Boston Flora

Tag: Department of Conservation and Recreation

  • Wednesdays, May 26, June 2, & June 9, 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm – 2021 Massachusetts Town Forest Webinar Series: Enhancing Bird Habitat and Climate Adaptation in Your Community

    This three-part Massachusetts Town Forest Webinar series focuses on managing community forests for bird habitat and climate resilience. Join conservation and forestry professionals to learn how communities across the Commonwealth are managing town forests for carbon, climate resilience, and wildlife habitat. This webinar series is hosted by the MA Department of Conservation and Recreation with funding from the Working Forest Initiative. Visit the Massachusetts Woodlands Institute website to register or click the links below. 

    Bird Habitat & Climate Resiliency in Your Community
    May 26, 2021
    6:30pm-9:00pm

    Habitat for Birds and other wildlife remain one of the primary management objectives for both municipalities and private forest landowners across the commonwealth.  Please join us for an introduction to DCR’s Foresters for the Birds Program; assessing habitat for forest birds; and silvicultural approaches to create desired habitat conditions. Case studies on landscape and stand-level planning and management to improve forest habitat diversity and climate resiliency will also be explored in this webinar.

    Registration Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_C6Mk2IowQLq17xvaOkxVFg
    Climate Adaptation & Resiliency in Your Community
    June 2, 2021
    6:30pm-9:00pm

    Forestland has significant carbon sequestration and storage capabilities, which can be used to offset greenhouse gas emissions. As forests face increasing threats, forestry professionals are working to identify community needs and explore how evolving scientific knowledge could support climate-informed community forest management. Please join us for an introduction to the role of carbon in our forests and forest management options, as well as a case study on the Tri-City Carbon Project.

    Registration Link:https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1zkbsdsdT9a8GCNuQ4RFj Funding for Enhanced Habitat, Climate Adaptation & Resiliency 
    June 9, 2021
    6:30pm-9:00pm

    Communities across the Commonwealth are finding creative ways to integrate climate science into on-the-ground decision making regarding community forests and management. Community forests benefit all of us by providing a myriad of environmental, health and economic benefits. However, these forests are experiencing a multitude of stressors stemming from climate change. Please join us for information on funding strategies to respond to forest conservation, habitat, and climate challenges in your community. Recently completed habitat and climate-informed community forest management projects will be explored through case studies.

    Registration Link:https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_elENPSZERXe3JI0FVbtkKQ
  • Tuesday, March 10, 7:00 pm – Charlesgate Alliance New Playground Discussion

    Tuesday, March 10, 7:00 pm – Charlesgate Alliance New Playground Discussion

    As The Charlesgate Alliance continues to hone its plans with the Department of Conservation and Recreation and its partner, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, the design firm, Landing Studio, is developing ideas for the North Field area of Charlesgate. Please join them for a conversation about this exciting part of the project at 91 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215, starting at 7pm.

  • Leo Roy Appointed Commissioner of Department of Conservation and Recreation

    Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary Matthew Beaton announced that Leo Roy will serve as Commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Recreation. Leo Roy returns to public service after 15 years in the private sector, most recently as a Principal at VHB – an infrastructure planning, design, engineering, and environmental firm. Leo brings to the Department of Conservation and Recreation his experience in natural and cultural resource management, sustainability, ecological restoration, and agency management. The DCR is steward to 450,000 acres of public land, including state forests, state parks and drinking water supply protection areas.

    As an environmental consultant Roy worked for state and municipal governments, colleges and universities, airport and port authorities, and private corporations and developers. He was named a LEED Fellow by the US Green Building Council for over a decade’s work in promoting sustainable building design, construction, and operation, and was certified as an Envision Sustainability Professional by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure in 2012.

    Previously, Roy served as Massachusetts Undersecretary of Environmental Affairs from 1992 to 1997. He has been an active supporter of numerous non-profit environmental organizations, serving on the Board of the Environmental Business Council of New England (EBC), and as Chair of the Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership.

  • Wednesday, March 18, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm – Arthur Shurcliff

    The next lecture sponsored by the Massachusetts Historical Society will take place Wednesday, March 18, from 5:30 – 7, on Arthur Shurcliff. In 1928 Boston landscape architect Arthur A. Shurcliff began what became one of the most important examples of the American Colonial Revival landscape—Colonial Williamsburg, a project that stretched into the 1940s and included town and highway planning as well as residential and institutional gardens. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1894, Shurcliff immediately went back to school at Harvard University where his mentor, Charles Eliot, helped him piece together a program in the Art History Department, the Lawrence Scientific School and the Bussey Institute. Upon graduation with a second Bachelor of Science, he worked in Frederick Law Olmsted’s office for eight years, acquiring a broad and sophisticated knowledge of the profession. When he opened his practice in 1904, Shurcliff emphasized his expertise in town planning. Two decades later, when he was tapped to be Chief Landscape Architect at Colonial Williamsburg, he was a seasoned professional whose commissions included his Boston work, campus design, town planning, and a robust practice in private domestic design. How he utilized the skills he acquired over the years, and how his professional expertise intermingled with his avocational interests in history, craftsmanship, and design is the subject of Cushing’s biography—a story that inexorably sweeps him to his work in the restoration and recreation at Colonial Williamsburg.

