Boston Flora

Tag: Mount Grace

  • Thursday, December 4, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Eastern – Welcome to the Dark Side: Discovering Moths, Online

    Join naturalist Dave Small online on December 4 at 7 pm Eastern for an introduction to attracting and watching moths in your backyard. Discover the native plants you can introduce to your landscape to attract a wide variety of butterflies and moths. Learn how to use lights and bait to attract moths for viewing and get a glimpse of some of the moths you might encounter on a warm summer evening.

    Dave is the Director of Conservation leading a team of land protection specialists in fulfilling the mission of Mount Grace in protecting our open spaces. Dave retired in 2013 after 35 years with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where he served as Assistant Regional Director at the DCR Quabbin Reservoir. His dedication to conservation and natural history continues as he leads a team tasked with protecting the landscapes he loves.

    This webinar is sponsored by Newton Conservators, a nonprofit citizens’ group advocating for Newton’s open spaces. Sign up: https://shorturl.at/8keDR

  • Friday, May 29, 1:00 pm – Home Composting Webinar

    Cooking at home more often these days? Want to learn how to reduce household trash and improve garden soil health by composting food and yard waste? Tune in on May 29 at 1 pm to this FREE, fun webinar that will provide tips, how-to’s, and local resources to start or improve your own composting system in Central and Western Mass, followed by a question and answer session with local composting experts.

    Hosted by the Food Waste Reduction and Composting Working Group of the Greater Quabbin Food Alliance.  

    Registration is required and open to the first 100 participants. Register in advance for this meeting by clicking this link: 

    https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZElfuyurDsiE9GdDvBMzpDkbjYr1iip7Znm

    After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 

    For more information, visit: https://www.mountgrace.org/get-involved/events/event/home-composting-webinar   

  • Saturday, January 28, 9:00 am – 12:00 noon – Skyfields Tracking Workshop

    Learn to spot and interpret wildlife signs as you walk through the trails and woods around Skyfields with veteran tracker and naturalist Paul Wanta. Last year’s attendees saw signs of rabbits, deer, otter, wild turkeys, and a porcupine. The walk is free to Mount Grace members and $10 for the general public (pay at the event). The workshop is open to trackers of all ages and levels of skill. Paul Wanta, former teacher and naturalist at the Farm School in Athol, has been a tracker for 30 years. He and his wife Heather ran an educational non-profit, In This Place, in Wendell.

    This year’s workshop at Skyfields Arboretum, 1461 Old Keene Rd., Athol, runs from 9-noon and is limited to 25 participants. http://www.mountgrace.org/skyfields-tracking-workshop-12817

  • Saturday, August 15, 9:00 am – 12:00 noon – Trail Walk at Muddy Pond

    Join Mount Grace and the North Quabbin Trails Association on Saturday, August 15 from 9 – noon for a free Trail Walk at Muddy Pond, Mount Grace’s first project in Westminster. We will look at the different natural communities at the Pond, including the floating bog. The walk will showcase the new trail connecting to the Mid-State Trail from the west side of the Pond. For more information visit www.mountgrace.org.

  • Saturday, July 25, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Fern Walk

    Elizabeth Farnsworth, botanist and nationally recognized fern expert, will lead a Fern Walk on Masson Ridge. The 183-acre property has been protected with a Forever Wild conservation restriction held by Mount Grace and sits in the middle of the Satan’s Kingdom Wildlife Management Area. This event is free. Elizabeth Farnsworth is Senior Research Ecologist with the New England Wild Flower Society and past Garden Club of the Back Bay speaker. Her unique background as a botanist, professor, illustrator and author provide her with a wealth of information to share during this botanical exploration. Meet at West Road in Northfield. For complete information visit The Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust at www.mountgrace.org.  Image from www.mywoodlandgarden.com.

