Monthly Archives: February 2021

Remembering the Past – Blog Post #2

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I walked through the Phil and Ginny Leach Wildlife Sanctuary as my eyes strained at the sun-rays bouncing off the white blanket of snow. I took the time while out there to remember my previous experiences. Many of my fondest memories have been while out in areas just like this. One of the most important parts of conservation work is understanding the interactions between plants and animals in the area that you are working in. A term that I was introduced to during my experience at Maine

Species account on a Downy Woodpecker.

Species account on Eastern White Pine trees.

Coast Semester at Chewonki in Wiscasset, Maine was being a naturalist. This term reemerged throughout the many future endeavors that I went on. As a 17-year-old, I did not fully embrace this idea or understand what it meant. I would get glimpses into the understanding of it when I was told to count the number of birds that visit a bird feeder in an hour time slot each week. Why am I doing this? Or learning the identification of the native tree species that live on the Maine Coast along with their common and scientific name. What is the point of this? Or trekking through the woods in search of vernal pools to locate and mark them for future evaluation of their health. Where are we going? Or spending one day each week going to new sites like beaches or mountaintops where we learned about how the features were formed, and what plant and animal species live in the area. We do this every week?! Or writing species accounts on various plants and animals. I have to write another one? Or spending two nights and three days alone in the woods with no one but myself. Am I sleeping out here alone? Or simply sitting in the forests and watching it exist as it has for thousands of years. Why am I just sitting here? As a 17-year-old, I was not yet able to appreciate what I was learning during all these experiences.

A moose sighting on a canoe trip in 2013 in northern Ontario.

I continued on with my life with this new idea in my head about being a naturalist. I carried it with me as I spent my summers up in northern Ontario where I canoed on some of the most remote areas that I have ever been to. Animal sightings of bald and golden eagles, moose, and herons were all too common during our trip. Wolf, bear and even wolverine sightings were less frequent but did occur. On one special day, we stumbled upon the aftermath of a wolf feast on a deer. This was a stark reminder of the territory that we were traveling through. My appreciation for the natural world was growing at a rapid pace, and the idea of being a naturalist started to come into focus. I began to realize what my mistake was with my past experiences with the natural world: I was putting myself at the center focus. My inner dialogue consisted of this: Why am I here? What I am doing? Where are we going? The questions that I should have been asking needed to be less self-centered and much more thoughtful. Questions like: Why are vernal pools so important? What animals rely on these pools? Why do animals prefer a certain habitat over another one? What animals rely on one another for survival? These questions are at the heart of being a naturalist.

A very rare wolverine sighting in northern Ontario!

Ultimately, these questions are a skill. A skill that we as humans must learn and use in order to save our planet, and that skill is called listening. I finally understand why I had simply just sat in the woods and heard the sounds of nature. I was listening to nature! If we want to be successful conservationists, then we have to be naturalists. We must listen to the ecosystems and understand what their needs are. Similar to the silliness of putting a road somewhere where there are no cars, it is just as silly to protect an area without first listening to its needs. We all have a lot of work to do in the coming years to help our planet heal, but one thing that we all can do right now is start listening to what nature has been telling us.

Downy woodpecker spotted on the Leach property.

In Memoriam: Bob Faulkner

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Ted Leach, ALT President, and Bob Faulkner at Annual Meeting, November 2, 2011.    Image credit: C. Adler

We at the Attleboro Land Trust are saddened at news of the death of Bob Faulkner on February 1.  Bob was a major donor, supporter, and friend of the Attleboro Land Trust.  Although a resident of Barrington, RI, Bob was born in Attleboro and maintained close family and business ties to the City.  His affirming presence at our annual meetings in years past was always welcomed.

 

In Memoriam: Jean Vaughan

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Dedication of Vaughan Memorial Forest, October 11, 2003, (l-r) Cecilia Walsh, Larry St. Pierre, State Rep. John Lepper, Jean Vaughan, ALT President Bob Thayer, Robert Schoch    Image credit: Bob Thayer

We at the Attleboro Land Trust would like to express our sympathy to the family and friends of Jean Vaughan, who passed away on January 31.  Jean and her late husband Victor were known to many, as they were both active in many community organizations.  In 1999 Jean donated 32 acres of land on Steere Street in memory of Victor. Her gift, combined with another acquisition, is now the 52-acre Vaughan Memorial Forest.  We are honored to be caretakers of this living legacy.

