civil War encampment reenactment. Immerse yourself in the 1860s with crafts, games, drilling and firing demonstrations, camp life, and a delicious ice cream social.

Suggested donation: $2/person or $10/family (additional charge for ice cream).

MATTAPAN 617.542.7696

Sunday, August 19 | 10AM-2:30PM

Taking place during the Harvest Festival & Perennial Divide, enjoy an informative conversation and hands-on demonstration concerning the harvest and use of honey. FREE.

NORTHEAST REGION

Mushroom Hunting

Saturday, June 16 | 10-11:30AM

THE BRADLEY ESTATE, CANTON 781.255.1996

Rose Garden Tour

Join members of the Boston Mycological Club as we search for mushrooms in the woods and learn to identify them. No registration required.

Call Marcia Jacob at 617.471.1093 for information.

FREE. Saturday, September 29 I 10AM - 2PM

Dog Fest ’07 ROCKY WOODS, MEDFIELD 508.785.0339

Enjoy an afternoon of all things canine in the great outdoors through fun interactive games, activities, and exhibits. Experience the wonderful trail system with your pooch. Members: FREE. Nonmembers: $3/person. Refreshments available. FREE trial Green Dog Day Pass. Visit our website at www.thetrustees.org for more details and to learn more about the Green Dog Program.

STEVENS-COOLIDGE PLACE, NORTH ANDOVER 617.542.7696

Enjoy a field trip to the Stevens-Coolidge Place in North Andover when roses are in full bloom. Participants carpool; limit 30. FREE. April – October, first Saturdays of each month 9AM-12NOON

Falls & Gorge Boardwalk Construction

April – October, second Saturday of each month | 9AM-12NOON

Spring through Fall in the Gardens of The StevensCoolidge Place THE STEVENS-COOLIDGE PLACE, NORTH ANDOVER 978.682.3580

Dig in the dirt with this series of gardening and planting workdays and take home some fruits of labor from the Fall Harvest in October! FREE. April – October, third Saturday of each month 9AM-12NOON

Building Nan’s Trail WEIR HILL / THE STEVENS PROPERTY, NORTH ANDOVER 978.682.3580

Lend a hand with the construction of a 300foot boardwalk through red maple swamp for this North Andover Town Common-Weir Hill Reservation connector trail. FREE. Saturday, June 30 | 10AM-12NOON

Friends of Fire – Discovery Hike WEIR HILL, NORTH ANDOVER 978.921.1944 X8815

Learn the importance of fire to the survival of a truly unique collection of wildflowers, butterflies, grasses and birds that live in one of our region’s rarest habitats. Reservations required. Members: $4. Nonmembers: $5.

Minimum age is 8 (16 without adult).

Wednesday, July 4 | 4-10PM (Rain date:Thursday, July 5)

Independence Day Concert & Fireworks – Special Event CASTLE HILL ON THE CRANE ESTATE, IPSWICH 978.921.1944 X4028

Celebrate with music, fun, and fireworks for all ages. Children’s activities include Kid’s Fest, The Boston Children’s Theatre and Benjamin the Juggler.The Riverboat Stompers and Merrimack Valley Philharmonic Orchestra will perform, leading up to our spectacular fireworks over the ocean! For tickets /information, go online at www.craneestate.org or call 978.921.1944 x4028. Members: Adult $15,

Volunteers needed!

WARD RESERVATION, ANDOVER 978.682.3580

Leave a lasting contribution of stewardship to visitors and friends by helping us rebuild the boardwalk through the beaver-flooded area at Falls & Gorge. FREE. SpecialPLACES | SUMMER 2007

21

Child $10. Nonmembers: Adult $25, Child $15.

for kids under 6 will be offered. Call for details.

