Join Keep Attleboro Beautiful on April 18, 2026, for the 9th annual community cleanup! Bring your family, friends, and neighbors to help give the city of Attleboro a thorough spring cleaning! To participate, fill out the registration form on the Keep Attleboro Beautiful site—one form per volunteer. Groups are also welcome to register. To register your group, please contact the organizers at KeepAttleboroBeautiful@gmail.com.
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What would we do without our volunteers?
Thanks to the members of the South Attleboro Lions Club for their help on September 6, installing sign posts along the trail that is being built at the Charron Farm Preserve.
Thanks also to the volunteers who helped on September 6 to prepare a stormwater infiltration basin for grass seeding.
Photos by C. Adler and T.A. Charron
Summer Color
Rhododendron thicket, Deborah and Roger Richardson Nature Preserve, 6/28/22
Deborah’s Garden, Deborah and Roger Richardson Nature Preserve, 7/14/18
Baltimore checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton)
Lower Hayfield, Deborah and Roger Richardson Nature Preserve, 6/26/16
Great spangled fritillary (Speyeria cybele)
Lower Hayfield, Deborah and Roger Richardson Nature Preserve, 6/26/16
Common evening primrose (Oenothera biennis)
Lower Hayfield, Deborah and Roger Richardson Nature Preserve, 7/16/16
Bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare) alien
Anthony Lawrence Wildlife Preserve, 8/31/13
Spotted Joe-Pye weed (Eutrochium maculatum)
Anthony Lawrence Wildlife Preserve, 8/31/13
Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
Shaw-Denham Memorial Forest, 8/20/13
Don Doucette, Devoted Steward of Our Watershed
Don Doucette at the 2011 Attleboro Land Trust Annual Meeting.
Don Doucette, long-time advocate of watershed conservation, passed away on May 9. Don was devoted to the preservation of our local environment and its history. He was a founding member of the Ten Mile River Watershed Alliance (TMRWA) in 1990, and he with his wife Nancy were early members and supporters of the Attleboro Land Trust, which was founded that same year.
A partnership between the two organizations resulted in the donation of Larson Woodland to the land trust by Ray Larson in 1997. Don played a key role in that acquisition. Earlier, in 1996, the TMRWA had dedicated a 3-mile urban trail beginning at Balfour Riverwalk Park and following the Ten Mile River upstream as far as West Street. A guide to the Ten Mile River Heritage Trail, written by Don, described historic stopping points along the route.
2011 Attleboro Land Trust Annual Meeting.
One of the land trust’s most memorable annual meetings was in 2011, when Don was our keynote speaker. His talk, “The Ten Mile River Watershed: A Walk Through Time,” was accompanied by a stunning slide show consisting of mostly of postcards he had collected of scenes photographed up and down the Ten Mile during the early decades of the twentieth century. Don’s authoritative grasp of his subject reflected not only painstaking research, but the fact that, with fellow TMRWA member Mark Benoit, he had trekked the entire 27-mile length of the river, from Plainville to East Providence, in 2 days in 1995.
Keynote speaker Don Doucette at the 2011 Attleboro Land Trust Annual Meeting.
Of his motive, Don wrote, “The primary intent was adventure–to cross, as does water, all human imposed, social and physical bounds that tend to fragment the Ten Mile River Watershed. Envisioned was a more intimate encounter with the river–we were not disappointed.”
Celebrating 35 Years
April 11 marks the birth, 35 years ago, of the Attleboro Land Trust at a public meeting at the Attleboro Public Library. Here are some items from our archives covering events in our first decade…
Flyer announcing our first meeting in 1990.
Letter to the editor, announcing our first meeting in 1990.
Article in The Sun Chronicle, November 11, 1990
ALT Annual Meeting, September 21, 1991, on the grounds of Texas Instruments. Board members attending from left to right: Charlie Adler, Larry St. Pierre (President), Carol Haslehurst, Howard Bibeault, Joanne Wright, Robert Schoch, Ron Carlson
Dedication of the Colman Reservation, October 16, 1993. Board members and dignitaries attending from left to right: Larry St. Pierre (President), Joanne Wright, George Largess, Carol Haslehurst (Treasurer), Shanthi Raam, Adele Colman, Mayor Judith Robbins, Robert Schoch (Secretary), Ron Carlson (Vice President), Charlie Adler
Adele Colman donated our first gift of land, the Colman Reservation, in 1992.
Following the dedication of the Colman Reservation, a reception with wine and cheese was held under the Giant Hemlock.
The Anthony Lawrence Wildlife Preserve was donated on November 11, 1994. In the fall of 1995, ALT board members met informally at the preserve to thank the donor. From left to right: Charlie Adler, Anthony Lawrence with two family members, Carol Haslehurst, Shanthi Raam, Joanne Wright, and Mildred Bauer.
