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Help SOLF in its mission – Volunteer, Steward

Volunteers and stewards help us fulfill our mission to preserve, protect, conserve, and enhance the natural resources in the Town of Southborough.

Love the outdoors? Want a a way to combine your love of the outdoors with some community service? SOLF’s volunteer program is growing and we are currently planning work days at various Southborough properties over the next few months, usually on Saturday mornings but other days as well. Help with trail maintenance, invasive plant control, sprucing up entrances, and more. Work alongside board members and other volunteers. If so, just fill out volunteer interest form. Our work days will also be announced on our Facebook page.

SOLF proudly owns and cares for 15 properties comprising 190 acres. As you might imagine, making regular visits to all of these woods and fields is not easy – and that’s where you come in! As a steward for one of our properties, you can be our eyes and ears, walking trails if they exist, and making note of any problems in general. For example, a neighbor to Kallander Woods noticed a broken SOLF sign on Valley Road, sent us an email, and met with us as we put up a new sign. Though we would like a commitment of at least 2 to 3 visits annually, communication is key as we also want to foster a better routine to care for and enjoy our neighborhood spaces. Please consider becoming a steward. You can learn about our properties at https://solf.org/property-map/. Please let us know at info@solf.org, indicating if you have a particular property in mind.

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!

Art on the Trails 2023 – Through September 17

Press release from Southborough Artist Catherine Weber:

The Southborough Open Land Foundation invites the general public to visit Beals Preserve for the 7th annual Art on the Trails.. This year’s theme is Transformation. The exhibition will take place again this year at the Elaine and Philip Beals Preserve in Southborough, Massachusetts.

A juried exhibition of sculptural installations will be on view beginning June 10, and closing on September 17. The exhibition is juried by Sculptor Sarah Alexander, Creative Director, Hopkinton Center for the Arts.

Sixteen projects will be exhibited from 21 artists. Artists participating are: Lisa Barthelson (Rutland, MA), Ted Castro (Acton, MA) , Marie Despres (Grafton, MA), Holly Ewald (Providence, Rhode Island), Maxwell Fertik (Providence, Rhode Island), Gints Grinbergs (Dedham, MA), Matthew Haberstron (Medford, MA), Meagan Hepp (Brighton, MA), Linda Hoffman (Harvard, MA), Alexandra Ionesco (Providence, Rhode Island), Denise Johnson and the students of Margaret Neary Elementary School (Southborough, MA), Jon Laustsen (Providence, Rhode Island), August Lehrecke (Providence, Rhode Island), Hope Lesson (Providence, Rhode Island), Madeleine Lord (Dudley, MA), Gena Mavuli (Boston, MA), Margot McMahon (Oak Park, Illinois), Matthew P. Muller (Providence, Rhode Island), Hildreth Potts (Garrison, NY), Bridie Wolejko (Lunenburg, MA), and Melanie Zibit (Shirley, MA).

Art Juror Sarah Alexander said of the selection process, “It is always a challenge to select from many excellent submissions. I am confident that the work, while diverse in material and subject, will present a cohesive show along the trails of the Preserve. I look forward to seeing it installed!”

A representative of Southborough Open Land Foundation (SOLF) said, “The Southborough Open Land Foundation is pleased that the Elaine and Philip Beals Preserve serves as the beautiful backdrop for the 7th Annual Art on the Trails. It is fascinating to see the intersection of art and nature as various aspects of the preserve serve as inspiration for the artists’ creations.”

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 Scituate poet Joanne DeSimone Reynolds .

Learn more about this event at https://artonthetrails.com.

Our Partners

We are honored to have the generous support from the following organizations:

Southborough Open Land Foundation

The 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 Trustees, preserves 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. Visit their website at southboroughcommunityfund.org.

Additional funding comes from Ginny Martins & Associates and Fay School.

Dates:
February 3: Theme and art Juror announced
February 15: Call for art opens
April 15, midnight: Call for art closes (no exceptions)
April 30: Art selections announced
June 10: Artists install work – Public Invited to attend
June 12: Submissions for poetry open
July 31, midnight: Deadline for poetry submissions
August 25: Poets notified
September 17 (3–5 pm): Closing Poetry Reading and Reception. Poets read work along the trail in response to art installations.