Saturdays, July 7,August 4, September 1 | 1-3PM

Sunday, July 22 | 1-3PM

Pinnacle to Pinnacle – Discovery Hike

Budding Artists – Family Workshop

APPLETON FARMS, IPSWICH/HAMILTON

Create a nature journal as we observe and draw in our beautiful gardens. Bring your enthusiasm and curiosity. Pick one of your sketches to hang up for all our visitors to enjoy! Reservations required. Members: Adult $8, Child $4. Nonmembers: Adult $10, Child $5.

Minimum age is 8 (16 without adult).

LONG HILL, BEVERLY 978.921.1944 X8815

978.921.1944 X8815

Summer Picnic Concerts

Sunday, July 8 | 1-3PM

©T. KATES

Thursdays, July 12 – August 30 | 7-9PM

Discover living landscapes created by the Appleton family over hundreds of years.

Wander woodland trails, stroll the Great Pasture, and visit family memorials that once adorned Harvard’s hallowed halls. Reservations required. Members: $4. Nonmembers: $5.

Minimum age is 8 (16 without adult).

THE CRANE ESTATE, IPSWICH 978.921.1944 X4028 Pack a picnic and bring the whole family for an evening of great entertainment under the stars on our seaside lawn. Family Fashion Fun: Come dressed to dance at each themed concert and earn a chance to win a special prize! Members: $20 per car.

Nonmembers: $25 per car. Tickets available at gate only.

July 12 | The Reminisants. Boston’s best oldies band plays the legends of rock n’ roll with favorite tunes from the 50s & 60s. Family Fashion: Don your bobby socks, letter sweater and dance to the oldies.

July 19 | Santa Mamba. Be prepared for a soulful evening of salsa with a driving rock flair – a unique synthesis of hot Latin rhythms. Family Fashion: Wear your wildest, funkiest hat and join the fun.

Saturday, July 28 | 3-5PM

Explore the Shore! – Family Workshop

Pinnacle Quest Fest! – Family Workshop

HALIBUT POINT, ROCKPORT 978.921.1944 X8815

Explore our rocky shore to see how life adapts to the tides and learn the fascinating survival secrets of limpets, barnacles, and a variety of other marine life. Reservations required.

Members: Adult $8, Child $4. Nonmembers: Adult $10, Child $5. Minimum age is 6 (16 without adult).

APPLETON FARMS, IPSWICH/HAMILTON 978.921.1944 X8815

Follow woodland carriage paths, converge at Round Point; enjoy spy sculptures, poetry, and more! Learn about “questing” and make your own quest stamp and passbook. Reservations required. Members: Adult $8, Child $4.

Nonmembers: Adult $10, Child $5.

Minimum age is 6 (16 without adult).

Saturday, August 4 | 10AM-12NOON

Alien Invaders! – Adult Workshop LONG HILL, BEVERLY 978.921.1944 X8815

Are invasive plants taking over your landscape?

From buckthorn to knotweed, we’ll help you identify these invaders, demonstrate the latest control methods, and discuss suitable replacements for your landscape. Reservations required.

Members: $28. Nonmembers: $35.

Sundays, July 8,August 12, September 9 | 3-5PM

Farmstead Tour – Discovery Hike APPLETON FARMS, IPSWICH/HAMILTON 978.921.1944 X8815

July 26 | The Grandsons. From R & B to classic country folk, DC’s “ultimate rock roots” band throws American music in a blender with the lid off. Family Fashion: Mosey over in your best cowboy garb.

August 2 | GrooveDog. This high-energy, rock and fiddle band blends Appalachian and Celtic sounds with covers from Led Zeppelin, U2 and more. Family Fashion: It’s the wearin’ o’ the Irish green.

August 9 | Jah Spirit. Drift away to the Caribbean as you sway to the steel pan sounds of this three-time Best Reggae Nominee in the Boston Music Awards. Family Fashion: Be fabulous in your best island attire.

August 16 | Entrain. Feel the pulse of pounding rhythms, catchy hooks and general good time groove music ranging from jazz and funk to rock and blues. Family Fashion: It’s all about the denim.