ALT Board members assembled for a photo on October 26, 1998, at the dedication of the Phil and Ginny Leach Wildlife Sanctuary. From left to right (front ): Debby Leach, Joel Johnson, (rear): George Largess, Jim Lewis, Bob Duffin, Bob Thayer, Robert Schoch, Ted Leach, (president) Larry St. Pierre, Charlie Adler, Michael Brown
It’s not too late for you, or your child, to play a part in our scientific study
The Attleboro Land Trust invites you to participate in a one-year scientific study of the Anthony Lawrence Wildlife Preserve. Jessie Knowlton, Associate Professor of Biology at Wheaton College, is leading the study, which began in June. More information is available on the project page.
Professor Knowlton and her team of Wheaton students have already identified many species of plants and animals observed over the summer. The study will continue through fall, winter, and spring. You are invited to help as a Volunteer Observer by visiting the Preserve once in each season on your own and reporting what you observe. As a citizen scientist, you might spot a rare bird or other animal or plant that no one else has seen.
You may submit observations in the form of photos, videos, drawings, notes, or audio recordings. If you are tech savvy, you may upload photos using a free cell phone app called iNaturalist. Photos submitted may be viewed at the iNaturalist website.
At the conclusion of the study, a final report will include recommendations for maintaining and protecting the Preserve’s ecosystem, and for engaging the public in stewardship of the property.
If you or your child would like to sign up as a Volunteer Observer, use the online form on this website or email attleborolandtrust@gmail.com. If you are under 18, ask an adult partner to co-sign your application and go with you on your site visits.
This project is made possible by a Giving While Living Grant from the Woodard & Curran Foundation.
ALT Receives a $10,000 Grant from the Woodard & Curran Foundation
The Attleboro Land Trust is pleased to announce that we have received a $10,000 Giving While Living Grant from the Woodard & Curran Foundation, whose mission is to support nonprofit organizations that work locally to protect our environment, with a special focus on water resources. We are one of 10 non-profits receiving grants out of 35 organizations nominated. There is no application process, and we did not know we were one of the nominees.
The ALT will use the funds to study and protect the Anthony Lawrence Wildlife Preserve in South Attleboro. The 59-acre Preserve, most of which was donated by Anthony Lawrence in 1994, includes a stretch of the Seven Mile River which winds through a pristine open marsh. Grant money will be used initially to support a scientific study of the Preserve’s ecosystem, and then to address any needs identified.
The study, “A Year in the Life of the Lawrence Preserve,” has just been launched and will continue for one year. Jessie Knowlton, Associate Professor of Biology at Wheaton College, is leading the study and a group of Wheaton students are working under her direction. We have also invited members of the public to participate in the study as Volunteer Observers. This will be a direct educational benefit to those children and adults who participate, as well as providing additional observational data for inclusion in the study.
The ALT was nominated for this grant by Sherri Peak-Palermo, an Attleboro resident who works at the Providence office of Woodard & Curran, an environmental consulting firm. The Woodard & Curran Foundation is supported by donations from the firm and its employees.
We are honored to have been chosen as a grant recipient, and grateful to be able to devote funds toward enhancing the preservation of one of our most pristine properties.
Volunteers got it done in 2023!
At the Annual Meeting on November 16, Property Management Committee Chair Charlie Adler asked everyone present who had helped in the maintenance of our properties over the past year to stand, and he thanked them for the essential work that they voluntarily do for the good of the land trust. He was especially appreciative for the number of people who volunteered to be site stewards this year.
He also singled out the following individuals for noteworthy accomplishments:
- Bill Ward – mowing the hayfields at Richardson.
- The Mowing Team for mowing the lawn areas at Richardson – Phil Boucher, Randy Lithway, Russ Pray. Also pitching in were James Tetreault and Johnny Bender.
- Russ Pray – rebuilding the bulkhead of the Barrows House at Richardson.
- Macie Broussard – monitoring the bluebird houses at Richardson.
- Lauretta Koch – for tending the perennial gardens at Richardson.
- Dave Rolince and Scott Hirshberg for some major repairs to the Scout boardwalk at Colman.
- Mike Davis and his sidekick Alan Henry for being our Storm Response Team and doing whatever is necessary to mitigate the effects of fallen trees at our properties.
- Randy Lithway for suggesting and completing a new pathway across from the Colman parking lot to the beginning of the Vaughan trail.
- And last but not least, board member and attorney Patrick Sullivan for his assistance in matters where our boundaries must be defended from encroachment.
Tree Planting Instructions
At Family Tree Day on April 29, we will be passing out tree seedlings: 50 White Dogwood and 50 Northern Red Oak. We will also have printed handouts on how to plant your tree at home. Here are the handouts:
Wildlife at the Richardson Preserve
These photos were recently submitted to us by John Nunziato, long-time photographer and newcomer to the Richardson Preserve.
