Friends of the Fells

Note the temporary new location!

Saturday, October 6-Sunday, October 21, 2018

“Count Down to Fall” by Fran Hawk, illustrated by Sherry Neidigh.
Count backwards from 10 to one during one of the most colorful times of year, fall. Learn about the bright, colorful leaves and the trees from which they fall: aspen, birch, maple, oak, chestnut, linden, pine, beech, dogwood, and sweet gum. Watch the animals frolicking in the crisp, autumn air as they get ready for the approaching cold winter! Foster your child’s connection with nature as well as their literacy skills by participating in our StoryWalk® in the Fells!

This self-guided StoryWalk® is for designed for children and families. Walk a trail, read a story, use your senses and connect with your surroundings. Due to the road construction we are moving the walk to the trail that begins at the Botume House Visitor Center, 4 Woodland Road, Stoneham. Look for the signs. The trail is an easy walk, about 1/3 mile, and can accommodate jogging strollers.

This is a collaboration of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), Friends of Middlesex Fells, Melrose/Wakefield Mass in Motion, The Medford Family Network, & North Suburban Child and Family Resource Network. Please be sure to sign in at the Kiosk off the parking lot. Enjoy this unique opportunity to bring the joy of nature and the magic of reading together outdoors! The StoryWalk® Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT and developed in collaboration with the Vermont Bicycle & Pedestrian Coalition and the Kellogg Hubbard Library.

Stoneham Volunteers, in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), was delighted to be hosting a unique team of invasive removal specialists in the Fells: goats! During the week of July 24-29, four goats took up residence near the Botume House Visitor Center in Stoneham to help manage the park’s more aggressive invasive plant species.

Goats love to eat brush and invasive plants, and offer an environmentally-friendly alternative to herbicides or mechanical interventions. On the menu for the goats at the Botume House was glossy and common buckthorn, Oriental bittersweet, multifloraose, and porcelain-berry–all carefully selected by DCR’s Fells staff, state ecologists, and Friends of the Fells botanists.

DCR park supervisor Gillian Lay adds, “our staff and volunteers collectively log hundreds of hours in the Fells every year removing invasive plants. We’ll see how the goats did by comparison, but they could be the Greatest Of All Time.” (No worries, human Fells volunteers; we couldn’t do it without you, either!)

Q&As from DCR

What’s with the goats?

“Goatscaping” is the newest trend in invasive plant removal! Essentially goats love to eat everything in their path. Invasive plants are time consuming and difficult to remove (bittersweet jams chainsaws) so we tried this technique to pilot how efficient they are as invasive removal specialists.

How did you manage to rent them?

A brand new nonprofit called Stoneham Volunteers loved the idea of goatscaping so much they offered to sponsor a week in the Fells.

Where are the goats from?

The Goatscaping Company out of Duxbury, MA. www.gogreengoat.com

What did the goats eat?

Most of the invasive plants in the area of their pen near the Tudor Barn, which includes Asian Bittersweet, multiflora rose, buckthorn (glossy and common) and Porcelain-berry. Goats will clear everything from 4-6 inches to 5-6 feet off the ground; whatever they can reach.

Is there anything they can’t eat?

Yes. Certain plants are toxic to goats. While they’ll avoid most of these plants instinctively, we did make sure their pen was clear of Rhododendron, azaleas, and pokeweed.

Is their poop good fertilizer?

YES! Goat manure is odorless, can be directly applied to soil without composting, is free of seeds, and is richer in nitrogen than that of cows or horses. The hope is the low ground cover they fertilized (grass, clover, ferns, mosses) will take over and help keep out new brush growth.

What’s with the fence?

The electric fence not only kept the goats in, but protected them from coyotes and dogs. The solar fence charger produces the same voltage output as an Invisible Fence for dogs. It gives a brief unpleasant zap, but will not injure anyone, including children and seniors. We provided a shelter, so the goats happily stayed in their fenced enclosure.

Will I get poison ivy if I pet the goats?

You could! But our goats won’t be near very much, if any.

The Cummings Foundation has been a longtime supporter and champion of Friends of the Fells through their “100K for 100” program. We’re grateful for their assistance in making a strong impact on our Fells community. Read about our most recent Cummings grant, awarded in 2016, here.

Cummings Foundation co-founder Bill Cummings released a memoir about his journey as an entrepreneur and philanthropist this year. All of the profit from the sale of the book are returned to charity, and you can learn more and purchase directly here. Consider adding it to your summer reading list!

If you’re interested in finding out how you can book Bill Cummings to speak for your organization, contact Cindy Canavan at clc@cummings.com or 781-569-2344.