August 23 | Beantown Swing Orchestra. Enjoy big band swing from the hot tunes of Count Basie to the sweet sounds of Glenn Miller. Family Fashion: Come dressed to swing in classic 40s dance attire.

Learn the story of Appleton Farms – a working farm since 1636. Enjoy beautiful meadows, cattle grazing in pastures, and historic buildings – then visit our working dairy, not ordinarily open to the public. Reservations required.

Members: $4. Nonmembers: $5. Minimum age is 8 (16 without adult).

THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS

Garden Trough Workshop – Adult Workshop

SESSION I (EARLY FALL) : September 11 – October 9 SESSION II (LATE FALL):

October 16 – November 13

LONG HILL, BEVERLY 978.921.1944 X8815

Looking for a new garden accent? Try a trough! These “living containers” are perfect for a variety of plants and can endure a New England winter. Come and create your own lightweight, weatherproof, stone trough.

Reservations required. Members: $28.

Nonmembers: $35.

SESSION III (EARLY WINTER):

Saturday, September 8 | 1-3PM

CRANE WILDLIFE REFUGE ON THE CRANE ESTATE, IPSWICH, 978.921.1944 X8815

Secrets of the Marsh – Family Workshop OLD TOWN HILL, NEWBURY 978.921.1944 X8815

Discover a world of fragile beauty as we explore one of the North Shore’s most pristine marshes to learn about the unique plants and animals that call this amazing ecosystem home.

Reservations required. Members: Adult $8, Child $4. Nonmembers: Adult $10, Child $5. Minimum age is 6 (16 without adult).

November 20 – December 18 (Call us for late winter and spring dates.)

Saturday, September 15 | Tours scheduled throughout the day

Choate Island Adventure – Family Safari

Step onto Choate Island and step back in time as we explore this special place. Our preservation of old farm buildings and fields reveals centuries of agricultural life coupled with diverse natural habitats. Reservations required.

Members: $12. Nonmembers: $15. Minimum age is 6 (16 without adult).

Thursday, September 20 | 6:30-7:30 PM

5 week sessions start Tuesday, September 11 4-5:30PM

Syrie Maugham: Interiors Where Glamour Meets Tradition – Adult Lecture

Young Farmers Club

CASTLE HILL ON THE CRANE ESTATE, IPSWICH

APPLETON FARMS, IPSWICH/HAMILTON

978.921.1944 X8815

Walk on the Wild Side – Discovery Hike

978.921.1944 X8815

Our 2007 architectural lecture series, “The Tastemakers,” opens with Pauline Metcalf presenting the work of Syrie Maugham, British interior decorator best-known for popularizing rooms decorated entirely in shades of white.

Reservations required. Members: $20.

Nonmembers: $25. Sign up for the series

978.921.1944 X8815

Over 100 years ago, Mason Walton – the

Join the coolest club in town! Become a firsthand farmhand as you dig in the dirt, compare compost, plant seeds, grow crops, care for cows, and more. Each 5-week session

Saturday, July 14 | Tours scheduled throughout the day

Misery Island Adventure – Family Safari GREAT MISERY ISLAND, SALEM 978.921.1944 X8815

Join us for a rare opportunity to explore the unique beauty of this natural paradise – named one of the North Shore’s most historic, scenic and diverse hikes by AAA Travel Magazine.

Reservations required. Members: $12. Nonmembers: $15. Minimum age is 6 (16 without adult).

Saturday, August 25 | 8AM-4PM (Rain date: Sunday, August 26)

Sandblast! At Crane Beach – Special Event CRANE BEACH ON THE CRANE ESTATE, IPSWICH 978.921.1944 X4028

Bring the family for a day of sun and fun at our annual Sand Sculpture Competition.

This year’s theme is SAVE THE WAVE. Enjoy the beach, learn about the importance of our marine environments, meet some live ocean critters, and watch the Master Blaster teams create amazing sculptures before your eyes. Unleash your creativity and enter the contest. Log onto www.craneestate.org or call 978.921.1944 x4028 for information and admission prices.

