Diaries from the Day

Statewide Volunteer Day: Work for Wildlife
Saturday, April 28

Diary from the Day: Arcadia

As we began the first Mass Audubon Statewide Volunteer Day at Arcadia WildlifeSanctuary, a pileated woodpecker flewinto the parking lot to welcome the volunteers who were greeted by staff and organizers. People of all ages, including toddlers, seniors, college students, staff, sanctuary committee members, and longtime volunteers spread out to one of the seven planned projects. As they chose their project, a bird walk led by Nancy Weiss and Anne Lombard was just returning, while a wildflower walk led by Connie Parks was about to set out—a busy day at Arcadia.

A group of volunteers headed directly to the bird nest-box project. Project leader Bob Gaffney had materials ready to go to build the bluebird boxes. As everyone worked, they looked across the lot to see nesting bluebirds and tree swallows. The bird-box builders were given a handout from the Mass Audubon website that included information about bluebird houses and how to successfully attract birds. Two of the youngest volunteers, along with their parents, enjoyed this project so much they continued helping even after their bluebird boxes were built by putting clean wood chips into a wood duck box. As they stood near the vernal pool, one of the children remarked that she saw a frog, frog eggs, and a water strider!

At the trailhead, former Mass Audubon staff member Judi Pierce and a group of helpers were busy digging up invasive burning bush and replacing it with a native and beautiful leaved dogwood, while one of the youngest volunteers (1½) assisted by digging in the dirt and singing along with the thrill of a pine warbler.

Meanwhile, down the cedar trail Ecological Manager David McLain led a crew who battled invasive garlic mustard. The group learned that garlic mustard emits a chemical that prevents native wildflowers from growing. One of the volunteers was a 1998 graduate of Arcadia Nature Nursery School, and she reflected upon what she had learned from that experience. Now in eighth grade at Hilltown Cooperative Charter Public School, her nursery school knowledge came in handy when she assisted with removing invasive species for a school project. When asked why she chose this particular project she stated, “This is something that I can do to help the environment.” A ruby crowned kinglet and Carolina wren were singing nearby as the crew carefully avoided poison ivy.

On the orchard trail a maintenance crew led by Bob Rundquist and Jesse Brownback, and seven women from Smith College tackled grapevines, honeysuckle, and bittersweet that were overrunning the trail.

Master gardeners Lisa Feree and Dotty Friel liberated the butterfly garden from its winter mulch, while Dotty’s husband Richard removed bags full of debris.

In the visitor center, volunteer Jim Sullivan assisted Registrar Nancy Coburn in preparing the registration book for new spring programs.

Janet Bissell and Dietrich Schlobolm were busy adding new interpretive stations to an existing all-person trail. Mass Audubon member Amy Norton enjoyed the activity from her wheelchair, while her companion Nancy Blizniak tended the butterfly gardens.

After a morning of satisfying hard work, 40 volunteers enjoyed a picnic lunch followed by a live bird presentation by volunteer Tom Ricardi, founder of the Massachusetts Bird of Prey Institute. Tom presented a slideshow on his 40 years of work as a raptor rehabilitator. He then delighted and captivated the audience when he presented a saw-whet owl, barred owl, turkey vulture, and bald eagle.

A great ending to a great day!

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Diary from the Day: Boston Nature Center

Mass Audubon’s Work for Wildlife Day at the Boston Nature Center (BNC) was a great success! Nearly 90 enthusiastic individuals “migrated” from around the Boston area to the BNC to help beautify the 67 acres of nature trails, wetlands, and woodlands.

Although the day started out a bit gray and glum, the sun eventually peeked through the clouds and warmed the area. BNC staff led volunteers around the sanctuary and focused on three different areas: hauling brush, landscaping, and picking up litter.

The first team headed out in the morning to clear felled invasive trees located off the Snail Trail. Invasive black locust and Norway maple trees were cut down in order to maintain the natural esthetic of the sanctuary and help promote early successional habitat. Energetic volunteers helped by pulling branches and logs from the site to areas deep in the woods.

The second team began their volunteer efforts and made their way over to the BNC cottages located off Walk Hill Street. Their job entailed landscaping and planting a variety of annuals and perennials around the buildings. One volunteer exclaimed, “you should really go see what we did, it looks amazing!”

