Upcoming Field Trips

NEBS Day Field Trips and Collecting Trips in 2023

Save PDF for all details and registration links (new trip added June 2023).

DAY FIELD TRIPS

Day field trips are informal, small-group outings to explore interesting places and to see (not collect) interesting plants, facilitated by knowledgeable and enthusiastic leaders. Bring your lunch, water, insect repellent, field guides, hand lens, and curiosity. Be prepared for the terrain and level of difficulty indicated for each trip. Please register at least 1 week in advance to get meeting time, location, and directions. Trips may be cancelled if enrollment is low or if inclement weather. Trips will be limited to 14 participants.

Saturday, May 20 (10 AM-2 PM) – Marble Quarries and Rich Forests of Dorset Mt., Dorset, Vermont

• The abandoned marble quarries and surrounding forest on the lower slopes of Mount Aeolus, part of Dorset Mountain, support a rich and diverse flora, with several rare species dependent on calcareous bedrock. All levels of botanist are welcome, from beginners to experts. Bryologists are likely to see uncommon mosses and liverworts, while everyone will enjoy the uncommon wildflowers. Bring lunch, snacks, and water. The walk to the old quarry is along an old woods road which leads uphill at a moderate slope. The terrain in and around the old quarry is rocky and uneven.
• Leaders: Lynn Harper, Land Protection Specialist, Massachusetts Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program and Karro Frost, Conservation Botanist, Massachusetts Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program
• Register here so Lynn may be in touch with you about this trip.

Friday, June 2 (10 AM-Noon) – Beginners walk: Floodplain Botany of the Sudbury River, Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Weir Hill, Sudbury, Massachusetts

• Enjoy the wonderful vistas of the meandering Sudbury River at Weir Hill, Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. The habitat is lush and diverse, with floodplain trees, swamps of buttonbush and red maple, ferns, graminoids and other herbaceous species. We will take a close look at these riverine plants and learn to identify some typical denizens. The location has great observation platforms and boardwalks for examining plants. This field trip will be geared towards beginners, but all are welcome to join. Bring a packed lunch to enjoy after the field trip.
• Leader: Neela de Zoysa, NEBS Councilor, Botanist, Instructor at Native Plant Trust
• Register here so Neela may be in touch with you about this trip.

Saturday, June 10 (10:30 AM- afternoon) – Fox Den Wildlife Management Area, Middlefield, Massachusetts

• Join in for a day of exploring the Fox Den WMA. We will investigate and document the vegetation of an enriched mesophytic forest and a series of mixed forested wetlands. The entirety of this walk will occur off-trail through moderately difficult terrain.
• Leader: Matt Charpentier, NEBS President, Field Botanist, Oxbow Associates
• Register here so Matt may be in touch with you about this trip.

Friday, July 7 (9 AM – afternoon) – Mt. Washington and the Alpine Garden, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire

• Join us for a rare and very special opportunity for a guided visit to one of New England's most fascinating and imperiled plant assemblages: above tree line at the legendary "Alpine Garden" of our highest peak. Led by one of New England's most knowledgeable and experienced botanists and ecologists, this high elevation field trip – complete with stunning vistas -- is made accessible by the famed Mt. Washington Auto Road. Please note the terrain at the summit will be moderately strenuous with a 500-foot descent (and return ascent) from the road. Bring layers for cold or wet weather and sturdy footwear. Register early – this trip is sure to fill quickly. There will be a fee for the Auto Road.
• Leader: Dan Sperduto, Forest Botanist, White Mountain National Forest
• Register here so Dan may be in touch with you about this trip.

Saturday, July 15 (10:00 AM- afternoon) – Cumberland Land Trust's High Rock/Scott Brook Preserves, Cumberland, Rhode Island

• These preserves of the Cumberland Land Trust are home to a diverse array of habitats, from a sugar maple forest to dry, open ridgetop, and wet meadows in a power line corridor. These are unusually rich, offering an opportunity to see a number of uncommon species for the area. We will spend 2-3 hours botanizing along trails in the woods and power line corridor of the 268-acre property. Hiking difficulty will be easy to moderate.
• Leader: Laura Green, NEBS Councilor, Forester, and Botanist
• Register here so Laura may be in touch with you about this trip.

NEBS COLLECTING TRIPS

NEBS is continuing the tradition of Society collecting trips! The goal is to better represent the modern distribution of plants in New England as a resource for research. We are sponsoring two collecting forays in 2023, both in areas of New England that are under-represented in the historical and modern collection. These forays promise to be fun and will provide participants with the opportunity to visit new botanically interesting areas, learn new plants, and learn how to collect. We will also develop a species list for each locality as a resource for the local land managers. All specimens will be mounted, databased, and deposited in the NEBS Vascular and Cryptogam Herbaria (NEBC).

Saturday, July 1 – Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area, Phippsburg, Maine

• Join us for a special joint day-long field trip of the NEBS and Josselyn Botanical Society of Maine to collect plants of Sagadahoc County! The trip will traverse maritime spruce fir forest, salt marsh, summit bald, and pitch pine dune woodlands, emerging at spectacular Seawall Beach. The walking difficulty will be easy to moderate along an access road, a round trip hike of 4 miles (not including botanical meanderings!), ascending Morse "Mountain" (433 ft elev). Be prepared for mosquitoes and flies in these habitats. Parking is limited and carpooling will be required.
• Leaders: Lisa Standley, NEBS Curator of Vascular Plants; Elizabeth Kneiper, NEBS Curator of Cryptogams; Melissa Cullina, Director of Plant Science & Collections, Coastal Maine Botanical Garden; Eric Doucette, President of the Josselyn Botanical Society of Maine
• Register here so leaders may be in touch with you about this trip.

Saturday, August 5 – Middlesex County, Connecticut (Vascular Plants)

• Middlesex County is one of the most under-collected areas in Connecticut, so this day-long collection trip will be particularly valuable. The county is rich in habitat diversity: it has 110 named hills and mountains; two rivers (Mattabesset and Connecticut) with associated floodplain forests, marshes, and beaches; upland forests; successional farmlands; and coastal habitats including brackish and salt marshes, sandy beaches, woodlands, and grasslands. The county contains at least 16 of the Critical Habitat types recognized by the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Sites that we plan to visit include Wangunk Meadows WMA, Meshomasic State Forest, Cockaponset State Forest, and The Preserve State Forest. Some sites may include forays off-trail in somewhat wet or steep terrain.
• Leaders: Lisa Standley, NEBS Curator of Vascular Plants; Sarah Taylor, Scientific Collections Manager, University of Connecticut, G.S. Torrey Herbarium; Elizabeth Kneiper, NEBS Curator of Cryptogams.
• Register here so leaders may be in touch with you about this trip

REMINDER: Each trip can accommodate a limited number of people, so please register at least 1 week in advance. This will ensure that you have a slot and will let the trip leader contact you if there are any changes due to weather or access. Trips may be cancelled if enrollment is low. The trip leaders will send meeting time, location, and directions to those who register for their trip. Please remember to bring all your collecting equipment, personal gear (lunch, water, insect repellent, field guides, hand lens), courtesy, and curiosity.