Tuesday, July 17, August 21 | 3-5PM

Meet the Cows - Family Workshop 978.921.1944 X8815

It’s simply moo-velous! Welcome our spring calves and meet the cows in the dairy barn during milking – ordinarily closed to the public.

Reservations required. Members: Adult $8, Child $4. Nonmembers: Adult $10, Child $5. Minimum age is 6 (16 without adult). NOTE: Special programs

©K. MCMAHON

22

Tuesday, August 21 | 3:30-5:30PM

explores a different aspect of our awesome Appleton Farms while you learn how a real farm works! Members: $72 per session.

Nonmembers: $90 per session. Sign up for 2 or more sessions and get an extra 10% off!

Saturday, August 11 | 10AM-12NOON

RAVENSWOOD PARK, GLOUCESTER

APPLETON FARMS, IPSWICH/HAMILTON

August 30 | The Orville Giddings Band. Join Ipswich’s favorite boogie blues band for an end-of-summer concert guaranteed to rock the house. Family Fashion: Boogie in your Blues Brothers fashion.

“Hermit of Ravenswood” – closely observed this beautiful park’s wildlife. Join us as we retrace his footsteps and learn about Ravenswood’s many wildlife friends. Reservations required.

Members: $4. Nonmembers: $5. Minimum age is 8 (16 without adult).

SpecialPLACES | SUMMER 2007

23

and save 10% ! See website for schedule.

for ages 8 and up (16 without adult).

Sunday, August 19 | 1-3PM

Sunday, September 23 | 10AM -3PM

Family Farm Day – Special Event

Thursdays, May 31 – October 6 | 10AM-4PM Fridays & Saturdays | 10AM-1PM

Rivulet Trail Walk & Poetry Reading

APPLETON FARMS, IPSWICH/HAMILTON

Great House Tours at Castle Hill

978.921.1944 X8815

CASTLE HILL ON THE CRANE ESTATE, IPSWICH

Spend a leisurely afternoon enjoying some quality time at this family favorite event.Watch farming demonstrations. Play old-fashioned games. Learn about Appleton Farms’ amazing history and working farm operations. Discover the secrets of autumn’s wildlife and wild places.

Pick a pumpkin, ride a pony, or try your hand at one of our kid craft stations. Enjoy music, food, fun, animals, and more. Members: $15 per car. Nonmembers: $25 per car.

978.921.1944 X8815

BRYANT HOMESTEAD, CUMMINGTON 413.634.2244

Enjoy the cool shade of the Old Growth Forest, reading Bryant’s poetry about summer and his love for this very special site. Members: Adult $4, Child (6 -12) $2. Nonmembers: Adult $5, Child (6 -12) $2.50. ©TTOR

A national treasure, this magnificent mansion offers an opulent glimpse of the Crane family’s life in the roaring 20s.Tours feature beautifully appointed rooms with ornate woodcarvings, luxurious Italian marble, sterling silver fixtures, and more. Members: FREE. Nonmembers: Adult $10, Child $5. Recommended for ages 8 and up (16 without adult).

Saturdays, June 2 – October 6 | 11AM

Saturday, September 29 | 10AM-12NOON

Great Plants for Fall – Adult Workshop LONG HILL, BEVERLY 978.921.1944 X8815

Our gardens contain many beautiful plants that can extend your garden season even into winter! We’ll discuss and learn to identify special plants with unique foliage, fruits, bark and seeds and how to incorporate them into your garden designs. Reservations required.

Members: $28. Nonmembers: $35.

Historic Landscape Tours of Castle Hill

PIONEER VALLEY REGION

THE CRANE ESTATE, IPSWICH 978.921.1944 X8815

Take a guided historic walking tour of this grand, early 20th-century summer estate by the sea and learn about the designs of Boston landscape architects Olmsted Bros. and Arthur Shurcliff. Members: FREE. Nonmembers: $5. Recommended for ages 8 and up (16 without adult).Tour lasts 90 minutes. Bring comfortable footwear and water bottle.