Believe in the goodness of all humanity. ~Bill Cummings, Philantropist

**The Middlesex Fells StoryWalk® has been postponed due to road construction. Stay tuned for new specific dates! In the meantime, enjoy the Selfie Scavenger Hunt** Friends of the Fells is delighted to announce our collaboration with the DCR, Medford Family Network, North Suburban Child and Family Resource Network, and Mass in Motion to offer another StoryWalk® in the Middlesex Fells Reservation!

From July 21^st – August 5^th, you are invited to participate in this self-led walk through the Fells featuring the book, “One Small Place in a Tree” by Barbara Brenner. Find pages of this beautifully illustrated book posted along the trail, and read about different ways of looking at nature. The walk will begin at Greenwood Park, in Stoneham (across from the Stone Zoo), and will continue along the Crystal Springs Trail in an easy, 1/3-mile loop.

Foster your child’s connection with nature as well as their literacy skills by participating in our StoryWalk® in the Fells!

Our Mission

“…the protection and harmonious use of the Fells; promoting awareness, policies and programs to honor and preserve the ecological, historical and recreational resources on this urban forest reservation.”

“The Middlesex Fells Reservation. A precious island of tranquility and serenity amid a sea of suburbia. What beauty abounds there–sometimes sun-drenched, sometimes “mist” ical!” –R. Weggel

In 1894, when the Fells Reservation was established and became “a great natural park”, Medford’s George Davenport said, “For here we have a succession of well clad rocky hills, rising and falling like the billows of a great sea, within whose hollow troughs lie hidden pleasant vales, ponds, cascades, ferny brooks, sylvan retreats, wild swamps and fragrant groves.”

One hundred and twenty-five years later, we are keeping that beauty intact.

With your help, biodiversity in the Fells will continue to surpass that of other parks in eastern Massachusetts. The Friends’ former Board chair Bryan Hamlin and his team documented nearly a thousand species of flowering plants, which flourish among butterflies, amphibians, birds, and mammals.

We—and the Fells inhabitants noted above—desperately need such places of refuge, even more than in 1892, when landscape architect Charles Eliot wrote, “The life history of humanity has proved nothing more clearly than that crowded populations, if they would live in health and happiness, must have space for air, for light, for exercise, for rest, and for the enjoyment of that peaceful beauty of nature…”

The Fells Needs YOU.

This year, we have hired a new Executive Director, brought on additional staff, and expanded the Forest Kindergarten program. We have also partnered with Professor Stein of the Tufts Environmental Studies Program to develop an online user survey of the Fells, and we are currently supporting a moss and lichen survey to expand on Bryan Hamlin and Walter Kittredge’s illustrious study of the vascular plants in the Fells.

Every Dollar Becomes Three!

A generous donor is triple-matching every dollar you donate to this campaign, so please consider making a donation to support the Friends of the Middlesex Fells!

Click the fox button below to make your tax-deductible contribution today to help us protect and promote the Middlesex Fells Reservation:

Or, if you prefer, mail your donation to:

Friends of the Fells

235 W Foster Street

Melrose, MA 02176

Please write Summer Appeal on the front of your check.

Thank you for your ongoing support!

Sincerely,

Ron Morin

Executive Director, Friends of the Fells

Yesterday Walter and I hiked up and around Bear Hill in the northwestern part of the Fells. We came prepared this time with a list of mosses that had been collected there in the past, so we could check things off as we went, as well as add to it. As of right now for the Bear Hill area we have 35 total moss species that Walter and I either saw, or collected yesterday and have already identified (aka this number could still get bigger!).

Again yesterday we collected Andreaea rothii, the small dark colored rock loving moss with the chinese lantern like capsules that I had a nice picture of in last week’s blog post. Great to have found it again, and it is making is think that A. rothii might be more common in the fells, even though in New England it is known as the harder of the two species that occur here to find.

I think one of the most amazing aspects about mosses is that they are able to live in such extreme environments. We walked up to the tower on Bear Hill and to our surprise there were mosses growing all over it! It was so fun to walk up the spiral staircase to each new floor of the tower and see mosses growing on the walls. Here is a few pictures I captured of mosses (and Walter!) at the tower:

After the tower Walter and I kept walking down the slope to the woods below on the south side of Bear Hill. We decided to take a different trail back to the parking lot and we of course got to see some new species for Bear Hill along the way including Bartramia pomiformis and Fissidens bushii. Fissidens is a unique looking moss that has very special leaves that look like hands waving. Fissidens is usually found on soil or rocks in very wet places or even submerged in running water in streams. F. bushii is always found on soil in waste habitats, so us finding it on the shaded trail in-between a path rush and a rock seems fitting. (see photo below)

It was another great day out in the field and we are both excited to continue hiking through the fells to find more mosses! You can still support the project by donating here (copy and paste the URL into your browser): https://fundly.com/sponsor-a-young-scientist-s-climate-research-in-eastern-mass

Middlesex Fells StoryWalk®: Count Down to Fall