In Memoriam: Don Ouellette

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Don Ouellette, a longtime advocate for the environment in Attleboro, passed away on January 26 after a long illness. Don served on the 2002 Open Space and Recreation Plan Committee, Ducks Unlimited, the board of the Attleboro Land Trust, and the Conservation Commission.

While Don and his wife Laura had been members and supporters of the land trust going back to at least 1997, Don was first elected to the Board of Directors in 2010. He became Chair of Land Acquisition later that year, serving in that position until 2017. He also served as Vice President from 2011 to 2016. Under Don’s leadership as acquisition chair, the land trust had a long string of successes in protecting additional land in the city. Nine properties totalling 197 acres were acquired and another 80 acres were put under a conservation restriction.

Don was perhaps proudest of the acquisition of the 63-acre Deborah and Roger Richardson Nature Preserve. This was by far the most complicated project in ALT history, requiring teams from the City, Mass Audubon, the ALT, and the Richardson family all working together to cross the finish line.

Charlie Wyman, Ted Leach, Don Ouellette, and Lauren Gordon on a 2014 site visit to what was to become the Deborah and Roger Richardson Nature Preserve.    Image credit: C. Adler

Don also left his mark on the partnership that has formed to promote Attleboro as an attractive place to live, work, play, and go hiking. Past ALT president Ted Leach, who launched the partnership, credits Don with coming up its slogan: “Hike Attleboro.” As Ted recalls, “Don suggested it during a meeting at City Hall with Mayor Kevin Dumas. It was an immediate hit with all present.”

We will remember Don, not only for his dedicated service to the land trust, but also for the personal warmth and enthusiasm he brought to his every endeavor.

New TerraCorps Member for the Attleboro Land Trust – Evan Foster

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Riding my bike in the Adirondacks.

My name is Evan Foster, and I will be serving as the TerraCorps member at the Attleboro Land Trust for the next several months. TerraCorps members are a part of the larger AmeriCorps National program whose mission states “making service an indispensable part of the American experience”. TerraCorps service members are placed in community-nonprofits across the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The TerraCorps mission is to engage and mobilize future leaders to get involved with local communities and conserve land for both people and nature. Equity is at the heart of what TerraCorps strives to achieve. TerraCorps members understand that individuals in underrepresented communities do not have the same access to these public lands and aim to create opportunities for those communities to experience them. The future of land conservation lies in the same goal of making land more equitable. To understand more about the TerraCorps mission, I highly recommend visit their website to read more: (https://terracorps.org/equity-in-land-conservation/).

Skiing at Jay Peak Resort in Vermont.

Growing up in Boxborough, MA in a family that highly valued outdoor recreation, my passion for environmental work was formed at a young age. My childhood experiences ranged from skating on a backyard rink to attending a canoe summer camp in Canada to swimming in the local pond to running cross country in high school. I developed a love for the outdoors, and it has shaped everything that I have done so far. When it was time for me to think about attending college, I landed on the University of Vermont because of its strong environmental program. Living in Burlington, Vermont gave me access to an endless number of outdoor activities including cross country and downhill skiing, snowshoeing, road/mountain biking, rock climbing, and numerous hikes throughout the Green Mountains. My degree in Environmental Science was complimented and enhanced by all of these activities. I soon discovered another passion of mine through my Geospatial Technologies minor which involved using satellite imagery for a variety of reasons including creating maps, analyzing spatial data, and much more. I continued with this passion into my undergraduate job at the Spatial Analysis Lab where I gained experience creating Land Use/Land Cover maps for cities and towns across North America. I developed an indispensable skill that I hope to bring to the Attleboro Land Trust. I am extremely excited to be serving with the Attleboro Land Trust and am ready to put my education and knowledge to use! Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions or want to get to know me better ([email protected]). Happy winter!