  • Saturdays, May 30 and June 6, 8:00 am – 11:00 am – Birding and Habitat Restoration Field Trips

    Join Mount Grace and the Athol Bird and Nature Club in celebrating this year’s international migratory bird day theme “restore habitat restore birds”. We will discover birds in a variety of habitats including beaver meadows and spruce swamps and learn about a new habitat restoration project that is about to take place. Both events are for all ages, no experience necessary. We will have a small selection of binoculars and field guides for people to use. Bring sturdy hiking shoes, insect repellent, binoculars, bird books etc. Participants must be able to walk on uneven terrain. On Saturday, May 30, the area to be visited is the Arthur Iversen Conservation Area on Gale Road in Warwick. Meet at the trailhead on the east side of Gale Rd. or, to carpool, meet at the Millers River Environmental Center at 7:30am at 100 Main St, Athol, MA 01331. On June 6, the focus will be the Fox Valley Conservation Area, pictured below. Meet at the Fox Valley trailhead parking lot on the north side of Lincoln Rd. (160 Lincoln Rd, Phillipston, MA) For more information visit www.atholbirdclub.org.

  • Saturday, January 24, 9:30 am – 12:00 noon – Environmental Education Network

    For all interested in engaging children in nature-based and experiential learning, Mount Grace invites you to a local environmental education network event on Saturday, January 24, from 9:30 – noon at the Mount Grace office, Skyfields Arboretum, 1461 Old Keene Road in Athol.  This is a forum for sharing successes and challenges, discussing curriculum development needs, brainstorming topics for future workshops, and talking about subject matter with the experts.  There will also be a winter lesson demonstration.  Opportunities to volunteer with Mount Grace as curriculum consultants or outdoor lesson chaperones are also available.  Coffee and snacks will be served.  RSVP to Martine at service_americorps@mountgrace.org, or to David Kotker at 978-248-2055, x 19.

  • Saturday, January 26, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Wild Things of North Quabbin

    In cooperation with the Athol Council on Aging, Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust is sponsoring a free screening of Hank Cramer’s 40-minute film Wild Things of North Quabbin at the Athol Town Hall (584 Main Street, Athol) on Saturday January 26th from 7-8:30pm.

    Shot in the New Salem woods, the film offers us glimpses into the secret lives of locally common birds and mammals. “The wild things in the film encourage us to conserve the local landscape they need for a home and can remind us that people need the land, too, for air to breathe, water to drink, wood for our homes, and, as importantly, for inspiration,” says Leigh Youngblood, Mount Grace Executive Director. Youngblood will be speaking at the event, which will also include a chance to meet some of the animals currently staying with local wildlife rehabilitator Medicine Mammals.

    Hank’s love of nature, perseverance, and sense of curiosity give us a glimpse across four seasons in our local landscape. The movie, edited and assembled from five years of footage, features more than 25 species, including rarely seen behaviors of beavers, bears, bobcats, turkeys, fish, coyotes and herons. The event is free and is designed to introduce people to the wildlife of the region and the importance of land conservation in our communities. For more information about Mount Grace or to reserve seats, visit www.mountgrace.org.

  • Friday, July 20, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Invasive Plant Workshop

    Elizabeth Farnsworth is Senior Research Ecologist at the New England Wild Flower Society and Research Associate at Harvard Forest. On Friday, July 20, from 2 – 4, she will introduce Go Botany, a brand new interactive, online plant sharing and identification tool, at Harvard Forest, 324 Main Street in Petersham.  Part of the training will also take place in the field, identifying flora around Harvard Forest. Participants are encouraged to bring laptops, iPods and iphones for easy identification. Participants will also be asked to continue stewardship work on conservation land in their area by identifying invasives and reporting them to the Go Botany blog. Whether you have photographs, sketches, stories about using the Go Botany tool or recipes for cooking with invasives your experiences will help track invasive plants in the North Quabbin region.  The program is free.

    Please RSVP to Aja Lippincott, AmeriCorps Outreach Coordinator, Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust: 978-248-2055 ext. 21, or by email at outreach_americorps@mountgrace.org.