    Elizabeth Hope Cushing, Ph.D., is the author of a newly published book about Boston landscape architect Arthur A. Shurcliff (1870–1957), based on her doctoral dissertation for the American and New England Studies program at Boston University. She is also a coauthor, with Keith N. Morgan and Roger Reed, of Community by Design, released in 2013. Cushing is a practicing landscape historian who consults, writes, and lectures on landscape matters. She has written cultural landscape history reports for the Taft Art Museum in Cincinnati, The National Park Service, the Department of Conservation and Recreation of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and other institutions and agencies. Her contributor credits include Pioneers of American Landscape Design (McGraw Hill Companies, 2000), Design with Culture: Claiming America’s Landscape Heritage (University of Virginia Press, 2005), Shaping the American Landscape (University of Virginia Press, 2009), and Drawing Toward Home (Historic New England, 2010). She has received a grant from the Gill Family Foundation to write a biography of Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., which she is currently researching.

    This series has been made possible by the generous underwriting of Stephen Stimson Associates Landscape Architects and is cosponsored by the Mount Auburn Cemetery and the Nichols House Museum.  $10 fee, (no charge for Fellows and Members of the MHS, Mount Auburn Cemetery and the Nichols House Museum) and pre-registration required at https://dnbweb1.blackbaud.com/OPXREPHIL/EventDetail.asp?cguid=76FBBAD5-59FC-442D-8347-A5AE40DBF561&eid=50860&sid=A801527F-4B9A-49B4-9B54-FCBE293D2EFE

  • Saturday, November 3, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Late Fall Tree ID with Forester Helen Johnson

    On Saturday, November 3, from 1 – 4, take your tree identification skills to the next level with Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) Service Forester Helen Johnson. Characteristics like bark, branching patterns, buds, overall tree shape, and habitat will be used to aid in identification. We will also talk about impacts on the forest from insects, diseases, and invasive plants. Depending on participant interest, conversations may wander through forest ecology, wildlife habitat, climate change, land use history, logging, and sustainable forest management. No previous tree identification skills are required for this free field walk. As a DCR Service Forester, Ms. Johnson provides free advice and technical assistance to forest landowners, enforces logging regulations, and administers the current use tax programs (e.g. Chapter 61). She has an M.S. in Forestry and a B.A. in Social Thought & Political Economy, both from the University of Massachusetts. For location, directions and to register, call 1-800-859-2960.

  • Saturday, October 27, 9:00 am – 11:00 am – Blue Hills Reservation: Charles Eliot’s Master Plan

    In his 1890 Waverly Oaks report, Charles Eliot suggested that Boston residents look beyond the city and into the suburbs for natural scenery to foster and preserve “an education in the love of beauty” and “a means of human enjoyment.” Contemplate Eliot’s efforts and ideas as the National Park Service guide traverses the Blue Hills. Offered in partnership with the Department of Conservation and Recreation. Prepare for a moderate hike over rugged and rocky terrain. Meet at the Trailside Museum Parking Lot. For more information, visit www.nps.gov.

  • Wednesday, June 13, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – The Esplanade Association Annual Meeting

    On June 13th, The Esplanade Association (TEA) will host its 11th Annual Meeting at The Hampshire House, 84 Beacon Street, Boston, and they hope you will join them.  Edward M. Lambert, Jr., Commissioner, Department of Conservation and Recreation, will also address the audience.  With the unveiling of Esplanade 2020: A Vision for the Future earlier this year, increased horticulture care, organizational growth, and more, there is much to update you on.

    TEA is pleased to welcome Lawrence R. Hott as the Keynote Speaker. Mr. Hott will present a short clip of his new film on Olmsted which will set the stage for his talk,The Boss of Free Time: Olmsted and the Democratization of American Leisure.  Lawrence R. Hott has been producing documentary films since 1978, when he left the practice of law to join Florentine Films. His awards include an Emmy, two Academy Award nominations, a George Foster Peabody Award, the duPont-Columbia Journalism Award, the Erik Barnouw Award, five American Film Festival Blue Ribbons, Fourteen CINE Golden Eagles, screenings at Telluride, and first-place awards from the San Francisco, Chicago, National Educational, and New England Film Festivals.

