Past EventsFebruary Work Day Thank you to all of the great volunteers that showed up for our first work day of 2010! It was a sunny, relatively warm winter day and the turn out was great. We took advantage of the nice weather and winter landscape to target some of the many vines that are strangulating trees in Angle Fly Preserve. Covering a plot of land just off of the Yellow Trail, we saved scores of trees by cutting down a variety of invasive vines. Thank you again to all who participated and we'll see you at the next work day! - - - Annual Somers Land Trust Meeting In addition to our formal meeting, we discussed several ways in which people can volunteer. We need people with all types of skills. Not interested in building trails or cutting vines? No problem! We need help with things like fund raising, communications, our web site, and more. Interested in helping? Send an email to info@somerslandtrust.org to let us know what you are interested in doing. The meeting also included a great talk from SLT member Pat MacGregor on invasive species and the impact they have on the local ecosystem. Thank you Pat for a very informative multi-media presentation! - - - November Work Day We had a great turnout for our last work day of 2009. Thank you to all of our volunteers! We took advantage of the great weather to cut vines, tend to the blueberry bushes near the pond, and work on our trails. Have a great holiday season and see you next year! - - - October Work Day Our work day was originally scheduled for Sat. Oct. 24, but heavy rains forced us to use our rain date on Sunday the 25th. Thank you to all of the dedicated volunteers who were able to make it out to Angle Fly Preserve despite the schedule change. We continue to make progress on our major projects thanks entirely to your dedication. - - - Grand Opening of Angle Fly Preserve With a crowd of about 50 friends and supporters, we celebrated the grand opening of Angle Fly Preserve. The skies were overcast, but the rain held off as we painted the final ceremonial trail blaze on our first trail and went on a group hike through the woods on Angle Fly's first official day as a public space. Thank you very much to all of you who volunteered to make Angle Fly a reality. Angle Fly Preserve is now open daily for all to enjoy. Hours are from dawn to dusk. - - - September 27 Work Day We finished cutting our first trail! We also made a lot of progress on other projects, such as saving native plants and constructing the planking for the wetter sections of trail. We still have some minor details to finish before the grand opening, but the major projects are now complete. Next event: the grand opening! - - - September 12 Work Day We had another great work day this weekend. Thanks to all of you that came to continue our work on the first trail at Angle Fly Preserve!
- - - August 29 Work Day Thank you again for the great group of volunteers that came out to help us continue or work on the first trail. We made such great progress on Saturday that we had a follow up day on Sunday to cut even more trail. Unfortunately, we also discovered some bee nests. However, we all had fun working together in the woods. - - - August 24 Native Plant Relocation - - - August 20 Native Plant Relocation Thank you to everyone that chipped in to save so many of the native plants from our ongoing trail work. - - - August 9 Work Day Thank you to all of our great volunteers! We made more progress on our trail and continued all the other jobs we need to complete in order to open the park to the public this fall. We still have lots to do, but we made great progress today. Thank you again for all that you do! - - - Community Event at Muscoot Farmers' Market We had a great time sharing the story of Angle Fly Preserve with the community. We signed up new members to the Trust, new Friends of Angle Fly, and began spreading word that the Preserve will be opening to the public this coming fall. Thank you to all of you who stopped by our table! - - - July Work Day Another great crowd turned out for our July workday. We completed our fencing project around the abandoned condos and did some gardening work around our blueberry plants near the pond at the Reynold's house. Finally, we made a lot more progress on building our first trail. There is still a long stretch of trail still to build, but we're now making steady progress. Thank you to all of our volunteers! - - - Town of Somers Independence Day Celebration Thank you to all of you who stopped by at our table at Reis Park! We sold t-shirts, signed up new members for Friends of the Angle Fly Preserve, and informed the public about all that we do. If you missed this event, we hope you'll come out to see us at our next community outreach event on July 19 at the Muscoot Farmers' Market. - - -
