News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.
The Lincoln Junior Hikers. (Photo courtesy Jason Felsch)
By Alice C. Waugh
A new chapter in the story of Lincoln’s conservation trails begins on Sunday afternoon when a group of kids will set off down a path and enter the country (or countryside, anyway) bearing brand-new passports.
[Read more…] about Young walkers get passports to fun on Lincoln’s trails
Visit a different area of Lincoln’s open space each week on Wednesday walks led by Conservation Department staff on Wednesdays from 9:30-11:30 a.m. Walks are typically about 2.5 miles long. Wear sturdy shoes and always dress for the weather (walks are held rain or shine). Meeting places and descriptions are listed below.
Two exhibits at the Lincoln Public Library this month show how children’s portrait-drawing abilities evolve over time and depict Lincoln’s natural history. [Read more…] about Nature and portraits on exhibit at library in April
This sign on Conant Road was partially obscured by the latest snowstorm. (Photo / Alice Waugh)
Each year around this time, the Conservation Commission puts up sandwich-board signs on a couple of roads to warn drivers that the road will be closed for a night or two to allow safe passage for amphibians. Well, the signs are now up—but they’re camouflaged by snow, which is undoubtedly also puzzling the creatures who thought spring had arrived.
Editor’s note: This is one of several Lincoln Squirrel articles about an agenda item (a “warrant piece,” with apologies to Leo Tolstoy) to be considered at the March 23 Town Meeting.
By Alice Waugh
A group of residents calling themselves Quiet Lincoln is asking residents at Town Meeting to consider the possibility of restricting the use of leaf blowers, which cause air and noise pollution and are bad for the land they’re trying to clear, according to the group.
The next outing for the Lincoln Junior Hikers is Sunday, March 17 at 2 p.m. We’ll meet at Lincoln Cemetery and explore the trails near the Wheeler and Flint farms.
Be aware that there are three cemeteries in town. The Old Burial Ground is behind Bemis Hall. The Arbor Vitae Cemetery is the small one on Trapelo Road about a quarter mile east of the library. We will meet at the third and largest, Lincoln Cemetery, which is located on Lexington Road half a mile north of Trapelo Road.
The hike will be about 1.5 miles round trip around some hilly terrain. Parents, as always, will be responsible for the supervision of their children.
This map shows the locations of the first projects on the campaign wish list (click to enlarge).
By Alice Waugh
Drumlin Farm recently kicked off a campaign aimed at raising money to fund improvements starting with a new education center, wildlife care center and fox exhibit.
The “Landscapes for Learning” campaign aims to bring in $4.7 million over four to five years, said Christy Foote-Smith, Drumlin Farm’s sanctuary director. The campaign aligns with specific goals outlined in Drumlin Farm’s strategic plan. As of December 2012, Drumlin had raised more than $900,000, including a grant of $384,000 from the Amelia Peabody Charitable Fund.
“We’re off to a running start. I don’t expect it to continue at that pace, though I wouldn’t be unhappy if it did,” Foote-Smith said at a Board of Selectmen meeting on December 17, 2012.
That sum will be enough to pay for improvements to the service barn, much of which was destroyed in a 1980 fire and rebuilt. Those changes include more classroom space and an expanded root cellar, which will help Drumlin expand its Winter CSA (community-supported agriculture) program.
“We have the field space, but we just don’t have places to store” the produce, Foote-Smith said.
Construction work on the barn should begin this summer, with completion scheduled for mid-2014, Foote-Smith said. Next on the list is either a new wildlife care center or a new education center to be built near the existing education building, Foote-Smith said. The current wildlife care center south of Route 117 is in an old poultry house, which will be razed and rebuilt on the same stone foundation, Foote-Smith said.
The new fox exhibit will replace the current “Drumlin Underground” exhibit, which can never be made handicapped-accessible, Foote-Smith noted. Also planned for campaign’s proceeds is a new equipment shed near Boyce Field, and new deer and coyote exhibits.
