Category Archives: Beals Preserve Blog

Art on the Trails 2025 at Beals Preserve

The Southborough Open Land Foundation invites the general public to visit Beals Preserve on Saturday, June 14, from 10 am to 5 pm to watch artists install their work for the 9th annual Art on the Trails. The Elaine and Phillip Beals Preserve is located on Main Street in Southborough, Massachusetts.

This year’s theme is Number 9. A juried exhibition of sculptural installations will be on view beginning June 14th and closing on September 14th. The exhibition is juried by Sculptor Madeleine Lord of Dudley, MA.

Art Juror Madeleine Lord said of the selection process, “The works selected for this year’s Art on the Trails will hopefully give visitors a startle, a smile, and a pause to enjoy their placement in the landscape. Some are made from wood, so their return to a woodland trail is like a makeover reveal. Other works are composed of materials with origins completely foreign to nature, yet they combine like exotic tourists.”
Debbie Costine, Trustee of the Southborough Open Land Foundation (SOLF), said, “ Southborough Open Land Foundation(SOLF) welcomes the ninth annual Art on the Trails. We hope that all those who visit the Beals Preserve will enjoy the interpretations of “Number 9”—this year’s theme. A walk in a natural setting often slows us down to see, listen, and appreciate with more awareness.”

Thirteen projects will be exhibited this year. Artists participating are Sarah Alexander, Wandering Mind Studio,(Sutton, MA), Paul Angiolillo (Weston, MA), Clark Barnhart (Worcester, MA), Lisa Barthelson (Rutland, MA), Shawndavid Berry (Newport, RI), Pam Bonaguide (Wayland, MA), Chelsea Bradway (Southborough, MA), Trish Dehls (Woodstock, CT), Denise Johnson and the students of Margaret Neary Elementary School (Southborough, MA), Rebecca Long (Stow, MA), Julie Nussbaum (Cambridge, MA), Charles Smith (Jefferson NH), and Lee Williams (Shaftbury, VT).

In addition to the installations, the program will include poetry written in response to the work and will be juried by poet Maura Snell. A prize-winning poem will be selected from submissions by award-winning poet Fred Gerhard.

To learn more about this event and download a map, visit www.artonthetrails.com.

Our Partners

We are honored to have the generous support from the following organizations:
Southborough Open Land Foundation (SOLF) is a private land trust founded in 1988. The all-volunteer organization with over 300 local members and a board of 14 trustees, reserves and protects open space in Southborough, Massachusetts. SOLF manages 191 acres of open space as well as sponsoring a variety of nature-based recreational and educational activities in cooperation with the Southborough Gardeners, Arts Center at Southborough, Southborough Extended Day, Boy and Girl Scouts, Southborough Recreation, and other organizations including walks, plant lectures, trail maintenance, field trips for school children, snowshoe clinics, art shows, and Earth Day clean-ups. SOLF also collaborates with the Town of Southborough, other land trusts, and state and federal agencies to conserve open space and promote biodiversity.

Southborough Community Fund
The Southborough Community Fund (SCF) promotes a spirit of philanthropic giving to fund the critical needs and the wonderful wants of Southborough citizens. Established in 2014 by local residents as a fund of the Foundation for MetroWest, the SCF is a source of financial support, as well as a convening mechanism to foster innovation and collaboration across the townspeople and the organizations designed to benefit them. By providing opportunities in the areas of Family Support, Arts, Culture, and Environment, the Fund enables residents to make an immediate impact in their community. Additional funding comes from the Southborough Cultural Arts Council, Jennifer Juliano, Middlesex Savings Bank, Root to Rise Pilates, and Fay School.

SOLF Trail Use Policy for Beals Preserve

SWCA Environmental Consultants Volunteer at Beals Preserve

SWCA Environmental Consultants members replaced 4 water bars near the Red Gate Lane entrance on Old Farm Lane at Beals Preserve today, as part of their “Gives Back” program where SWCA employees receive eight hours of paid time off each year to volunteer for events or for projects such as ours. Thank you SWCA! Other volunteers included Larry and Eileen Samberg, Vince Valvo, and Lawrence Spezzano.

Beals Preserve Seeding Project on Old Farm Lane

A section of Beals Preserve Old Farm Lane (the main walking path) has been loamed and seeded. Please do not walk on it and please keep your pets off. There is now a hard gravel path alongside that you can walk, as well as the grass on the edge of the loamed area. Thank you.

Important: Construction Project at Beals Preserve Sunday, Sep 29

Please note that a major project on Old Farm Lane at Beals Preserve will start on Sunday, September 29 and last through at least Tuesday, October 1. To address the spring and early summer wet area that starts about two hundred feet south of the kiosk, the trail will be improved. If you park at Main Street, please use the Meadow Trail to get access the rest of the property (after crossing the bridge and walking to the kiosk, turn right to go up the Meadow Trail), and use the Lone Wolf Trail from the Upper Meadow to access the rest of Old Farm Lane, and the Riding Ring and Hickory Trails.

