The 26th Annual Meeting of the Greater Worcester Land Trust was held this afternoon under a tent set up across from the Ecotarium, on Harrington Way in Worcester.  The science museum abuts Crow Hill, a property which has been protected by the Land Trust for many years.  A recent sale and purchase increased the acreage conserved around Crow Hill to around 50 acres, this in the heart of a major urban area.

Shortly after we gathered at 4 pm, GWLT Executive Director Colin Novick led us on a hike to the summit of Crow Hill, stopping every so often to talk about aspects of the property, such as the following:

Geology.  Crow Hill, rising to a height of about 650 feet in elevation, is a drumlin, a glacier-created landform common in southern New England.  The soil is mostly clay.

Fauna.  Across Harrington Way, the state-listed Orange Sallow Moth (Pyrrhia aurantiago) has been reported; its host plant is false foxglove.  Sightings at Crow Hill include osprey, turkey vultures, warblers, deer, and coyote.  Consider that US Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz, a Worcester native, adopted a bobcat kitten he found in the woods near Vernon Hill, about two miles from here, in the early years of the last century.  Gazing at the densely populated neighborhoods surrounding the area, one wonders how this diversity of animals is possible, but an aerial view, such as one provided by Google Maps, hints at the answer: railroad tracks almost encircle the area, thus providing a pathway clear of houses, cars, and people, for these creatures to use as their migration corridor.

Flora.  Oak is dominant, with aspen as an early successional species.  Blueberry bushes are abundant in the understory, as well as goldenrod and asters.

History.  The soil here, though not optimal for that purpose, was once used to make bricks; remnants of the brickworks are still visible.  The laborers in these types of industries were often French-Canadian immigrants; they are one of the many ethnic groups that populated Worcester and transformed it first into a manufacturing center and then into a distribution hub.

Ecology.  This is a fire-adapted landscape, which during colonial times was much more prevalent in the Commonwealth than it is now.  For example, the Heath Hen (Tympanuchus cupido cupido), which went extinct on Martha’s Vineyard in 1932 and whose habitat was “scrubby heathland barrens,” was frequently observed on the Boston Common.  In fact, the Nipmuc tribe, which occupied great swaths of central Massachusetts, had words in their language for “prairie hen” (the Heath Hen is considered a distinctive subspecies of the Greater Prairie Chicken).  Native Americans, we’ve come to realize, were enthusiastic fire-starters.

After we enjoyed a potluck supper and cook-out, GWLT President Allen Fletcher conducted a short business meeting.  Following a presentation by Colin on projects completed during the past twelve months, US Forest Service botanist and ecologist Tom Rawinski took the floor as featured speaker.  I’ll summarize the gist of his remarks below.

Land Stewardship Lessons.  We may be falling short in this area, particularly with respect to what he termed “eco-environmental gentrification,” by which he meant the human tendency to abdicate responsibility for managing the landscape.  The prime example of this disastrous short-sightedness is the problem of overabundance of white-tailed deer, which are wreaking havoc on our Northeastern ecosystems.  Human beings, he said, are part of nature, and we can’t remove ourselves from nature and believe we’re helping out, because there will surely be unintended consequences.  Just as we should be willing to shoot deer, we should also be willing to set fires in landscapes like Crow Hill.  If we agree to “re-wild” ourselves, we will also be re-wilding Nature.