Lincoln Land Conservation Trust

Education: educational events in 2022 included 12 in-person trail walks, 10 virtual lectures, and 10 in-person workshops or other outdoor land-based programming.in the winter and spring llct hosted a series of fireside chat zoom programs. James lowenthal spoke about light pollution, barbara peskin shared photography highlights from the past year, matt burne gave a virtual vernal pool exploration, and john calabria spoke about spring emergence.llct's collaboration with the on belonging speaker series continued, with two spring speakers kareemah batts and scott edwards sharing their intersectional experiences as people of color in outdoor professions.as part of a new healthy soils workshop series, llct co-hosted a screening of the film kiss the ground, a lecture on soil microbiology by rachel neurath, and also helped run three in-person workshops which introduced attendees to difference aspects of soil science. Other collaborators for this series included codman community farm and Lincoln common ground.additional in-person programs included a trails scavenger hunt for Lincoln's winter carnival, an in-person vernal pool exploration, four spring bird walks, and four spring noticing walks. To celebrate earth day, llct coordinated with the town Conservation department to hold a town-wide clean-up effort. In june llct brought a live-animal program to both the public and the afterschool program.in september, avalon owens was the keynote speaker for llct's virtual annual meeting, continuing the discussion of light pollution and its impact on fireflies. Llct wrapped up zoom programming in december with a presentation by douglas tallamy on biodiversity and climate change.in the fall llct hosted four noticing walks and also continued the healthy soils program, leading a seed saving workshop, and supporting two eco-garden tours and a sheet mulching workshop at codman farm.in 2022, llct once again offered its members the opportunity to purchase pollinator friendly plants at cost.llct and town of Lincoln's Conservation department continued to host monthly Conservation coffees featuring a local speaker and updates from both organizations.llct publications included a monthly wildlife column, published online, llct's open spaces calendar, and a package of photo note cards entitled "four seasons of Conservation in Lincoln. "llct continued to sell its two books, the nature of Lincoln and a guide to Conservation Land in Lincoln and its 2013 trail map. Llct continued to give wild about Lincoln nature guides to community groups and program attendees.

Acquisition: in may 2022, as part of the rural Land foundation's twin pond lane Conservation project, the rlf recorded two trail easements to llct. These easements permanently protect the trail which connects the fernald woods and umbrello Conservation areas west of tower road with the stony brook south and beaver pond Conservation areas east of tower road.

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 certain trails at stony brook south and beaver pond. Staff hosted a group of local high school seniors on their community service day to build boardwalks for trails in the muster field and flint's pond areas. 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. New rules and regulations for the use of Conservation Land and trails, developed in coordination with the Lincoln Conservation department, were completed and approved by both organizations. They included implementing a group use permit form, updating the rules regarding dogs on trails, and updating rules and trails where bikes are permitted. Staff began installing new trail markers and signage. Staff also hired a seasonal, part-time ranger to help educate the public on the new trail regulations. Work in the spring and summer focused on implementing the pollinator action plan. We added additional plants to all of our existing pollinator gardens, including our gardens in a traffic island on codman road and at the entrance to the stony brook south Conservation area. In total, staff, summer interns, and volunteers planted almost 200 perennials and shrubs at various pollinator sites around Lincoln. At the pollinator meadow, staff and volunteers built a pavilion to provide shade for programming. Staff also installed gutters to direct rain into rain barrels, and a solar panel and pump to improve water flow from the rain barrels into a hose for watering the meadow. A major multi-year rehabilitation of one Conservation area, chapman pasture, is still in progress. A second prescribed burn was conducted, cover crops were sown, shrubs were planted, and a wildflower seed mix was sown in an experimental plot. 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.research: in 2022 llct continued to advance its pollinator action plan.