Click on the image to view a larger image.

Picnic Table at the Main Street Field

Thanks to the Bancroft Family of Southborough, visitors to the Beals Preserve will now be able to enjoy our new Picnic table! The children gave half their profits of a yard sale to SOLF! (the parents also chipped in.)

Hickory Trail Re-route on August 22, 2024

PLEASE NOTE: At Beals Preserve, The Hickory Trail from the Hickory Road cul-de-sac to the split in the trail has been re-routed. The old trail, which had eroded badly, has been blocked off. The trail will be blazed soon, but should be easy to follow.

Hickory Bridge Replaced July 2024

Over the course of 3 days, July 23 – July 25, 2024, Trustee Larry Samberg and volunteers Vincent Valvo and Colby Chase, with assistance from “go-fer” Trustee Eileen Samberg, demolished and replaced the bridge on one of the Hickory Trail segments. A hearty “well-done” to the crew.

Art on the Trails 2024 at Beals Preserve

Southborough Open Land Foundation, in collaboration with Southborough Artist Catherine Weber, is pleased to present the 8th Annual Art On the Trails in the summer of 2024 on Beals Preserve. The art juror will be the amazing Marie Craig of Fountain Street Gallery. The call for art opens February 15. The installations will be on site from June 15 to September 15.

The 2024 Art on the Trails program is themed Legacy. It is dedicated to the memory of Whitney Beals, who passed away in September 2023. Whit was the President of the Southborough Open Land Foundation and dedicated his life to land conservation and forestry. As a child, the land across the street from his house, now Beals Preserve, was his playground. While he was well educated, he would attest that he was educated by and in the Forest. In his honor, we invite artists to consider the legacy that he and his family have left for the town of Southborough and propose art installations that support this theme. Visit the Art on the Trails website.

Scout Troop 92 Installs Bluebird Boxes at Beals Preserve

Local Scout Troop 92 has taken on a community service project in collaboration with the Southborough Open Land Foundation. (SOLF) Using a design created specifically for bluebirds, the scouts, under the leadership of Kevin Tyson and George Harris, carefully constructed four nest boxes and installed them at Beals Preserve. These boxes will help support the declining populations of bluebirds. SOLF THANKS THE SCOUTS OF TROOP 92!

Birding walk on April 27 – Beals Preserve

On Saturday, April 27, SOLF hosted a birding walk at Beals Preserve. Eleven people attended the Earth Day Birding Walk at Beals Preserve. Unfortunately the presenter was unable to make it at the last minute, so trustees Sally Watters and Debbie Costine led a walk featuring some property history (like “fox hunts”) as well as some botany and using “Merlin” to identify all the audible birds in the vicinity.

Beals Preserve Maintenance & Restoration

SOLF is undergoing some significant property restoration at the Beals Preserve. This includes the creation of a comprehensive management plan by “Conservation Works” that will include ecological resiliency. Our visitors have already noticed the beginning that has also created some pretty muddy areas in the process! We appreciate your patience!

Recently, Pete Westover from Conservation Works toured the property with Trustees Sally Watters, Debbie Costine, and Eileen Samberg. Also present were Freddie Gillespie Chair of the town’s Open Space Preservation Commission and SOLF Supporter and volunteer Kevin Sanford.

Left to right: Pete, Sally, Eileen, Freddie and Kevin.
Photo by Debbie Costine

Riding Ring Circle Reclaimed at Beals Preserve

In the early 1900s, Margaret Leland, daughter of Bostonian Samuel Carr, and her husband Charles Leland owned Chestnut Hill Farm and what is now known as Beals Preserve. The preserve was almost devoid of trees and was pasture land. A riding ring was built for the Leland family for horse riding practice.

The riding ring circle has now been brushed and is walk-able, with the old riding ring fencing and logs to mark the way.

Riding Ring then and now.

Winter 2024 Work at Beals Preserve

SOLF’s Beals Preserve is getting some valuable maintenance done thanks to the generosity of SOLF supporter Kevin Sanford and his brother Mike. Kevin has a long-time love of both the Beals Preserve and the Beals family. He promised his friend Whitney Beals, who died this past September 14 that he would take care of the fall mowing, but his enthusiasm is now providing so much more! Thank you Kevin, so much!

Work has continued all through January and into February, with assistance from some SOLF trustees and Scott Mooney Tree Service. In addition to fields being mowed, some damaged trees were removed, and a significant amount of unsightly brush was removed to reveal the the beautiful stone walls.