Finally, a group of Northeastern University alumni and others donated their time and efforts to the sanctuary by helping to remove unsightly trash and debris. The volunteers followed the Rabbit Trail to an area bordered by Walk Hill Street. The area is located along a heavily traveled road and garbage and debris is a constant problem. After nearly three hours of hard work, members of the group managed to collect ten large trash bags full of garbage!

Work for Wildlife at the Boston Nature Center was truly a success, thanks to all of the volunteers who ventured out to help make the sanctuary beautiful. Without their hard work and support, the Boston Nature Center would not be the beautiful green oasis it is today!

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Diary from the Day: Broadmoor

Broadmoor’s first Statewide Volunteer Day brought 54 volunteers into the field to Bring the Moors back to Broadmoor. The work party mixed longtime volunteers with new recruits. One experienced group included a young girl who had first come to Broadmoor on a school field trip and is planning to attend Wildwood camp this summer. Another volunteer is a daughter of one of the founders of Broadmoor, who now lives in Natick and had not visited in more than 30 years! Also present were Mass Audubon Board Chair Jonathan Panek and Vice President of Programs Gary Clayton who both pitched in cutting and dragging plants and shrubs. 

The day’s activities started with volunteers using bow saws, loppers, pruning saws, and clippers to cut back invasive plants, such as autumn olive and buckthorn, and small saplings. More than an acre of understory brush was cleared to make way for chainsaw work to be done later to clear bigger saplings. 

An unexpected but thrilling wildlife moment occurred when an American woodcock was discovered nesting on the ground beside a small shrub in the field. The chicks are expected to hatch in three weeks, and the young will leave the nest immediately because they are not dependent upon their parents at birth. Woodcocks, related to shorebirds, have a long bill and cryptic black, brown, and beige coloring. The males perform an elaborate courtship dance at dusk during early spring, which was obviously successful with this female. Woodcock nests are famously difficult to find. Sanctuary Director Elisa Landre has only seen one in the past at the sanctuary, when she nearly stepped on the nesting female while bushwhacking through brush.

Following the work volunteers had lunch at the nature center where Elissa talked about changes in the land and how Broadmoor looked in the past. She spoke about the sanctuary’s history and how it once consisted of two large estates compared with present- day Broadmoor, featuring new renovations added to the historic horse barn. These include photovoltaics for electricity and a SmartStorm rainwater collection system.

The Work for Wildlife Day was a great success with the volunteers and staff cutting and clearing more than an acre of invasives and small saplings as part of the Wildlife Habitat Improvement project partially funded by the USDA Conservation program.

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Diary from the Day: Canoe Meadows

Although the weather forecast was iffy, some two-dozen volunteers and four staff members turned out bright and early for the first Mass Audubon Statewide Volunteer Day—Work for Wildlife. At Mass Audubon’s 262-acre Canoe Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary in Pittsfield, volunteers gathered at the sanctuary community gardens to register, pick up water, and receive their work assignments. Janice Cullen, property manager, coordinated the day’s work. Cleaning the 1.5-acre garden site of trash, buried plastic, wooden stakes, and other assorted debris was the first order of business. A collaboration of people was involved in that effort, while others used pitchforks and shovels to relocate a three-ton compost pile or sorted gardening stakes. The gardening beds also received much needed sprucing up, and volunteers affixed markers to trees along two of the Canoe Meadows trails. They also dug out buried storm drains, repaired eroded spots along the approaches to the bridge accessing Sacred Way Trail, trimmed back woody vegetation encroaching on a boardwalk, cut unwanted vegetation, and picked up litter throughout the sanctuary.

At midday, pizzas were delivered and eagerly consumed by volunteers. After lunch, Sanctuary Director René Laubach led a spring bird walk on the sanctuary as a thank you for all the volunteers’ hard work.

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Diary from the Day: Habitat

Our Statewide Volunteer Day was organized by the Habitat Intergenerational Program (HIP), which is committed to fostering relationships between children and senior citizens through environmental learning projects. Sixty volunteers came out for the event in addition to 10 organizers, consisting of staff and HIP volunteers. 

The volunteers split up and tackled a variety of sanctuary projects, one of which included adding wood chips to the trails in the meadow. A group of 25 enthusiastic chippers loaded the wheelbarrows and wheeled them more than 100 yards into the meadow, and then the rakers took over smoothing the load. In total 270 yards of trail were chipped, which produced 270 wheelbarrow loads of wood chips!