Allan Bezanson Receives 2023 Elaine Beals Award

Allan Bezanson, long-time Southborough resident, and native of Northborough, has, since his retirement, had a big impact on preservation; first in devoting hundreds of hours to saving the historic Burnett property and since then sharing his stunning photos of beautiful natural sights from Great Blue Herons, to goldfinches to ponds with amazing reflections. It is when we love and appreciate something that we will work to preserve it.

Allan Bezanzon and Debbie Costine
Allan Bezanzon and Debbie Costine

Al Bezanson Receives Elaine Beals Conservation Award at the Annual Meeting

Southborough Open Land Foundation had its Annual Meeting on Wednesday, May 10 at the Community House at 28 Main Street in Southborough. The evening started at 6 pm with light refreshments, followed at 7 pm with Trustee introductions and remarks, the presentation of the 2023 Elaine Beals Conservation Award to Al Bezanson, and a program by Trustee Debbie Costine entitled, “A Virtual Walk in the Woods.”

Allan Bezanson, long-time Southborough resident, and native of Northborough, has, since his retirement, had a big impact on preservation; first in devoting hundreds of hours to saving the historic Burnett property and since then sharing his stunning photos of beautiful natural sights from Great Blue Herons, to goldfinches to ponds with amazing reflections. It is when we love and appreciate something that we will work to preserve it. [Presentation by Debbie Costine]

Allan Bezanson and Debbie Costine
Whitney Beals
A Virtual Walk in the Woods

Program on Eastern Coyote/Coywolf on April 27

On April 27 at 7 pm at the Southborough Library, SOLF, in conjunction with Earth Day, offered a program by Dr. Jon Way on The Eastern Coyote/Coywolf – How Coyotes behave and live so successfully near people.

Topics included:

  • The typical home range and territory size of the Eastern Coyote.
  • Its movement and activity patterns.
  • Its sociality, denning behavior, and hybridization.
  • Many photos and some video clips.

The presentation ran about one hour and a half, including questions and book sales. Our thanks to the Southborough Library for hosting the event.

Jonathan (Jon) Way has a B.S. (UMass Amherst), M.S. (UConn Storrs), and doctorate (Boston College) related to the study of eastern coyotes/coywolves.

Trustee Sally Watters, Jon Way, Trustee Debbie Costine

Natural History Walk at Beals Preserve: New date TBD

Postponed from April 23 due to rain, with new date TBD: As part of Earth Day celebrations, SOLF will host a natural history walk at Beals Preserve. Join Whit Beals and other SOLF board members to learn about the history of the property, as well as the flora and fauna found there. [Photos by Trustee Debbie Costine.]

Whit Beals
Old Farm Lane looking north
Lane near the kiosk and looking north
Charles Choate’s farm in 1895, before the aqueduct was built. Looking north to Main Street from the lower pasture..

Dark Skies Initiative

Light pollution is an ever growing problem as land is continuously developed. Without an eye towards the future, open land conservation, and responsible lighting choices, we’ll lose what little we have left on the planet for truly dark skies.

Visit our page under Resources to learn about the Dark Skies initiative in Southborough.

Annual SOLF Appeal 2022

Open space, with fields and woods, streams, and wetlands, greatly enhances our quality of life here in Southborough, providing diverse habitat and quiet woodland trails. As Fall arrives, the Southborough Open Land Foundation (SOLF) Board is excited to share with you some of our accomplishments from this past year.

  • Working with the Open Space Preservation Commission to establish a native plant pollinator garden at Beals Preserve
  • Sponsoring the 6th Annual Art on the Trails at Beals Preserve
  • Creating a small parking area in the Main Street Field at Beals Preserve for
    safer access to the property
  • Working with volunteers to clear invasive plants and improve trails at Beals
    Preserve, Bigelow Wildlife Refuge, and Clark Grove
  • Running a successful challenge to help fund the newly created Linda Hubley
    Memorial Town Scholarship
  • Holding our annual meeting with well-known naturalist Peter Alden as the
    featured speaker

Your support is essential to helping us keep up this positive momentum. Now that we are again able to meet in person, we are eager to resume offering some nature-based programs. Please consider a tax-deductible contribution to support our efforts that help make Southborough such an attractive and unique community.