    Hott was the Fulbright Fellow in Film and Television in the United Kingdom in 1994. He received the Humanities Achievement Award from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities in 1995; a Massachusetts Cultural Council/Boston Film and Video Foundation Fellowship in 2001; and the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism in 2001. He has been on the board of non-fiction writers at Smith College and has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Massachusetts Cultural Commission, and the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Director’s Guild of America.

    His recent films for national PBS broadcast include Through Deaf Eyes, American Masters John James Audubon: Drawn From Nature, Niagara Falls, The Return of the Cuyahoga, Imagining Robert and The War of 1812. He is now producing Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America and Rising Voices: The Revitalization of the Lakota Language. Edward M. Lambert, Jr., Commissioner, Department of Conservation and Recreation, will also be in attendance and has offered to say a few words to the audience.

    TEA’s Annual Meeting is a member event. If you are not a member, but would like to attend, please join today!

    For more information and to RSVP, visit www.esplanadeassociation.org.

  • Tuesday, October 4 – Urban Parks Conference in Worcester

    Join park, garden and greenway enthusiasts, volunteers and professionals from across the state on Tuesday, October 4 to hear about the latest and greatest developments in urban parks! Explore Worcester’s gardens, parks, and trails with local advocates; debate the benefits of urban parks to a city’s sustainability, cultural vibrancy, and economic vitality; hear from city leaders, park professionals and young people about why parks matter to urban residents. Invited guests include: Department of Conservation and Recreation Commissioner Ed Lambert (former Mayor of Fall River), Worcester City Manager Michael O’Brien, and City of Fitchburg Mayor Lisa Wong (pictured below.)  For complete information on times and registration, visit www.bostonparks.org.

  • Saturday, August 6, 9:30 am – 12:00 noon – Run for Conservation 5K

    Wildlands Trust has organized a RUN FOR CONSERVATION! The 5k walk/run is an opportunity for runners, walkers, families, local non-profits, businesses, and everyone in between to come together and support land conservation in Southeastern Massachusetts. The Trust has partnered with the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and Bayside Runner to make the special event possible. The race will be held in DCR’s Myles Standish State Forest in Plymouth, the state’s largest forest reserve. Local non-profit organizations and businesses will be at the race, providing participants with information about local educational programs, events, and activities that encourage a healthy lifestyle, outdoor recreation, and an appreciation for conservation. If you would like to register your non-profit or business to be a part of this outreach, please contact skugel@wildlandstrust.org. We are also seeking volunteers to adopt water tables and to assist walkers and runners at different points throughout the 5k. All volunteers will receive a free race t-shirt and all race proceeds support Trust efforts to save land in Southeastern Massachusetts. This race will also feature a special barefoot division, which will send most mothers into cardiac arrest, but if you like the feel of dirt between your toes, go for it.  Cost is $20 for WLT members, $25 for non-members.

  • Garden Club of the Back Bay Donates $2,500 to Esplanade Emergency Tree Fund

    As most of you are aware, more than 50 of the Esplanade’s specimen trees were damaged or destroyed as a result of a violent storm that passed through Boston on June 6.  Willows, the iconic trees of the Esplanade, were particularly hard hit when they were uprooted and damaged beyond repair by what has been identified as a macroburst (although weather groupies say the more proper term is “microburst”).  Our Club Co-President Jackie Blombach says her dog Lily’s favorite apple tree is gone as well.  In response to the extensive damage sustained by the storm, The Esplanade Association’s Board of Directors has created the Esplanade Emergency Tree Fund to raise money to replace trees that have been destroyed.  The Garden Club of the Back Bay has sent $2,500 to this Fund, and we thank all who attended or supported our most recent fund raising event, The Twilight Garden Party, and all our loyal wreath buyers, without whom our ability to step forward in such emergencies would be impossible.

    The destruction of so many historic and stately trees is a terrible loss to the park and to all who enjoy this special green space.  The Department of Conservation and Recreation has reported more than 50 trees will either need to be removed or severely pruned.  The DCR commenced a tree clean-up operation immediately after the storm to assure that public safety concerns were fully addressed.  The Esplanade Association will work with the DCR to inventory the trees and assess the full damage to the park at the earliest possible time.  That inventory is funded in part through grants from The Garden Club of the Back Bay.

    You may contribute to this fund – donations of all sizes are urgently needed and will be tax-deductible – by logging on to www.esplanadeassociation.org, or by contacting Justin Burke at 617-227-0365, or by emailing him at jburke@esplanadeassociation.org.  If you are a GCBB member, please let him know.

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