While the chippers were busy, other groups worked on removing invasive plants. An energetic crew, using Weed Wrenches, attacked a hillside of cut buckthorn stumps, heaving them out of the ground by the roots. Once the gang got going, no stump, no matter how large, was saved. Some stumps were massive and required three volunteers to work together to accomplish the task. By day’s end 56 stumps were removed!

Another group focused on a stand of the prickly multiflora rose. Any buckthorn and bittersweet encountered ended up on the brush pile, as well, with 125 multiflora rose stems removed in all. Meanwhile, a third group attacked the delicate but-no-less-invasive garlic mustard. Using finesse rather than brawn, volunteers filled five paper grocery bags full of garlic mustard.

Finally, several volunteers worked in the community garden. Five abandoned plots full of last year’s residue was cleared and made ready for planting this spring.

After three hours of hard work the group adjourned to the wood chip field to be entertained and stimulated by a group of 10 African drummers, including one HIPster, while they enjoyed a well earned lunch with refreshments. Soon the volunteers were moving to the primal beats. Several improvised their own dance steps while others joined in with the drumming. It was a fine ending to an enjoyable and productive volunteer day.

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Diary from the Day: Long Pasture

Our thoughts were optimistic that the sun would make an appearance during the Statewide Volunteer Day—Work for Wildlife at Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary. The volunteers from the Barnstable area were thankful for the reprieve from the previous day’s torrential downpour that included lightening and thunderclaps.

Eager to begin the morning projects, volunteers dispersed to different locales on the sanctuary grounds donning their clippers, gardening gloves, and enthusiasm for the tasks at hand.

With his liking for lichens and extensive knowledge about this combination fungus/algae, Fran LeBaron assisted with clipping branches in preparation for the new lichen trail. When completed, the trail will take visitors along a quarter-mile nature path with lichen-lined pine holly, cherry, and oak trees to view.

Also assisting with the lichen trail, Priscilla Bailey and Lida Miner raked and spread the mulch to line the trail. Mass Audubon staff member James Nielson and his trusty John Deere made multiple trips to the mulch mound throughout the morning as the lichen trail took on a life of its own.

While volunteers were busy in the front of the sanctuary, there was a buzz of activity going on in the back, as a bare patch of earth was transformed into a beautiful bird garden by volunteers and Property Manager Christ Walz. Gardeners extraordinaire Mary Jo Juelis, Lisa Sove, and Linda McAuliffe replanted 25 different varieties of plants. By the end of the day the garden went from drabby dirtsville to an earthy environment where hummingbirds and butterflies can gather to feed and add beauty.

Walking back-and-forth carrying long wooden signposts, volunteers Dave Scanell, Steve Berelund, and Ed Yargeau took to the soggy trails as they pounded the posts into the ground at the head of some of the nature trails. With gentle slopes that twist and turn, the trails on the property wrap around ponds, vernal pools, salt marsh, and buttonbush swamp, offering a spectacular view of Barnstable Harbor.

As the sun shone brightly and the clouds exhibited an interesting fluffy pattern across the skyline, volunteers and Sanctuary Director Ian Ives took a well-deserved break from the projects. Ian thanked them all for their hard work and highlighted upcoming education programs offered by Long Pasture, such as a coyote ecology series, spring birding, and kayaking. Then, it was off to peruse the trails to learn about the sanctuary flora and fauna. Early successional habitat lines the trail, and woodcocks make their appearance every year between early March and April with the male performing its signature courtship aerial dance.

The group heard sheep baaingfrom a neighbor’s farm when they stopped at a vernal pool to learn about the importance of these aquatic habitats and the invertebrates and amphibians that inhabit them.

As the clouds lifted and the dunes at Sandy Neck Beach across the harbor glistened in the sun, the group wrapped up the nature walk down by the beach. Ian touched upon the natural ecology found along the shoreline as volunteers walked by a marshy area where diamondback terrapins (a threatened turtle species) have been known to come up as far east as the Barnstable Harbor.

Valuable volunteerism definitely made a difference during the Work for Wildlife Day!
 

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Diary from the Day: Moose Hill

The weather held out even though the morning started with overcast skies. Staff members Richard Savage, Duane Rice, and Christine Turnbull, and volunteers were ready to go.

