July 30 – Deadline for poetry submissions Art on the Trails 2021: Mending
July 30 – Deadline for poetry submissions Art On the Trails 2021: Mending
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CANCELLED Owls of New England, Peter Christoph, April 8, 2020 CANCELLED
Due to the emergency limitations placed on events because of the COVID 19 virus, this event has been cancelled. We will try to reschedule it for a later date.
Join the Southborough Open Land Foundation (SOLF) on Wednesday April 8, 2020 to Discover the Owls of New England with photographer Peter Christoph. In this captivating presentation, Peter delivers stunning photographs of his favorite owls combined with stories that entertain, educate and inspire the audience. You’ll learn the secrets Peter uses to find and photograph these same owls in the wild in their natural habitat! Eight species of expected owls in New England include: Great Horned, Barred, and Eastern Screech – all year-round residents and fairly easy to spot. Long-eared, Short-eared, and Snowy are winter migrants and breed far north of us. Northern Saw-whet Owls do breed in New England but are quite small and rarely seen. Barn Owls have bred in New England but are the toughest of all to find. He’ll wrap up this exceptional wildlife program with beautiful images of a vagrant migrant- a rare visitor called the Great Gray Owl.
Peter Christoph is a well-known wildlife advocate, naturalist and award-winning bird photographer based in Lancaster, MA. He has a great respect for wildlife and through his presentations seeks to raise awareness of the need to conserve bird habitat. has presented at photography groups nationally and locally, including the Photographic Society of America (PSA), New England Camera Club Council (NECCC,) and several camera clubs throughout New England. He is a regular speaker for the Appalachian Mountain Club, Mass Audubon and the National Wildlife Refuge System, as well as numerous birding clubs and dozens of libraries. Peter is a member of the Massachusetts Camera Naturalists, and is past president of the Camera Club of Central New England. He has been the recipient of many prestigious national and international awards and medals recognizing his photographic talent. Peter is also responsible for publishing three bird photography books, including his latest “The Art of Bird Photography.
Peter will also have copies of his books for purchase.
This event is free and open to the public.
Wednesday April 8, 2020, 7:00 PM, Southborough Library, 25 Main Street, Southborough, MA
Art on the Trails 2019 Closing Ceremony
Art on the Trails 2019: Marking Territory will be closing Sunday, September 22, 2019. The event will be held from 3:30 to 5:30 PM at Beals Preserve and feature original art-inspired poetry submitted to the Call for Poetry. Small books of the art and poetry will be available for sale. Meet at the kiosk across the reservoir channel from Route 30/Main Street. Until September 22, Art on the Trails is open daily from dawn to dusk. Free and open to the public.
Guided Tour of Art on the Trails, Saturday, September 7, 10 AM to 11 AM
Join Debbie Costine for guided tour of Art on the Trails: Marking Territory, Saturday, September 7 from 10:00 to 11:00 AM, Beals Preserve. Please note this walk was originally scheduled for September 10 at 7:00 PM, but because of the EEE threat it has been rescheduled for this Saturday morning.
We recommend sturdy shoes to walk along the trails and insect repellent. Click here for more about Beals Preserve and parking instructions.
The walk will be held unless there is very heavy rain. A few showers will not cancel it.
Meeting instructions: Meet Debbie at the Route 30 (Main Street) entrance to the preserve. You will see a kiosk after crossing over the channel bridge.
Additional Parking instructions at the Route 30 (Main Street) access. Use 144 Main Street, Southborough with your GPS. Google Maps.
There are two areas in which you may park for this access.
1. Park along Main Street where there is area to pull off the side. Walk to the access on the right side of Main Street directly across from Chestnut Hill Road. (This is a private home, no parking) Go through the gate (please close it after you), walk down the lane and across the bridge over the Wachusett channel. Please do not park in front of the gate.
2. Park in the Parking Area for the trails for Chestnut Hill Farm. Turn onto Chestnut Hill Rd. The parking area is on the right side of the road in the field past the collection of white houses and outbuildings and marked with a sign. Walk back to Route 30, and the entrance to Beals Preserve is directly across the street. Go through the gate (please close it after you), walk down the lane and across the bridge over the Wachusett channel. Please do not park in front of the gate or in the areas reserved for the Farm Stand at Chestnut Hill Farm.
Call for Poetry – Art on the Trails 2019: Marking Territory
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:
COME visit the art exhibit at Beals Preserve in Southborough, MA.
FEEL and let the art inspire your words.
WRITE a poem in response to one of the works of art on exhibit.
SUBMIT your poem to be published on our THIRD annual chapbook.
READ your work at the exhibit closing in September if it is selected for publication in the chapbook.
Direct link to the submission page:
https://artonthetrails.submittable.com/submit
or visit our website for photos of the art, press releases, and more about this fabulous project:
Art on the Trails 2019: Marking Territory has closed
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.
