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At Broad Meadow Brook, the shutdown is for the birds VEER MUDAMBI
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WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
S E P T E M B E R 3 - 9, 2020
W
hen people think of the lockdown, crowds are not what come to mind, but that was exactly the case at Broad Meadow Brook Conservation Center and Wildlife Sanctuary back in March. With schools and workplaces closed, Worcester residents turned to the great outdoors as a way to dodge the virus — and boredom. Bird-watching, in particular, became a popular activity during the pandemic. Mainly due to its ubiquitous nature, seeing as how one can quite literally participate from anywhere: a park, a parking lot, your window, the woods and even urban spaces. Broad Meadow Brook in Worcester is the largest urban wildlife sanctuary in New England. Run by the Mass Audubon Society, it has more than 400 acres, about 80 species of butterflies, 164 bird species and more than 700 plant species, which can be all viewed from trails leading through woods, fields, streams and marsh. “We saw an amazing increase in visitation here,” said Martha Gach, education manager and conservation coordinator, “The parking lot was packed, the trails were packed.” It was a genuine craving for an engagement with nature given the limitations of the state guidelines. However, for the first month, most of the wildlife made themselves scarce in the face of this heightened activity. Spring is usually a favored time for bird-watching but this year, it appeared to be chart busting. Unfortunately, so much foot traffic, which would have been more than welcome any other time, did not align with social distancing guidelines, and the trails were shut down from mid-April to the end of May. That period coincided with the highpoint of bird nesting season, and the wildlife, especially birds, took advantage of having the woods to themselves for once. “I think they were very appreciative,” chuckled Gach. She even saw a red-shouldered hawk nesting only 10 feet from the trail. “I don’t think they would have done that if there were more people around.” Slightly smaller than the red-tailed hawk, red-shouldered hawks are a
Martha Gach is the Conservation Coordinator at Broad Meadow Brook Conservation Center and Wildlife Sanctuary. RICK CINCLAIR
southern species more commonly seen in the mid-Atlantic regions that have been slowly moving north. While they have been seen regularly in the sanctuary over the past three years, a nest was not confirmed until this year. So is the increased avian activity a direct result of decreased human activity like fewer cars, planes and trains? The anecdotal evidence certainly supports that. The lockdowns roughly corresponded with the spring migrations of many species, which is the best time for new birders to look upward and get hooked on the hobby.
However, Gach is not so sure, “the pandemic kept people close to home and they paid more attention to nature in their own neighborhoods,” including Gach herself. Though she did see more birds in her area, it was unclear “whether it was because I was there more often or they were more active.” While closing the trails may have given the birds a much needed break, staff at Mass Audubon went through a period of furloughs resulting in significantly reduced staffing. This in turn meant less trail maintenance — putting up necessary signs to make trails one way for social distancing,
picking up discarded masks, removing fallen branches, etc. — at a time when visitor levels began to pick back up in June and July. As the state begins to open up, sanctuaries, like Broad Meadow, are dealing with a kind of misalignment — staff decreases at the same time as visitor increases. Ironically, even the visitor center is still closed — the required plexiglass for the cashier is in short supply these days. Gach is clear-eyed about the challenges faced by an urban sanctuary, that making the woods a welcoming place for visitors is a demanding task. “We understand there are
people who will come to visit who are not comfortable being out in the woods so we make sure the trails are cut back and stay on top of trees that fall across the path.” Doing it with a vastly reduced staff is even tougher. In addition to staff furloughs, the loss of income from shutting down educational programs will also have future repercussions, but donations from both individuals and foundations have helped Broad Meadow avoid the worst of it. “One of the very encouraging things that’s happening is the sanctuaries are becoming more linked,” she said. “Educators are talking more to each other so we have an
