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Conservation Commission

Conservation and More

              by Bruce B. Beckley

Issue #101, April, 2001
Trail or Trial

No letters seem to get reversed more often than the I and A of trial and trail. Sometimes the reversal makes as much sense as the original intent. Trails can be a trial what with planning, paying for, building, policing and maintaining. Sometimes it seems that trails become an end in themselves, a trial for the conservationist. If trails aren't built, random paths evolve, perchance into sensitive areas. When trails are built the people will come, hopefully with respect for the trail builder/maintainer and the land the trail crosses.

The ACC has several trails and a few trials. Trials such as not enough time to do ______ (you fill in the blanks), not enough funds to protect ______, or not enough word power to get the message across. As consummate conservationists, I'm afraid we may not be as consummate at conversation. Conversation in which we listen more than speak. Are we a trial to you? Or, are we on the right trail in a program that tries to balance nature's needs, people's needs and municipal economics. If you say "No", we better listen up!

We are always on trial. A case in point: Saturday night a caller asked if the ACC had a map of the protected town properties and trails. I had to say "no". I apologized, saying the only map of conservation land hangs in the town hall. We should do a new one but other priorities seemed higher. Citing the right to know laws, my caller was less than satisfied. Another trial lost.

As an example of what can be done, every postal patron in Groton, Massachusetts recently received a large four-color map showing all the protected lands in town. It's a beautiful example of the map maker's art. Groton, lying south of Hollis, straddles Route 119 and is home to two private schools. There is a high level of cultural energy in the town which provides sell-out audiences for a host of musical and other events.

Back to the map issued by the Groton Conservation Trust. It shows 128 protected parcels totaling 4800 acres. Twenty-five percent of the land in Groton is protected through the efforts of a half-dozen organizations. What a wonderful achievement. The parcels vary from 5.6 miles of railroad trail to the 717 acre Wharton Plantation and the 500 acre town forest to parcels only a few acres in size.

The Groton Conservation Trust is a group of volunteer townspeople working with landowners, town boards and other conservation groups to acquire and preserve lands with significant conservation value. Their mission is to maintain these properties, to provide public access for passive recreational activities where appropriate, and to support public education enhancing the awareness of conservation and environmental issues.

It's encouraging to see what can be accomplished in a resource-rich town by resourceful volunteers and to know that Amherst is no less endowed. Of course there are trials but we can keep them trailing behind.

Thanks

If you see litter along any of the four miles of Baboosic Lake Road you can bet it was dropped the night before. Many, many thanks to Beau and Martha (his mistress) for keeping this busy road so clean, every day.

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