Give us your wild words! Art on the Trails 2019 is seeking your original, art-inspired poetry for our third chapbook, due out in this fall! All poems submitted will be eligible to win our “Best in Show” award, a cash prize of $100, and inclusion in the 2019 Art on the Trails: Marking Territory chapbook, published by Route 7 Press. Submissions are free and open until midnight on August 5th, 2019!

Here’s how to participate:

Art on the Trails 2019: Marking Territory  at Beals Preserve has closed for this year. You can view scenes of the installations and a video created by SOLF Trustee Deborah Costine here.

June 20, Art on the Trails 2019: Marking Territory opening at Beals Preserve,  5:30 to 7:30 PM with a moving celebration including  food, music and a guided tour of the installations along the trail. This event is free and open to all.   The celebration begins at the KIOSK near the Route 30 entrance.  This art exhibit will remain on the trails  from June 20 to September 22 and is open to the public from dawn to dusk.

Enter the Call for Poetry, Art on the Trails 2019

Tour of  Art on the Trails 2019 Marking Territory with Catherine Weber, Sponsored by Sudbury Valley Trustees, June 20, 6:30-7:30 PM. Beals Preserve. The event is free and open to the public, but please register for this event with SVT.

The deadline for art submissions for 2019 is April 22. Click here for submission guidelines.   Major funding for Art on the Trails is provided by a Southborough Community Fund grant to SOLF.

You are invited to attend the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Southborough Open Land Foundation, Saturday May 4, 4:00 PM at the historic 1812 Deacon Webster Johnston House, 49 Lynbrook Road, Southborough, MA.

We are celebrating 30 years of protecting Open Land in Southborough and a recent acquisition of 5.5 acres.

We begin with a welcome by Ben Keyes of L’Abri Fellowship that donated the parcel of land across from their historic home on      Lynbrook Road. We will then stroll to the little brook on our newly acquired land.

Continuing inside, we will tour the historic house. A wine and cheese social hour will follow with a brief history of the house and the L’Abri Fellowship, a summary of SOLF’s 30 years of land protection, and the presentation of SOLF’s Annual Elaine Beals Conservation  Award.

Please join us. The meeting is free and open to all.

Art On the Trails Founder and Program Director  Catherine Weber  will lead  guided walks for artists, April 13, 11:00AM and April 14, 2:00PM at Beals Preserve. To sign up for a tour visit The Art on the Trails Facebook Page. Meet at the Red Gate Lane entrance. For more information, read the article on My Southborough. Major funding for Art on the Trails is provided by a Southborough Community Fund grant to SOLF.

The trees of Massachusetts are endangered by invasive insects: the Asian Longhorned Beetle, the Spotted Lanternfly, and the Emerald Ash Borer. The Asian Longhorned Beetle is responsible for the destruction of over 36,000 trees in Worcester over the last 10 years and poses a continuing threat to trees of our area. The Spotted Lanternfly, a sap-feeding invasive insect from Asia, poses a threat to 70 different plants and crops, including apples, grapes, and hops. The Emerald Ash Borer is an emerging threat to the ash trees of New England.

On Thursday April 4, 2019, SOLF will sponsor a presentation by Joshua Bruckner on these invasive insects. His talk will focus on the threats posed by these insects, what is being done to combat them, how to identify them and their damage, and how to report any sightings.

Joshua Bruckner is the Asian longhorned beetle outreach coordinator at the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources. He works to spread information and awareness about the Asian longhorned beetle and other invasive insects in Massachusetts. He has a masters and bachelor’s degree in environmental science from Clark University.

The program will be at the Southborough Library, 25 Main Street, Southborough, 7:00PM.

This event is free and open to all. Please join us

Family Nature Walk “Looking Closely at Nature: Taking Time.” Join SOLF Trustee Debbie Costine in a family nature walk on Saturday, October 20, 1:00 PM at Beals Preserve. The walk will be about an hour and a half in length. The walk is free and open to all ages. Meet at the Cul de Sac on Red Gate Lane, Southborough. Please, no dogs.

Art on the Trails 2018: Unexpected Gestures has closed for the year. The hghly attended event, planned and coordinated by Southborough Artist Catherine Weber in  collaboration with the Southborough Open Land Foundation, was open from June 13 to September 23, 2018 at the Elaine and Philip Beals Preserve, Southborough, Massachusetts. The 2018 theme focused on how does it feel to encounter art in an unexpected place? How does that gesture change your experience of nature? This exhibition offered artists the opportunity to install site-specific work in a natural environment that  surprised and delighted the hundreds of visitors at Beals Preserve for four months in 2018. 

Plans are already underway for Art on the Trails 2019. Stay tuned.

Art on the Trails 2017: Finding Solace in the Woods was highly attended and praised. Here is a short clip of the closing ceremony on September 24, 2017.

This year  SOLF celebrates 30 years of preserving open land in Southborough. Help us celebrate this achievement by supporting SOLF in its important mission of protecting open land in Southborough. Become a member now.