Daily Archives: September 23, 2015


Saturdays, October 3 and October 10, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Celebrate Royalston 250th

As part of the town of Royalston’s 250th celebration, the Royalston Open Space and Recreation Committee and the Athol Bird and Nature Club are cosponsoring Saturday walks this fall to five outdoor gems, each from 10 a.m. to noon. The first walk is to the top of Mount Tully along part of the Tully Trail on October 3, led by Carl Kamp, past president of the Massachusetts Butterfly Club and an avid naturalist and photographer. Meet at the Tully Lake Campground parking lot on Doane Hill Rd. Next, explore a section of the New England Trail (formerly called the M&M Trail) on October 10, led by Paul Montero, Royalston’s representative to the NET. A professional land surveyor, Montero will also demonstrate compass use. Meet at the Royalston Falls trailhead on Rte. 32 (Newton Cemetery). Other dates and venues will be announced. All the walks are weather permitting. If in doubt, call Paul Montero at 978-249-5879 by 9 a.m. on any walk morning. Royalston Falls is pictured below.


Monday, October 5, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm – The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World

Andrea Wulf reveals in her new book the extraordinary life of the visionary German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) and how he created the way we understand nature today. She will speak on Monday, October 5 beginning at 5:30 at the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street in Boston.

Though almost forgotten today, his name lingers everywhere from the Humboldt Current to the Humboldt penguin. Humboldt was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. Wulf traces Humboldt’s influences through the great minds he inspired in revolution, evolution, ecology, conservation, art and literature. In The Invention of Nature, Wulf brings this lost hero to science and the forgotten father of environmentalism back to life. Fee: free for Arnold Arboretum and Massachusetts Historical Society members, $20 nonmembers. Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.