The Southborough Community Fund awarded a $5000 grant to the Southborough Open Land Foundation to partially fund this annual event. This is the third year that the Southborough Community Fund has helped fund this highly successful program. SOLF is grateful for the continuing support it receives from the SCF.
Art on the Trails 2019: Marking Territory Opening 5:30 PM
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: Marking Territory
June 20, Art on the Trails Tour with Catherine Weber
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.
2019 Annual Meeting, May 4, 2019
SOLF held its annual meeting Saturday May 4, at the historic 1812 Deacon Webster Johnston House, 49 Lynbrook Road, Southborough, MA, home of the L’Abri Fellowship, donors to SOLF of a 5.5 acre parcel of land across from their historic home. The meeting began with a welcome by Ben Keyes of L’Abri Fellowship followed by walk to the little brook on our newly acquired land and an unveiling of the sign identifying the new land. The meeting continued with the presentation of SOLF’s Annual Elaine Beals Conservation Award to Beth Rosenblum, recently retired Conservation Agent for the Town of Southborough. SOLF President Whit Beals presented Beth with a carving of a Barn Swallow done by Southborough artist Ben Keyes.
SOLF President Whit Beals presenting the Ealine Beals award to Beth Rosenblum.
The meeting continued with a tour of the historic house, a summary of SOLF’s 30 years of land protection and a wine and cheese social hour.
April 22, Art on the Trail, Deadline for Art Submissions
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.
May 4, SOLF Annual Meeting, 4:00 PM, 49 Lynbrook Rd., Southborough
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.
Guided Walks for Art On The Trails Artists, April 13, 14
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.
Our Trees are Under Attack
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
Southborough Community Fund Grant for Art on the Trails 2020
The Southborough Community Fund has again awarded a $5000 grant to the Southborough Open Land Foundation to fund the annual Art on the Trails Program 2020 to be held at the Elaine and Philip Beals Preserve. The program includes a juried exhibition of artwork on the trails, poetry submissions that respond to the art, a published catalog/poetry chapbook, an opening and closing event, and ongoing walking tours. The award was presented to SOLF Trustees Sally Watters and Deborah Costine, and Art on the Trails Founder and Director Catherine Weber by SCF Community Board members Betsey Crowley and Cathy Kea at a November 2019 ceremony at the Southborough Community House.
Southborough Community
Fund Award Ceremony, November 14, 2019
This is the fourth year that the Southborough Community Fund, a fund of The Foundation for Metrowest, has helped fund this highly successful program. SOLF is grateful for the continuing support it receives from the SCF.
Invasive Species: A Video by Carla Schwartz
The Southborough Open Land Foundation recently received a link to a video prepared by Carla Schwartz. Here is what Carla told us about this video. “I have participated in Art on the Trails as a poet for the last two years, and my poems have appeared in the chapbooks produced for those events, as well as on the website. In doing the poetry walks, I have noticed the many invasives in the Beals Preserve, such as Japanese Barberry and bittersweet, and multiflora rose, garlic mustard, and buckthorn (as well as poison ivy). I have pointed these out to the SOLF folks on the poetry walks and we started discussions of these.
During the 2018 Art on the Trails poetry walk, I spoke with the T with the wife of the president of SOLF and I mentioned that I had been working on this video on invasive plants of New England. She said her husband would be very interested in that and that I should forward the link when I had the video done.
About the video:
I started this footage in 2014 in Carlisle, MA, since John Bakewell, a local arborist, had started an educational invasive plant gallery there. I went around and highlighted the invasives in the gallery, both through discussion with him, and then by reading the printed materials in the gallery. As I worked on the film I gathered photos and footage from other locations and seasons, as was necessary. I also realized that some of the gallery’s printed material was not well-written so I voiced over much of that to make it a bit more concise and interesting. When I completed the film, I uploaded it to my CB99videos youtube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/CB99Videos/subscribe, which includes several environmental documentaries such as ones about going solar, installing electric car charging stations, and driving electric cars.”
Thank you for sharing this with us Carla.
Carl Guyer Receives 2018 Elaine Beals Award
Carl Guyer, at a December 12, 2018 SOLF meeting, receives the annual Elaine Beals award from trustee Sally Watters for his leadership in environmental conservation and awareness. Elaine Beals was among the founding members of the Southborough Open Land Foundation. She served on the Board of Trustees of SOLF for many years. She was dedicated to the preservation of the environment and open space, reinforcing her conservation ethic as a member of the Town of Southborough’s Open Space Preservation Commission. In her honor, SOLF presents the Elaine Beals Conservation Award each year to a local resident who has shown outstanding leadership in environmental conservation.
Sights in Southborough: Beals Preserve
Watch a video by Southborough Access Media, Sights in Southborough: Beals Preserve. Thank you Southborough Access Media.
Watch for Upcoming Events
Family Nature Walk, Saturday October 20, 2018, 1:00 PM, Beals Preserve
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.