Maintenance can take its temporary toll, and there are some sections of the trails with tractor treads and mud. This spring, when the ground has dried out, those areas will be smoothed out and repaired. We realize it can be an inconvenience for now, but please bear with us.

We are working with a view towards positive conservation and land management, and preserving a mix of habitat and levels of growth is best for the area, compared to a single wooded forest.

Rock wall along Old Farm Lane

Old Farm Lane, looking north

Path between the two meadows, looking towards Old Farm Lane

View from Upper Meadow, looking north

Beals Preserve Chronolog Project

Announcing our new citizen science tool, Chronolog, a photo stand for our visitors to take pictures from the Upper Meadow (near the Lone Wolf trail) looking north towards Main Street (Route 30). The stand is right by our new beautiful bench built and installed by Cassie Melo for her Eagle Scout project. You, the visitor, take a picture and email it to the Chronolog site, helping to produce a time lapse set of photos all taken from the same spot over time and seasons. Let the fun begin! You will receive a confirmation with a Chronolog link for the Beals Preserve time lapse photos. Learn more at https://solf.org/beals-preserve-chronolog-project/.

The Chronolog project is co-sponsored by SOLF and SWCA Environmental Consultants.

Remembering Whitney Beals

We are sad to share that accomplished conservationist Whit Beals passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by his family, on September 14. His long career included work with the Connecticut DEP, the Roaring Brook Nature Center, the Nature Conservancy in Maryland and Boston, the Town of Wayland, Sudbury Valley Trustees, and the New England Forestry Foundation, from which he retired in 2019. He served as an MLTC Board member from 2011-2021, and was a current member of MLTC’s Conservation Advisory Council. He also served as President of the Southborough Open Land Foundation and was a member of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s Water Supply Citizens Advisory Committee for over 30 years. He was also the architect behind preservation of his family’s land – Chestnut Hill Farm in Southborough. In addition, Whit recently finalized a donation of 550 acres of beautifully managed forestland in Ashburnham to New England Forestry Foundation’s Pooled Timber Income Fund. The donation ensures the property will continue to be managed for forest products as it has been since 1920 and Whit’s two sons, as the designated beneficiaries, will receive a lifetime income stream from the Fund. Whit’s wisdom, positivity and support will be sorely missed. Arrangements are pending. (Taken from Mass Land Trust Coalition Newsletter.)

You can read a copy of Whit’s obituary here on our website

or follow this link to Short & Rowe Funeral Home.

Dedication of The Whit Beals Garden at Beals Preserve

On September 23, 2023, Freddie Gillespie, Chair of the Southborough Open Space Preservation Commission, and Sally Watters, Southborough Open Land Foundation Trustee, honored Whitney Beals’ dedication and life passion for open space by renaming the pollination garden at Beals Preserve to The Whit Beals Garden – Biodiversity Through Pollination. Whit devoted much effort in recent years to help make this garden become a reality.

Garden Talk and Plant Sale and Honoring Whitney Beals – September 23

On September 23, from 10 am – 12 noon, there will be a Garden Talk and Plant Sale at the Native Pollination Preservation Garden at Beals Preserve. Parking is available at the small SOLF parking area off Main Street and across the street at the intersection of Northborough Road and Main Street. Additional parking is available at the Trustees of the Reservations hiking trails lot (not the farm store lot) on Chestnut Hill Road.

The Whit Beals Garden – Biodiversity Through Pollination. Please join us at 11:00 am as we honor Whitney Beals’ dedication and life passion for open space. Freddie Gillespie Chair of the Southborough Open Space Preservation Commission and Sally Watters, Southborough Open Land Foundation Trustee, will announce the new name of the garden to honor Whit who devoted much effort in recent years to help make this garden become a reality.

Read about the history of the garden here. The garden is an OSPC project in partnership with SOLF.

Beals Preserve Preservation Garden Tour on June 24

On June 24, Freddie Gillespie, Chair of Southborough’s Open Space Preservation Commission (OSPC), gave a tour and talk about the Beals Preserve Pollination Preservation Garden. The tour and talk covered the challenges and benefits of pollination preservation activities in old meadows. The morning’s drizzle did not keep a nice crowd from coming to hear Freddie and to buy plants.

Local vendors sold plants exclusively from Dr. Gegear’s list for at-risk pollinators.

The garden is a partnership project of the OSPC and the Southborough Open Land
Foundation and was established in 2022.

Granite Benches Installed at Beals Preserve

Beals Preserve now has 2 granite benches, in addition to the wood benches built by Cassie Melo for her Eagle Scout project. SOLF trustees Brett Peters arranged for delivery to the property and then prepared the ground and set the legs. Trustees Whit Beals with his trusty tractor, Brett Peters, and Larry Samberg worked to get the benches in place on the legs. One bench is under the tree by the kiosk and the other is by the Pollinator Garden on the Main Street Field side of the property. Well done!