Lincoln Land Conservation Trust

Education: educational events in 2023 included 18 in-person trail walks, workshops, or other outdoor land-based programming, and 17 virtual or in-person lectures.in the spring, llct collaborated with Lincoln common ground to welcome dr. rachel neurath, a soil microbial ecologist and Lincoln resident to a community zoom program introducing no mow may. Llct continued to work with Lincoln common ground in the summer to offer two eco-garden tours. In september, rachel neurath closed out the growing season with an introductory lecture on the importance of leave the leaves. This presentation was followed in november by an in-person lecture featuring kathy connolly on leaving stems over the winter. This was sponsored by the Lincoln garden club, with support from llct and Lincoln common ground.llct continued to offer four spring birding walks led by local birding experts gwyn loud, norman levey, ron mcadow, corey nimmer, and nancy soulette. Llct and the Lincoln council on aging and human services sponsored a series of spring and fall noticing walks led by john calabria. In june, llct offered an evening firefly walk in smith-andover field led by dr. avalon owens.llct reprised its winter carnival scavenger hunt, collaborating with the Lincoln public schools to feature student art on the trails. In april, llct and the walden woods project worked with matt burne, bsc group, and will leona, town of Lincoln Conservation ranger, to lead a vernal pool exploration in the woods by farm meadow. In april and may, llct collaborated with the Lincoln public library to welcome clare walker-leslie to a public, afternoon nature journaling workshop. Llct and the Lincoln parent teacher organization then brought walker-leslie to the 6th grade for a morning of exploration on the trails and boardwalk behind the schools.in the fall, llct and will leona organized a family fungi event in the woods behind pierce house. Llct wrapped up family programming in october by teaming up with farrington nature linc to bring a public eyes on owls program to nature linc's Lincoln campus.winter programs included a talk by dave goulson on worldwide insect decline, in collaboration with the Massachusetts pollinator network, lexington living landscapes, and mass audubon, and a talk by ron mcadow on using trail cameras to capture images of elusive mammals in the winter.in 2023, llct participated in a series on Lincoln's hydrology featuring max rome and martin briggs. Partner organizations included the water commission, the Conservation commission, and the agricultural commission.llct also continued to help lead the on belonging in outdoor spaces speaker series. In february, claudia fox tree spoke about decolonizing native american achievements. In march, leah penniman shared highlights from her new book black earth wisdom and jose gonzalez presented on his organization latino outdoors. Spring 2023 sponsorship was generously provided by freedom's way national heritage area, the Lincoln cultural council, and the ogden codman Trust. Othe host organizations were farrington nature linc, decordova sculpture park and museum, the food project, the walden woods project, and mass audubon.in 2023, llct continued offering educational events related to its pollinator action plan. Once again llct offered its members the opportunity to purchase pollinator friendly plants at cost. In march, norman levey offered a zoom fireside chat on wild bees in the backyard. Llct staff sara lupkas and bryn gingrich gave a Conservation coffee presentation and a zoom for freedom's way national heritage area documenting the planting efforts undertaken since 2020 by llct. Diana rice-sheahan spoke about pocket pollinator meadows in may. Volunteers planted 180 perennials and a few donated shrubs at a new demonstration garden along the roadside path near codman community gardens. The Lincoln garden club generously awarded a grant to llct to cover some of the initial planting costs. During the summer, llct hosted a beecology workshop at the llct pollinator meadow and Lincoln station garden with the concord Land Conservation Trust, and hosted an open house at the meadow for members of the native pollinator task force (now the bumblebee project). Llct invited summer camp and leap students to two work days in the meadow. Volunteers in the fall helped with planting and sowing days at chapman pasture. Llct wrapped up pollinator programming with a fireside chat zoom with dr. robert gegear and an in-person winter sowing workshop.bi-monthly virtual Conservation coffees continued, with llct and the town of Lincoln Conservation department jointly hosting.llct held its annual meeting in early october. After the business meeting, gwyn loud gave a slideshow presentation on 50 years of changing landscapes, flora, and fauna in lincoln.in 2023, llct's scarecrow classic 5k attracted 676 participants, 50 sponsors, and 50 volunteers.

Acquisition: in june 2023, rlf signed a purchase and sale agreement to acquire approximately 7.6 acres of Land in Lincoln for $800,000. Llct staff provided support for this project.

Stewardship: llct staff worked with volunteers, fieldwork assistants, and town of Lincoln Conservation staff. We performed annual maintenance of 40 miles of public trails, which included removing downed trees which were blocking paths, and pruning vegetation. In addition, new duckboards and bridges were constructed for some trails. Staff hosted a group of local high school seniors on their community service day to build new boardwalks for trails in the pigeon hill area.llct staff monitored deeded Conservation Land and Conservation restrictions, as well as Conservation Land and restrictions owned/held by the town of Lincoln. Llct worked to remove/control invasive plants, including garlic mustard, wall lettuce, water chestnut, buckthorn, burning bush and japanese knotweed. Work continued on the pollinator action plan. We added additional plants to all of our existing pollinator gardens, and added a new garden adjacent to the codman community gardens. In total, staff, summer interns, and volunteers planted at least 200 perennials and shrubs at our pollinator gardens around Lincoln. At the pollinator meadow, staff supervised camp groups and an after-school group in laying more mulched paths through the meadow and weeding around new plants. A major multi-year rehabilitation of one Conservation area, chapman pasture, is still in progress. Sod was removed from one area where plugs were planted, and a wildflower seed mix was sown using a slit seeder. Throughout the spring and summer, llct staff and a volunteer monitored activity at bluebird boxes in chapman pasture, as well as in a field in stony brook south.