Students dig in to restore hiking trail

On Saturday June 9 a team of high school students from Lexington headed out to the trails in the Middlesex Fells for a day of restoration work.  With able leadership from the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Boston Chapter Trails Committee crew leader, Mark Levine and seasoned trail expert Bob Weggel plus DCR’s seasonal visitor services supervisor Mike Arnott the students tackled some challenging and much needed trail repairs.  In his follow up letter to the students supervisor Mike Arnott congratulates the students for their hard work:

Dr. Avon Lewis,
 
"I understand you are the person responsible for sending 11 hardworking 9th graders to the Middlesex Fells Reservation last Saturday.  They weren’t all enthusiastic at 8am but they all got into the spirit once out on the trail.  We restored several hundred feet of trail coming off a steep hill that were badly eroded.  Much of the trail was 6 to 12 feet wide and parts of the trail were doing double duty as a stream bed.  The students turned a “delta” of four paths into one well defined path where the trail meets a fire road.  Working with five adult volunteers they narrowed and hardened the trail and built several new drainages, scree walls (large rocks and boulders used to define trail boundaries), and rock steps.
 
This was much needed work in our ongoing efforts to balance the interests of both the park’s conservation and recreation mandates.  Community service volunteers are an indispensable part of what makes our urban parks work for both people and nature."


Before: Rock work under way

 
After: Solid rock steps in place for hikers

The 90 mm Site, just north of Ramshead Hill in the Lawrence Woods section of the Middlesex Fells is named after the Massachusetts 90 mm anti-aircraft gun site that occupied the location from 1951 to 1958.  After the unit was relocated the site was maintained as a meadow habitat for birds and butterflies.
 
Due to insufficient park staffing levels the site became over grown with saplings, bushes, and tall grasses.  Friends of the Fells volunteers working with Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) rangers have begun restoring the meadow.  Trees under three inches in diameter are being cut with hand tools, and we are creating brush piles which are an important habitat for many small bird and mammal species. 
 
To visit the 90 mm Site take the Cross Fells Trail from the parking area across from Gate 8 on South Border Road towards Ramshead Hill in Lawrence Woods.  If the Gate 8 parking area is full there are several more parking spaces up the road at the Gate 9 parking lot.  The meadow is easily reached from a short trail off the fire road on the north side of Ramshead Hill.
 
Join Us!  The next Friends of the Middlesex Fells "Bird Meadow Restoration Day" is Saturday, January 26 from 10am to 2pm.  Dress for the weather, bring a snack and something hot to drink. Pre-registration required.  Call the Friends of the Fells office to register or for more information (781) 662-2340, or email us at friends@fells.org.
 

Meadow before restoration work

Restoration work January 6, 2007

January 6 Bird Meadow Crew