Upcoming Field Trips
NEBC Day Field Trips in 2018
Join us and explore interesting places with great plants, led by local expert botanists. Trips for May, June, July, and August, 2018, are planned, and participants must contact the trip leader 1 week in advance. See all details below or print this PDF.
About the Trips
- You must pre-register to get information on the trip meeting place and time. This will ensure that you have a slot, and will let the leader contact you if there are any changes. Trips may be cancelled if enrollment is low.
- Each trip is limited to 12 people, so please contact the trip leader at least 1 week in advance to be assured of a slot.
- Bring lunch, water, insect repellent, plant field guides, hand lens, etc.
Sunday May 13 – Day Mountain Wildlife Management Area, Dalton, MA
- Enough of winter already! This is an early spring hike to a Rich Mesic Forest community embedded in Northern Hardwoods-Hemlock-White Pine Forest communities. We will follow the Appalachian Trail for portions of the hike and will be both on and off trail. We are hoping to see spring ephemerals with a hike at this time of year, and the sugar maple dominated rich, mesic forest shouldn’t disappoint. The hike will cross hillsides but is not particularly steep or rugged, and there shouldn’t be rocky scrambles. It is likely that we will have permission to collect for the NEBC herbarium in portions of the trip.
- Level of Difficulty – Easy
- Trip Leaders: Karro Frost (karrofrost@gmail.com). Karro will send meeting time, location, and directions to those who register for the trip.
Saturday June 23 – Carex Field Workshop, Pepperell, MA
- This early summer NEBC trip will focus on the wonderful diversity of Carex in forest understory communities in north-central Mass. We’ll start at the Pepperell Springs Conservation Area, where the vegetation includes rich Northern Hardwoods forest (Sugar Maple - Oak - Hemlock Forest patches with Hemlock stands, occasional talus slopes, an intermittent stream) and mixed oaks with mountain laurel, hemlock stands, Red Oak - Sugar Maple Transition Forest. Bring your field guides and hand lens, and prepare to move slowly as we focus on field identification and keying.
- Level of Difficulty – Easy
- Trip Leader: Lisa Standley (lisa_standley@verizon.net). Lisa will send meeting time, location and directions to those who register for the trip.
Sunday July 8 - Sullivan County Farm and Associated Lands, Unity, NH
- These plots are in west-central New Hampshire, in the foothills east of the Connecticut River. The County owns 2,170 acres, and there are a variety of forest and wetland habitats, including a black ash swamp, wetlands dominated by cattails and/or sedges, riverine wetlands, a wet meadow dominated by Eutrochium and native Clematis, lowland spruce fir, northern hardwoods/pine, enriched Appalachian cove forest, and drier oak hickory communities.
- Level of Difficult- Moderate to Difficult, much of our time will be off-trail.
- Trip Leader: Alice Schori (alice.b.schori@gmail.com). Alice will send meeting time, location and directions to those who register for the trip.
Saturday August 18 - Phillipston Wildlife Management Area, Phillipston, MA
- The Phillipston WMA is comprised of 3,300 acres and an array of natural communities. Our visit will focus upon a nearly 70-acre forested wetland composed of a matrix of red and black spruce swamp. The forest is carpeted with mosses and liverworts and contains a variety of lichens. Additionally, hexenbesen (witches’ broom) adorn a number of trees and may afford an opportunity to see dwarf mistletoe should we find one within reach. This site provides one of the largest examples of the ‘Red Spruce Swamp’ natural community type in Worcester County.
- Level of Difficulty – Difficult. The majority of our time will be spent off-trail in densely wooded wetlands.
- Trip Leader: Matt Charpentier (mpcharpentier93@gmail.com). Matt will send meeting time, location, and directions to those who register for the trip.