As nine o’clock approached people entered the nature center, some familiar and some new faces, ready to go to work. Introductions were made, nametags were handed out, and the crew joined Richard and Duane outside. Some began raking out the gardens, while others joined Richard in the summer camp area to spread out wood chips donated by the town.

In just over an hour the group was able to accomplish jobs that would have taken staff at least a week. After the first round of tasks were completed, some folks moved to the butterfly garden and the nature center to begin the tasks of scrubbing the algae off of the fence and building. The original plan was to paint the fence, but the uncertain weather predictions for the day put this project on hold. Other crews headed to the restrooms to scrape and prep the building for painting, as well. With 15 minutes left before the program was to begin, a hardy crew focused on a small patch of invasive bittersweet in the side garden and successfully removed it. Everyone agreed that the nature center looked much better after all the raking and scrubbing. The group can’t wait to see the newly painted fence!

The majority of folks stayed for a program on vernal pools. The group started off inside, sharing information and showing salamanders and frogs. Then they headed off for a nice walk to the sanctuary vernal pools where they encountered several masses of wood frog eggs, a wood frog, a pickerel frog, a green frog, and several garter snakes.

Working for wildlife right to the end!

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Diary from the Day: Oak Knoll

The day started out a little dark and threatening rain, but the weather changed for the better as more than 40 volunteers came out for the Work for Wildlife volunteer day at Oak Knoll. Everyone came ready to work with clippers, gloves, rakes, shovels, buckets, chain saws, and determination to get things done for the sanctuary.

It was interesting to learn about how folks heard about the day. One volunteer read about it in her mom’s copy of Connections and thought, “Yes, that's something I'd like to do!”  Another heard on a local radio station in Worcester and checked out the Mass Audubon website for a sanctuary closer to her home. And yet another volunteer had participated in the Oriole Project and was delighted to get an e-mail about Work For Wildlife, signing up right away. One family just came to visit the sanctuary, but jumped right into the day, bought a membership, and was hard at work before we knew it.

Much was accomplished by the end of the day including:

• Cement stepping-stones were created and seedlings planted by a Brownie troop for the new garden beds.
• 1.5 miles of trails were cleared, with emphasis on creating vistas over Lake Talaquega—much to the dismay of the local Canada geese, which let us know not to get too close!
• The shore of the lake was cleaned out, which included removing four tires!
• The butterfly garden was completely cleared allowing for new spring growth.
• Trash was removed from the side of the road.

By the time all of this work had been completed, the sanctuary was looking great for the start of Oak Knoll’s Earth Day Celebration.

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Diary from the Day: Wildwood

The day started bright and early and, yes, bright was the right word to describe the morning despite the rainy weather that had been forecasted for the day. The turnout in terms of volunteers was modest, but it did not diminish all that was accomplished.

Volunteers Margaret and Kevin Carroll from Natick had volunteered a number of times for Mass Audubon. Margaret had also attended the Wildwood overnight camp program last year for one week and plans to return this summer. Both Margaret and her dad have connections to other Mass Audubon sanctuaries as frequent visitors to Drumlin Farm and Broadmoor.

Other volunteers who participated in the day’s activities were Kristin Barr and David Pitkin, Bob and Sarah Speare, Chuck Delaney, Lucy and Autumn Gertz, Larry Pottebaum, and Heather Buiwit. The day started with the team divided into two groups—one working on spreading mulch and the other moving the kayaks and canoes to the waterfront and raking and combing the beachfront area. Reunited, the whole group then made their way to the tent sites where they set up three huge tents and assembled twelve sets of bunk beds.

The tireless efforts paid off when all gathered around the picnic table for some light snacks. After a bit of good humor and relaxation, it was into the woods for the education program and discovery time. Sancutary Director Bob Speare led the group to one of the many vernal pools in the woods. The vernal pool still had some ice in the center, but that didn’t deter the amphibians or Bob, who was able to provide the group with an up close view of several wood frogs and red-backed salamanders. This was a real treat for several participants who had never seen a wood frog at close range and were excited to discover what the vernal pools in their neighborhoods held.
Lots of laughs and hard work made it a great day! The group accomplished more than it set out to do, and the sunny weather just added to the day’s success.

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