Trash is gone, some abuse at fire ring

On the positive side, the dumped furniture and trash were all removed from Nick's Woods the day after the police visited. The dumper was truly "motivated."
This is a rare coup, and we ought to savor this for a whiles yet.

On the negative side, there has been excessive debris left from use of the fire ring at the northern most section of the property in the area we refer to as Sargent's Brook.
While less onerous than a house full of debris, it still requires time, attention, and work.

The property is a 'pack it in, pack it out' facility and we need to get all users on-board with this management of our shared resource.

Dumping..... Busted!

On July 1st during a particularly heavy rainfall a blue chevy pickup from Sterling went barreling down Smith Lane and drove deep into Nick's Woods heavily ladden with household waste.

When the truck returned to Smith Lane it was empty.

Not only was the dumping immediately noted and photographed by a ranger, but the truck's comings and goings were noted by others (Board members and staff were getting reports in all the while) and the Worcester Police Department is presently resolving the matter.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to all involved.

Dumping occurs on open space (I am not going to go off on the irresponsibility, the laziness, or the work required as a result) and we deal with it as best as we are able.

This spring has seen numerous projects and lots of volunteers working to get Nick's Woods up and in better shape.

Instead of a temporary set back, we have a huge victory, and for that we are all grateful this 4th of July.

Thank you again to the team of people watching over Nick's Woods.

(Apologies to anyone who has to see the dumping in the mean time.)

Rock bridge across the brook

As is true on much of the land locally, there are a lot of rocks in Nick's Woods. Two people spent the morning in the brook moving them to form a rock crossing of Sargent's Brook.

Trail clearing photos

Several new trails were cleared by volunteers on Saturday.

(I realize this one is like "Where's Waldo?" but it really was pretty thick there.)

Ancient apple tree next to the brook being trimmed by Ranger Kim McCoy

Car number two is gone!

(mostly)


Here are our intrepid welders, torch at the ready, breaking apart car #2!
Thanks, guys! We couldn't have done it without you!

Toad!

desperately trying to get away from me by hurtling himself down the slope from Rt. 122A at Saturday's National Trails day

National Trails Day

Happy National Trails Day! We hope you're getting a chance to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather on some local trails.
As of today, Worcester boasts several new trails, due to the hard work of twenty or so volunteers of all ages who showed up at Nick's Woods at 8:30 this morning. Should you head over there, you'll now find the main cart path (the old 122A) blazed with blue rectangles. There is a loop you can make if you break off onto yellow rectangles and yellow triangles (yes, they need names!), coming back down the hill and by the brook.
Also, many thanks to our torch-wielding crew, who have now made Nick's Woods car-free! Nice job, guys.

We will post pictures once we get them downloaded.