SOLF is a private, non-profit 501 (c)(3) land trust that serves the citizens of Southborough. Since our founding in 1988, we have preserved nearly 200 acres of land. SOLF does not receive any tax-based support from the town or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The Trustees of SOLF

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History Walk by Whit Beals on October 16, 2022

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Whitney Beals, president of the Southborough Open Land Foundation (SOLF), led a group of about sixteen on a history walk at the Elaine and Philip Beals Preserve on Sunday, October 16 , 2022.

In the 1950s, Whit’s family purchased land on both Chestnut Hill north of route 30 and what is now the Beals Preserve south of route 30. You can read his entertaining and educational talk, describing the land purchase, the conservation restrictions to save the land from development, the history of the ice pond, and plans to maintain the trails, the forest, and the meadows.

You can read a transcript of his talk here.

Whit by the Ice Pond
The small field by the Ice Pond
Along the Main Lane
The bridge over the aqueduct

History Walk at Beals Preserve on Sunday, October 16 at 10 am

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Join Whitney Beals and the Southborough Open Land Foundation (SOLF) for a history walk at the Elaine and Philip Beals Preserve on Sunday, October 16 at 10 am. President Whitney Beals will walk and talk about the history of the property. Meet at the kiosk on the south side of the aqueduct. Sign up at the SOLF booth at Heritage Day or send email to info@solf.org to let SOLF know that you are planning to attend. Note there is now a parking lot on Route 30 Main Street. To get directions, more parking information, and a map for Beals Preserve, go to on https://solf.org/beals-preserve/.

Beals Preserve Main Street Field Parking Area

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We are happy to announce that there is now a small parking area at the Beals Preserve Main Street Field on Route 30. The entrance to the parking area is on the south side of Main Street, between two stone pillars, east of Northborough Road and west of Chestnut Hill Road. Pull into the fenced area (it is currently grass, but will likely be layered with wood chips), and park perpendicular to the road at the stone wall, to the right of the sign post. Walk down the field through the opening in the fence to the lane and then across the bridge over the Wachusett channel.

Entrance
Parking
Walk down to the lane

Beals Preserve Clean-up on September 11, 2022

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SOLF trustees and volunteers worked for a few hours Saturday morning September 11 to spruce up the primary entrance of the Beals Preserve: around the kiosk and bridge on the old farm lane that goes down from Main Street. We did this to properly welcome and accommodate the visitors attending the closing and poetry reading of the annual Art on the Trails on September 12.

Bigelow Wildlife Refuge Progress Report – September 2022

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As of August 2022, there is now just off-road parallel parking available for one or two cars on a cleared wood-chip area. Please do not park on Bigelow Road as it has no shoulder and parking is not allowed in the turn-around at the end of Bigelow Road. (Alternatively, visitors can drive to Walker Street in Westborough and park at the SVT Sawink Farm parking lot. From the lot, it’s a 1400-foot walk along the old farm road to Bigelow Road and the entrance to Bigelow Wildlife Refuge.)

One of the challenges at Bigelow Wildlife Refuge is control of knotweed, primarily at the front of the property. Another is maintaining the trail to the viewing platform. Trustee Lawrence Spezzano has been instrumental in overseeing and organizing work projects. In the spring of 2022, Lawrence laid down wire mesh to slow the growth of knotweed and over time may stop the growth. In July 2022, a work party — Lawrence Spezzano, Whit Beals, Larry Samberg, Eileen Samberg, Kathryn Korostoff — weeded the front and the path, and spread a thick layer of wood chips.

Knotweed mesh
Weeding
Wood chips spread over the mesh on both sides of the path
Wood chip layer
Entrance to the path
Lawrence at the sign

Become a Volunteer for SOLF

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Do you have an interest in working to help the greater cause of land conservation in Southborough? Consider volunteering/stewarding for the Southborough Open Land Foundation on one or more of our fifteen properties – keeping trails clear and controlling invasive species. Message us through our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/SouthboroughOpenLandFoundation or email us at info@solf.org.