A week of conservation stewardship
By Connor Rockett
During my first full week with BTLT, I got to work on a variety of stewardship tasks. On monday, after a day of updating one of our management plans, which is a document that sets out the Land Trust’s objectives and vision for a specific property, I headed over to Crystal Spring Farm to map its trails using a GPS unit. By running the trails, I was able to do some of my daily cross-country training. The line between work and play was definitely blurred, which was a pretty gratifying moment for me.
Another highlight was getting to re-blaze trails at the Cathance River Nature Preserve with the trip leaders from Apogee Adventures. They had great attitudes and their positive energy made the three hours we spent out there fly by. It was uplifting to see all the work that got done and how much their upbeat, can-do attitudes contributed to the day.
On Friday, we worked with a volunteer at the Tardiff property to cut up fallen trees to be donated for firewood. The volunteer was glad to be outdoors and he made it clear how fulfilling it was for him to be doing the work to support the community.
I finished up my week at the Crystal Spring Farmers’ Market. One of the market-goers pointed out to me, “This is how the community works.” In that sense, it was great just being a part of the activity there, meeting new people that I otherwise wouldn’t have, and showing support for local agriculture and producers.
All in all, I got to see first hand how the Land Trust brings people together around outdoor activity and appreciation for the land. I’m very much looking forward to seeing this environmental community building in action and to contributing more to it over the summer!