Friday – Sunday, June 22 – Labor Day; Saturday & Sunday, Labor Day – Columbus Day; Monday holidays included | 1-5PM

Tours of the William Cullen Bryant Homestead BRYANT HOMESTEAD, CUMMINGTON 413.634.2244

Take a guided tour of this National Historic Landmark, the boyhood home and adult summer residence of one of America’s foremost 19th-century poets. Members: FREE. Nonmembers: Adult $5, Child $2.50.

Step back in time to explore some of the most unique historic properties in Massachusetts.

From a rustic, 300-year-old farmhouse to the opulent splendor of a 1920s mansion, you will enjoy learning the stories of these places – and the people who made them special.

©TTOR

H I S TO R I C H O U S E TO U R S

Paine House Tours GREENWOOD FARM, IPSWICH 978.921.1944 X8815

Sundays, June 3 – October 7 | 1- 4PM Saturday hours (1-4PM) starting July 14

The Stevens-Coolidge House Tours NORTH ANDOVER 978.921.1944 X8815

Step back in time and learn how the Coolidge family transformed a 1700s family farm into a bucolic summer estate in the early 1900s.

House features original collections, murals and unique garden glimpses. Members: FREE. Nonmembers: Adult $8, Child $5. Recommended

Exhibit: Hale & Hearty: William Cullen Bryant and 19th Century Health & Fitness

cherry tree.Why does the Homestead have huge trees? How old are they? Find out AND get a “Tree cookie.” Limit 15 participants.

Members: Child $4. Nonmembers: Child $5. Adults FREE when accompanied by a child. All children must be accompanied by an adult.

Sunday, July 22 | 12NOON

Holyoke Hispanic Festival DOWNTOWN HOLYOKE

Come and march alongside the Holyoke Boys & Girls Club in the parade of this community-wide celebration.The youth and Trustees staff will show off the ‘Vegigantes-style’ masks they created by combining images of Holyoke-area wildlife with a traditional and distinctive Puerto Rican-style of mask-making. FREE.

Delicate leaves are transformed into stunning pottery as Evelyn Snyder of Kaleidoscope Pottery demonstrates how she makes her unique dinnerware by hand. Members: $6.

Nonmembers: $8.

Sunday, July 29 | 3-4:30PM

BRYANT HOMESTEAD, CUMMINGTON

Saturday, July 14 | 10AM -1PM

413.634.2244

Historic Barns of the Highlands

Concert on the Lawn: Greenwood Music Camp

Homestead hikes, fitness and diet were a lifetime commitment for Bryant.This exhibit displays his 19th-century exercise equipment, health journals, medications and daily regimen.

FREE.

BRYANT HOMESTEAD, CUMMINGTON

BRYANT HOMESTEAD, CUMMINGTON

413.634.2244

413.634.2244

Bonnie Parsons discusses her new booklet, “Historic Barns of the Highlands.” Recent restorations to the Homestead’s barn are highlighted by Jack Sobon and Pat Toomey.

Members: $6. Nonmembers: $8. Participants receive a FREE copy of booklet. Co-sponsored with The Highland Communities Initiative.

Join the talented students of the Greenwood Music Camp for a musical afternoon on the beautiful Homestead lawn overlooking the Westfield River Valley. Refreshments available.

FREE.

Friday – Sunday, June 22 – Labor Day; Saturday & Sunday, Labor Day – Columbus Day; Monday holidays included | 1-5PM

I Spy! ( AGES 3 – 9 )

Sundays, June 3 – October 7 | 1-4PM Saturday hours (1-4PM) starting July 14

Discover the unique charm of this 1694 house on its original saltwater farm location.Tours focus on first-period architecture construction, archaeology, and the Colonial Revival.

Members: FREE. Nonmembers: Adult $8, Child $5.

Recommended for ages 8 and up (16 without adult).

