Topic: Closer_Look

Click here for Full Story Photos from the Thanksgiving Walk
Click here for Full Story Photos from the CCA Show
Click here for Full Story Photos from The brand new garden under construction

Here are links to each of the current maps on Google Maps:
Cranberry Bog:
Click here for Map
Thanksgiving Forest:
Click here for Map
Deep Brook:
Click here for Map
BB Wright:
Click here for Map
BB Wright Extension:
Click here for Map
Crooked Spring:
Click here for Map
Lime Quarry:
Click here for Map
Red Wing:
Click here for Map
Russell Mill:
Click here for Map

So where the hell are we? ... never ask that question at Russell Mill

Click here for New Russell Mill Map

wow busy weekend and a lot happening. Check out what we did.

Click here for Photos of Pack 107 on Lime Quarry Walk Sat
Click here for Pictures from on ongoing planting at the community garden
Click here for Photos form the opening of Russell Mill Mountain bike trails
Click here for Photos of Scout Troop 75 camp out at Russell Mill

I have had a few e-mail on the “glass” ornaments at The Cranberry bog. They are not glas as we have now checked them three times.. they are plastic .. really plastic…. Did I say they where plastic… ok maybe someone missed it.. plastic …. Plastic

Well I spent a few hours and cleaned up the gallery a bit more and added a section for New England Mountain Bike Assoc, Geo Stewards and the EPA. I also posted some new pictures of on going Eagle Scout projects at both Thanksgiving forest and Crooked springs.

Click on the Camera on the left to enter the 4,500 pictures!

Come to our GPS event.

Click here for about GPS slide show

We will also have a talk Thursday 3pm at Thnksgiving forest.
Click here for the route we will take

We need help. As the new School year starts we have had kids starting to try and reuse some of the open spaces as hang outs and places to drink. If you see any fire pits or see beer bottles at any place on any site call me at once. We will come and clean them up and alert both CPD and CFD. I can be reached at 978-273-1474 at any time. I will not give out your name so do not worry but we need to nip this in the bud. No cars should be in any lot after dark unless they have the Open Space sticker on the back. Please help us keep our open spaces safe.

Ok where to start…. Its not been that we have not been doing anything but just way too much. I guess we will start at the top and do “the good, the bad and the ugly”

The Good:
Earth day was amazing and we where active on five sites. (you can see all those pictures on the story below). Russell Mill continues to move forward and we will be opening miles (yes I said miles ) of technical running trails and intermediate mountain bike trails. Crooked Spring has had some major clean up and the drainage\trail reconstruction is complete. Click here for all the pictures . Repair\rebuild of the crossing at Deep Brook as had great results and the brook is quickly returning to a “Deep Brook” I did get some great pictures during a driving rain storm Sunday May 4th Click here for pictures . Jones Farm,CBA and some private residents have all come forward to help the program in our hour of need so look for a story soon on all of this. The Chelmsford Garden , Girl Scouts and Jones Farm are on track to install a butterfly garden at Red Wing in a few weeks. Red wing has eaten up a lot of out time and check out the pictures Click here for pictures here and Click here for more here.

The Bad:
In a nut shell … jerks trashing open spaces. We are working with the Town, CPD and CFD to control this incidents. If you see any trouble call me at once and I will get it resolved. I will keep the source confidential if you like. If you want to see the dark side of what we clean up.
Click here for pictures of abuse

The Ugly:
Click here for the Ugly


Look for 3 walks in June and a Geo Cache event in July and a lot more! Want to help? Please e-mail me.

Bird Walk - 7:00 -8:30 AM
Description: Bird walk along the rail trail from South Chelmsford to the power lines. Meet at the Red Wing Conservation Parking lot on Maple Road.
Date: Saturday, April 26, 2008

thanks to Sandi Peaslee, Board Member of The Marblehead Conservancy for giving me a quick kick in the butt to put our documents on line. they are now also integrated into our gallery (I love the Gallery system) and can be access by clicking the disk Icon under Gallery shortcuts.

Not sure what ConCom did or maybe the word is out but they Bog has been all quiet so far this holliday weekend along witgh all the other sites.

I had a chance to a complete site walk this morning and first off the place looks great. This was also the first time I have ever seen fish under the main bridge. Seems the beavers have gone and the stream is open again allowing them to come all the way up. A few things need to be taken care of and we ill most likely get to them this weekend. The first is doing something about the sand hill erosion; the second is the old beaver house has collapsed on the trail leaving a hole that needs to be filled and finally a blockage in the stream above the main bridge. All small stuff thanks to Mike and Beth who maintain the site.

Sunday at Wright I ran into Tom and D'Ann of Carlisle, who have taken on two blocks for the Breeding Bird Atlas 2 survey for Mass Audubon. From the Mass Audubon website:

"The new Atlas will repeat the basic methodology from Atlas 1. Starting spring 2007, volunteers will be asked to spend a minimum of 20 hours finding all the nesting species in each of 970 ten-square-mile blocks across the state. At the end of five years, when the resulting data are compared to those of Atlas 1, we will have a greatly enhanced understanding of how populations of Massachusetts' breeding birds changed in the previous three decades."

I really enjoyed touring Wright with Tom and D'ann, I learned a few plant names as well as a few bird calls. In all they saw or heard 19 different birds there. Afterward the couple visited Kroll, Calder, Larter Pasture and saw 4 bluebirds.

The Old North Bridge Hounds is conducting a Trail Ride/Pace Event on June 3 between 8 am and 2pm. As we did last year, teams of 2 or 3 riders will be coming from Great Brook looping around Thanksgiving Forest and exiting on the lower trail back into Great Brook.

As before, we carry liability insurance and the riders must sign a release form. They are also instructed to be respectful of walkers, etc.
I will put a sign up at the end of Janet Rd. as I did last year.
Thank you
Marie Hookway
Old North Bridge Hounds