Noting that programs such as the summer camp are at full visitor capacity for the property, Foote-Smith noted Drumlin isn’t aiming to increase attendance except perhaps during the winter and other times of the year when attendance is relatively low.
“That’s not a goal we have moving forward,” she told the selectmen. “We expect our growth to happen mostly around our outreach programs,” such as satellite camps and staff visits to schools.
Anyone who wants more information about the campaign or wishes to donate may email Foote-Smith at cfsmith@massaudubon.org.
Did you know that there are 497 acres of land in active farming in Lincoln—and that there are another 287.5 acres in town that could be farmed? See maps and learn more about this current and potential farmland in Lincoln at the Lincoln Agricultural Commission‘s third annual community meeting, “The Future of Farming in Lincoln: A Community Conversation.” At the meeting, the LAC will to review town farming information with farmers and other landowners and discuss ways we might bring more land into farming in Lincoln. Everyone is welcome.
The LAC was formed by a 2008 Town Meeting vote to preserve and protect Lincoln agriculture. Members representing farms and farming interests in the town are appointed by the Board of Selectmen.
Tornadoes as seen by storm-chasers. (Photos courtesy Chris Curtis)
By Brett Wittenberg
The van barreled down I-44, its occupants’ excitement reaching a fever pitch. The chase that had started that morning in Oklahoma had traveled a serpentine route across much of Kansas, and by the time they crossed the Missouri border, the chasers had almost caught up with their prey—a giant tornado.
One of the “storm chasers” in the van was Concord resident Chris Curtis, who will give a talk about his experiences on Monday, February 25 at 12:30 p.m. in Bemis Hall.
On that day in May 2011, Curtis and his team could tell by radar that their prize was only a few blocks to their north, but in the limited visibility of the accompanying rainstorm, they had yet to actually see the Class EF5 multiple-vortex tornado. But the radar clearly showed a huge tornado with a cloud of swirling debris, and it looked like it had stopped on top of Joplin, Missouri.
[Read more…] about Storm-chaser to share experiences in Feb. 25 talk
Looking back from the vantage point of the Blizzard of ’13, it looks Ms. G. was right when she predicted six more weeks of winter.
Ms. G, Drumlin Farm’s resident groundhog, emerged from her carrying crate on February 2 and saw her shadow, a prediction contradiction with her better-know fellow woodchuck, Punxsutawney Phil. But the dozens of observers gathered around her on the bare frozen ground didn’t mind — they showed their appreciation in the usual way, though the applause was considerably muffled by mittens and gloves. Before her pronouncement, some even briefly chanted, “Six more weeks! Six more weeks!”
 Ms. G clambers aboard her stump as she prepares to make her prediction. (Photo: Alice Waugh) |
 The crowd, some with “Ms. G for State Groundhog” signs, wait for her pronouncement. (Photo: Alice Waugh) |
Mish Michaels, Ms G’s campaign manager. (Photo: Alice Waugh)
The morning was also a campaign event for Ms. G., who is running hard for the post of Official State Groundhog with the backing of former local TV meteorologist and environmental reporter Mish Michaels of Wellesley. Michaels is helping children at the Hunnewell School as they try to move a bill through the state legislature that will, if approved, give statewide stature to the Lincoln groundhog.
“I’m her campaign manager at this point,” said Michaels, who sported a groundhog hat and campaign sign.
In addition to her political/rodential work, Michaels is creating on a children’s book with her young daughter called “A Groundhog’s Shadowy Road to Fame” and running an online children’s clothing business called Natural Cloud Cover (“organic clothing for the weather watcher in every kid!”).
After a few minutes of watching Ms. G. clamber over a tree stump in the frigid air, many of the children and their parents trooped inside to get their weather questions answered by a panel of local meteorologists. Inevitably, one of the kids asked whether we would have any more snow this year — a reasonable question during what had been an almost snowless season.
The short answer, said WBZ-TV’s Joe Joyce, was yes, though neither he nor his colleagues could predict when. “We keep getting it inch by inch. It’s been a frustrating season,” he said. Little did he know…