Friday – Sunday, June 22 – Labor Day; Saturday & Sunday, Labor Day – Columbus Day; Monday holidays included | 1-5PM

Saturday, August 4 | 10AM-1PM

Off the Trail Exploration

BRYANT HOMESTEAD, CUMMINGTON

Sunday, July 15 | 10AM-12NOON

NOTCHVIEW RESERVATION, WINDSOR

413.634.2244

Travel Through Time at the Gorge

413.684.0148

Be a detective! Discover the Homestead’s secrets on this self-guided walk using a handson “SPY PACK.” Members: Child $4. Nonmembers: Child $6. Special family rate. All children must be accompanied by an adult.

CHESTERFIELD GORGE, WEST CHESTERFIELD 413.684.0148

Discover how time has shaped the natural and cultural history of the Gorge on this easyto-moderate hike along the Westfield River.

Members: FREE. Nonmembers: Adult $5, Child $3.

Sunday, June 24 | 10AM-12NOON

In Search of the Sugar Arch CHAPEL BROOK, ASHFIELD 413.684.0148

This guided three-mile moderate hike includes some off-trail exploring and a great new trail.

Search for remnants of a former maple-sugaring operation and see towering stands of diverse trees. Members: FREE, Nonmembers: Adult $5, Child $3.

Sunday, July 8 | 1-3PM

Woodland Frolic ( AGES 6 &

Saturday, July 21 | 9:30AM-12NOON

Saturday, August 4 | 10AM-12:30PM ( TOURS START EVERY HALF HOUR )

MEEKINS LIBRARY & PETTICOAT HILL

19th-Century Health & Medicine: William Cullen Bryant & Dr. Samuel Shaw

RESERVATION, WILLIAMSBURG 413.268.8219

BRYANT HOMESTEAD, CUMMINGTON

Did you know that hundreds of species of mushrooms grow in the Highlands? Join us for a slideshow at the library, followed by a fun foraging session in the woods. FREE. Pre-registration required.

413.634.2244

Fungus Follies: A Mushroom Talk and Walk

UP )

BRYANT HOMESTEAD, CUMMINGTON

Saturday, July 21 | 1- 4PM

413.634.2244

Nature & Art: From Leaf to Pottery

Majestic maples. Ancient hemlocks. A colossal

Hike to a remote site in the Notchview backcountry, logged only once more than a century ago, to search for stands of giant, moist-soil sugar maple, white ash and other species.

Members: FREE. Nonmembers: Adult $5, Child $3.

Time travel to the world of 19th-century health and medicine, visiting William Cullen Bryant’s original library and Samuel Shaw’s intact doctor’s office. Note: This program begins at the Homestead in Cummington and entails a short trip to the Hudson-Shaw house in adjacent Plainfield. Members: $6. Nonmembers: $8.

BRYANT HOMESTEAD, CUMMINGTON 413.634.2244

24

THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS

SpecialPLACES | SUMMER 2007

25

Saturday, August 18 | 10AM

Sunday, September 23 | 1-4PM

Wednesday, August 29 | 6:30-8PM

NCC Tour of the Hilltowns

SESSION I

Children’s Fall Program Registration

Ecosplorations

NOTCHVIEW RESERVATION, WINDSOR

8th Annual Autumn Antique Appraisal

WORLD’S END, WEIR RIVER FARM, TURKEY HILL

Invasive Education and Eradication

413.684.0148

BRYANT HOMESTEAD, CUMMINGTON 413.634.2244

HINGHAM PUBLIC LIBRARY, HINGHAM

781.740.7233

WORLD’S END, HINGHAM 781.740.6665

This annual 40-plus-mile cycling race starts and finishes at Notchview and features great Hilltown scenery. Stay for music afterwards.

Contact Northampton Cycling Club at www.northamptoncyclingclub.org.

Kimball’s Auction and Estate Services appraises art, furniture and other collectibles in the red barn. Get an instant assessment of your valuables! Refreshments available. Appraisals cost $5 for one to two items, $7 for a limit of three items.