June Work Day We had a nice turnout with a dozen or so volunteers joining us for our June work day. This was an exciting day as we began clearing our very first trail. We managed to clear about a 1/4 mile with much more to come in future work days. Others spent time weeding and cleaning up the area around the Tatham garden. Thanks again to all of our dedicated volunteers. - - - May "Invasive Species Day" Work Day Despite a short rain shower and some dark threatening clouds, more than a dozen of us gathered at Angle Fly Preserve for our May work day. We planted blueberry bushes to start reclaiming the pond, installed some more fencing (a prerequisite for opening the park to the public), and continued reclamation work on the Tatham gardens. Thank you to the dedicated folks that showed up to lend a hand despite the weather! See you next time! - - - April Work Day at Angle Fly Preserve We had another large turnout for our April work day. Thank you to everyone that came to AFP to help. We worked on several projects that need to be completed before the Preserve can be opened to the general public. A large group worked tirelessly to install fencing around the largest pod of ruined condos. Other volunteers, including our local cub scout troop, spend the morning clearing vines, branches and other growth from the old parking lots. A third party of volunteers worked on cleaning up portions of the old formal gardens behind the Tatham Mansion. We also made progress in planning additional projects including our first trail. Thank you again to all of you who helped accomplish so much!
- - - March Work Day at Angle Fly Preserve We had a huge turnout for our March work day on what may have been the warmest weekend of the year so far. Thank you to all of the volunteers who came out to lend a hand. We posted signs along the park boundary, cleared brush and debris from some existing paths, and cleaned up trash. We also had some volunteers take measurements of the condo ruins to estimate how much fencing will be needed to block them off prior to opening the Preserve to the public. - - - SLT Annual Meeting & Trail-Building Kickoff Thank you to our members and friends for making our annual meeting a great success! In addition to our annual meeting, we had a great day with all of our Friends taking hikes through the preserve, enjoying a grill lunch thanks to the Lions Club, and sharing information about the preserve's past and future. This included a sneak preview of a preliminary trail map. We hope to begin construction on the new network of trails soon and we'll be needing your help! If you missed the event but still want to get involved, please consider becoming a member of the Somers Land Trust or signing up for our free Friends of Angle Fly Preserve organization. - - - August Work Day at Angle Fly Preserve Thank you again to all of our volunteers. The success of every work depends on your hard work and dedication! Despite threatening weather, we assembled at the main entrance to AFP at 10AM. In attendance were Michael Barnhart, Jeanette Gerfin, Lauretta Jones, Charles Jones, and Peter Kahn. We walked along the Turtle Trail, intending to cross the Angle Fly and continue down each side, but were turned back by lightening, thunder and light rain just when we reached the open sandy turtle nesting area. Nonetheless, these were our observations: Main finding: Significant
increase in amount of Japanese Stilt Grass both along the trail itself
and invading several wooded areas near hardwood swamps both north and
south of the trail. This may be a good location for the Boy Scout
enclosure project. Information on controlling stilt grass can be found
here: http://www.nps.gov/plants/ALIEN/fact/mivi1.htm. Happier observations:
- - - July Work Day at Angle Fly Preserve Thank you to all of our volunteers! Our July work day was a great success. For those thinking of joining us for a future work day, below is a summary of the July 12th event. At around 10AM, eleven volunteers gathered at Angle Fly Preserve to work on mapping invasive species, repairing signs and fencing, and cleaning up trash. The weather was fantastic and we had an great group of people. In attendance were:
We split ourselves into three groups:
While we made a good start on mapping invasive species, doing a full survey will take a long time. We'll need several additional work days to finish the job. Initial results show lots of multi-flora rose, oriental bittersweet, Japanese barberry, and Japanese stiltgrass. Also noted were Norway maples and Russian olive. Edges and clearings were the most heavily infested. Michael is merging all of our survey data into a single map that will grow in coverage over time. - - - The Somers Land Trust is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. For questions or comments about this site, please contact the webmaster. |
