This past weekend in eastern Massachusetts, volunteers from
near and far came together to celebrate National Trails Day on a sunny, summery
day in the Bay Circuit Town of Concord. The group included an
enthusiastic mix of individuals and families, ranging from avid hikers getting
their first taste of trail work to experienced trail stewards.
Trail projects took place on several notable properties. One
group installed bog bridges in the Hapgood-Wright Town Forest, a woodland that
was once frequented by members of the famous Thoreau, Emerson, and Alcott
families. This group also helped preserve the ecological and cultural integrity
of the adjacent Brister’s Hill property by pulling invasive buckthorn shrubs
from around an interpretive trail. The property was one of the places Henry
David Thoreau’s studied ecological successional and was named for Brister
Freeman, a freed slave and abolitionist who fought in the American Revolution
and lived nearby.
Across town, another group improved the recently-conserved
Domino-Nocella property by installing an informational kiosk, removing invasive
Japanese knotweed, and cutting new sections of trail to make the area more
inviting and accessible.
Thank you to all the volunteers who spent their Saturday
getting sweaty and dirty in service to local trails and conservation! There are
more opportunities to get out and give back around the Bay Circuit Trail
throughout the year. Check out our
Saturday
work party dates and
sign up today
for your chance to learn new skills, enjoy new outdoors places, and give back
to community trails.
See you out on the BCT,
Beth Gula
AMC Bay Circuit Trail Volunteer Programs Supervisor
Special thanks to the Concord Trails Committee and the Walden Woods Project, as well as REI for
their ongoing stewardship support and generous donation of volunteer t-shirts,
Arcadia Charitable Trust, 1% for the Planet, and the American Hiking Society.