781.740.7233

Join us for this unique after-school experience where we sharpen our observation skills in order to uncover the history and ecology of our properties. Please pre-register. Members: $40.

Nonmembers: $55.

The Trustees partner up with the National Park Service for your chance to learn how to identify common invasive species.Then roll up your sleeves and participate while learning proper removal techniques. FREE admission to all.

Saturday, August 18 | 3PM

Sunday, September 23 | 1PM

Percussion and World Music at Bates Field with Gaia Roots

Fall Equinox Celebration

SESSION I

DOWNTOWN HOLYOKE

Autumn Family Outings

NOTCHVIEW RESERVATION, WINDSOR

Join The Trustees and the youth of the Holyoke Boys & Girls Club in celebrating the nature of Holyoke at this special time of year. Learn about the wildlife that lives in Holyoke and meet some of them “in person.” Refreshments provided. FREE.

Notchview Volunteer Workday NOTCHVIEW RESERVATION, WINDSOR 413.684.0148

This workday will concentrate on removal of the Big Three invasive plants: buckthorn, bush honeysuckle and bittersweet.We cannot let up on these troublemakers! All help gratefully accepted. FREE. Saturday, September 8 | 1-3PM

A Homestead Ramble BRYANT HOMESTEAD, CUMMINGTON 413.634.2244

Interpret the historic landscape by walking the Homestead property and observing changes to the rural Hilltown environment, the result of centuries of human habitation. Members: Adult $4, Child (6-12) $2. Nonmembers: Adult $5, Child (6-12) $2.50.

Saturday, September 15 | 8:30AM-2:30PM

Finding Our Common Ground: Fourth Regional Conference of the Highland Communities Initiative GATEWAY REGIONAL SCHOOL, HUNTINGTON 413.268.8219

Are the Highlands “your place”? If so, learn how you can get involved in preserving the region’s rural character and quality of life.

Visit www.highlandcommunities.org for more information and registration materials.

26

THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS

RESERVATION, TURKEY HILL 781.740.7233

Connect with your child while they connect to these special places. Be surprised at the natural wonders waiting at a variety of our local properties. Please pre-register. Members: $40. Nonmembers: $55.

SOUTHEAST REGION

Wednesdays through Summer until September 26 | 10-11AM

Fridays through Summer & Fall | 9:30AM

Outdoor Story Hour

Walk World’s End

WEIR RIVER FARM, HINGHAM

( AGES 4 & 5) Wednesdays, September 12,

781.740.7233

19, 26; October 3, 10 | 10-11:30AM

WORLD’S END, HINGHAM 781.740.6665

Rain or shine, bring a friend along for a guided weekly walk of World’s End. FREE to all.

Saturdays through October | 12NOON-3PM

(AGES 2 & 3) Tuesdays, September 11, 18, 25; October 2, 9 | 10-11:30AM

Saturday, September 15 | 9 -11AM

Coastsweep 2007 at World’s End

(AGES 7 – 10) Wednesdays, September 12, 19, 26, October 3, 10 | 3:30-5:30PM

WORLD’S END, HINGHAM 781.740.6665

The Trustees partner up with Mass. Coastal Zone Management and The Ocean Conservancy for this annual beach cleanup.Take an active role in preserving the beauty of World’s End. All materials provided. FREE.

Saturday, September 8 | 9AM -1PM

Westport River Paddle HEAD OF WESTPORT 508.679.2115

Take a paddle down the East Branch and get a water view of some of the exceptional properties we’ve been working to save.

Please pre-register, space limited. Members: $30.

Nonmembers: $40.

Saturday, September 22 | 1-3PM

Wild Edible Plants SOUTHEASTERN MASSACHUSETTS BIORESERVE, FALL RIVER 508.679.2115

Southeast Massachusetts is home to more than 150 species of wild edible plants. Join naturalist Ed Richards for a walk and a snack.

