The President of The Friends of Mary Cummings Park was recently spotted painting the roofs of all the kiosks with preservative, in preparation for another New England winter.
This is typical for our Steve: he doesn’t make a fuss, he just quietly goes out and does what needs doing. And he has been a steady hand as our President, through some difficult times.
All 7 kiosks were built by and paid for by The Friends, and are stocked with fresh maps on a regular basis, so your contributions are much appreciated. Your support pays for more maps and even for the preservative that Steve uses on the roof shingles.
Here is where you can donate right on line, quick and easy.
On Thursday and Friday, August 24 and 25, a group of volunteers from Keurig Corporation worked with The Trustees to make major repairs to badly eroded trails. The volunteers also cleared some grown-in trails, but the repair of eroded trails was a growing eyesore and problem that these folks worked hard and solved.
There were a number of trail sections that were eroding badly, becoming difficult-to-walk piles of stones. The Keurig volunteers not only filled in a number of these washouts, but all dug many diversion ditches across trails to prevent future erosion.
The Trustees (of Reservations) are in the process of working out a park management agreement with Boston, the actual trustee of the Mary Cummings Trust. But even before that process is all set, the Trustees are making a major impact at the park by coordinating volunteer efforts of many local companies.
Keurig was the most recent firm to work with The Trustees, but many others are lined up. The combination of the trail expertise that the Trustees bring, combined with the substantial people-power from our corporate citizens means that we can expect to see major improvements to many aspects of the park over the coming months and years.
(The Friends of Mary Cummings Park will continue to contribute trail mowing and clearing, trail signs, park maps and graphics as long as we are needed.)
The Trustees recently announced the Cummings Foundation awarded the statewide conservation and preservation nonprofit a $100,000 grant to help improve Mary Cummings Park in Burlington and Woburn.
“With this generous startup grant, we hope to ultimately bring this important park property back to life for public use and enjoyment and care for its abundant natural resources with the same world-class standards we apply to our other 116 properties statewide,” says Barbara Erickson, Trustees president and CEO. “We are so grateful for the generosity of the Cummings Foundation to help us move another step toward our goal and hope that other local businesses and community organizations will join our effort.”
A hardy mixture of Mary Cummings Park and Landlocked Forest people marched together for the 2nd time in the Burlington July 4th parade. The weather was nearly perfect (teeny bit hot, which is what it is supposed to be on the 4th.) Cath Moore dressed up as Mary Cummings and invited parade watchers to “Come visit my park.” The parade can be seen on Burlington Cable TV, BCAT.
Starting now, beginning of July, and lasting perhaps a few weeks, there are FIREFLIES at Mary Cummings Park! If you have never seen them, or not since you were a kid, or have kids who have never seen them, this is your chance.
Fireflies are becoming more and more rare in suburban areas due to widespread use of insecticides and way too much night lighting. But Flyer’s Field in Mary Cummings Park, has a nice population of them in this summer of 2017.
Park along Blanchard Road, not at the Burlington Soccer field. (The soccer field is just a big lawn and lawns don’t support fireflies.) There is an entrance to Flyer’s Field on Blanchard Road with a kiosk, across from the big Oracle parking garage. Park on the Mary Cummings side of the street (DON’T cross the road at night!) Walk about 100 paces into the park and look around. If conditions are right, not windy, and about an hour after sunset, you should see the twinkling greenish lights all over the field.
See the map below the video on this page.
DO NOT try to catch fireflies! They are rare!
Expect mosquitos and use repellent. There are ticks, but if you stay on the short mown path you should avoid ticks.
Taking photos is pretty difficult, not likely to work with a smartphone. There are numbers of online references about how to photograph fireflies.
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