Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary

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It was a beautiful bright morning as the first volunteers arrived at Wachusett Meadow. Soon the parking lot was overflowing, and the group of 30 volunteers had gathered ready to begin their assignments. Cindy Dunn, teacher naturalist, led a group of volunteers down the Pasture Trail to the third pasture where volunteers worked to clear brush and small trees and cut back bigger trees in an effort to restore the pastureland.  After 2 ½ hours of work, the group had cleared 47 trees, which were cut and stacked, and had trimmed back 22 trees around the perimeter of the field. One of our young and very ingenious volunteers, Clara Gal, kept track of how many trees had been cut down by placing a pine cone on each stump as she counted.

Meanwhile, another group of volunteers led by Education Coordinator Chris Eaton, and Property Manager Joe Choiniere worked to turn over the garden and prepare it for planting. While this group was planting tiger lilies around the perimeter of the garden area, they uncovered an old iron hitching post that had fallen into the weeds. After cleaning the post, they replaced it in its original spot among the 60-plus lily plants that had just been planted.

Deb Cary, director of central sanctuaries, and father/son volunteer team of Jerome and Jake Lowry cleared the stone wall along the driveway of invasive oriental bittersweet. As they were working a beautiful stone wall emerged from the weeds making the driveway much more welcoming!

After the work was finished, the group enjoyed a visit to see the new lambs and then a walk to the heron rookery to see the nine pairs of nesting herons.