Please pre-register. FREE.

Barnyard stories come to life when your child gets to meet the main characters.

Members: FREE. Nonmembers: $3 per person.

Open Barnyard at Weir River Farm

Volunteers needed!

WEIR RIVER FARM, HINGHAM 781.740.7233

One hundred years ago, family farms were a common sight in Hingham. Come see The Trustees’ efforts to preserve one of the last examples in town. Members: FREE. Nonmembers: $3 per person.

Saturday, July 7 | 9AM -12NOON

Bike the Bioreserve SOUTHEASTERN MASSACHUSETTS BIORESERVE, FALL RIVER 508.679.2115

13,600-acres is hard to imagine, but from the seat of a bicycle the impressive size of this large-scale protected landscape becomes clear. Bring your mountain bike and helmet.

Please pre-register. FREE Saturday, July 21 | 10AM -12NOON

Westport Town Farm Opening WESTPORT TOWN FARM, WESTPORT 508.679.2115

As part of our conservation efforts in Westport, we’re revitalizing and providing public access to this scenic and historic landmark. Come celebrate the opening of our newest special place. Please pre-register. FREE.

From the Berkshires to the Sea – Stay in Luxury…

Saturday, August 4 | 10AM-12NOON

Butterflies of the Bioreserve SOUTHEASTERN MASSACHUSETTS BIORESERVE, FALL RIVER 508.679.2115

Butterflies play an important role in a healthy ecosystem. Come enjoy the delicate beauty of these winged wonders with Mark Mello from the Lloyd Center for the Environment. Please pre-register. FREE. Saturday, August 18 | 1-3PM

Fabulous Ferns SOUTHEASTERN MASSACHUSETTS

©DERBY STREET STUDIOS

Saturday, September 8 | 9AM

©K. MCMAHON

Come to the Berkshire Plateau to hear the sounds of Africa and the Caribbean in an outdoor concert at the Bates Field shelter.The all-women world music ensemble Gaia Roots will share music, dance, songs and stories gathered in their travels around the world.

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Windsor Cultural Council, a local agency that is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. FREE.

WORLD’S END, WEIR RIVER FARM, NORRIS

(AGES 5 & 6) Tuesdays, September 11, 18, 25, October 2, 9 | 3:30-5:30PM

©S. LAPIDES

413.684.0148

This is your opportunity to sign your child up for both SESSION I and SESSION II of Autumn Family Outings or Ecosplorations. For more information call 781.740.7233 or visit www.thetrustees.org.

Saturday, September 8 | 9AM-2PM

BIORESERVE, FALL RIVER 508.679.2115

Learn to appreciate the quiet, woodland beauty of ferns including the rare Hartford fern as we explore the varied habitats of the Bioreserve with naturalist Garry Plunkett. Please pre-register.

FREE.

T h e I n n at C a s t l e H i l l

O N

554 Sloan Road,Williamstown tel 413.458.3135 ■ www.guesthouseatfieldfarm.org

T

H

E

C

R

A

N

E

E

S

T A T

E

280 Argilla Road, Ipswich tel 978.412.2555 ■ www.craneestate.org

Members enjoy a 10% discount on stays of two nights or more. All proceeds benefit The Trustees’ conservation work on Field Farm and the Crane Estate.

FIND YOUR PLACE Bear Swamp, Ashfield © R. CHEEK

Š T. KATES / CRANE BEACH ON THE CRANE ESTATE, IPSWICH

OUR PLACE IN

YOUR DAY OFF FIND YOUR PLACE Together with our neighbors, we protect the distinct character of our communities and inspire a commitment to special places.

Our passion is to share with everyone the irreplaceable natural and cultural treasures we care for.

Special PLACES

NON-PROFIT ORG.

THE TRUSTEES OF RESERVATIONS

N.READING, MA

572 Essex Street Beverly, MA 01915-1530

PERMIT NO.140

U.S. POSTAGE

P A I D