A path leads visitors through the dense woods at Brockton Audubon Preserve.
Since 2010, Wildlands Trust has welcomed TerraCorps service members onto its staff to help expand its organizational capacity in community outreach and land access. TerraCorps, formerly MassLIFT, is a Massachusetts-based AmeriCorps program with members serving at nonprofit land conservation and urban agriculture organizations across the state. This year, Wildlands is hosting two TerraCorps members, a community engagement coordinator – serving her second year at Wildlands with a focus on public programming – and a land stewardship coordinator, whose focus is growing Wildlands’ Adopt-A-Preserve (AAP) program.
Throughout the coming year, a focus for the AAP program will be at Wildlands’ Brockton Audubon Preserve and the city of Brockton’s Stone Farm Conservation Area. For those unfamiliar with the program, trained volunteers choose one or more preserves within Wildlands’ 1,500-square-mile service area to monitor on a monthly basis and submit reports to Wildlands’ staff on the state of the preserve.
Stewardship Manager Erik Boyer leads a group of hikers at Stone Farm Conservation Area during the Brockton Nature Festival.
Over the last three months, community members have expressed a heightened interest in stewarding the open spaces in Brockton - a direct result, we believe, from our recent work to promote community involvement on the properties. Efforts have included activities like guided hikes and community events such as the Brockton Nature Festival (BNF), held this past October at Stone Farm. Hosting events like the BNF are great ways to introduce preserves and Wildlands Trust to people within the local community and surrounding areas who may not have been familiar with Wildlands or our work prior. Stewardship staff have also recently hosted AAP trainings at both Brockton Audubon and Stone Farm.
By continuing to promote these preserves through various community engagement activities, Wildlands’ hopes to establish a solid group of volunteers to help keep these properties safe for wildlife and visitors throughout the year. Volunteer-based programs like Adopt-A-Preserve not only assist our stewardship staff in keeping our properties safe and ecosystems healthy, but to further connect our communities to the natural world, increase visibility of public open space, and encourage usage by visitors throughout the region. If you are interested in becoming an AAP volunteer in Brockton or at any other Wildlands preserve, please apply at: wildlandstrust.org/volunteer