This July, excavators came to the Ebenezer Keyes Conservation Area in Gardner, leveling long-standing piles of displaced sand and grading nearly 20 acres to gently rolling terrain. The work is the latest phase in an ambitious effort to convert a former development site into one of the region’s only inland sandplain grasslands—a globally rare ecosystem now being established by North County Land Trust.
The project marks a turning point for the 157-acre parcel, which for years has borne the marks of abandonment. When an unrealized housing development project in the early 2000s stripped much of the property of its topsoil, the site was left to erode and overgrow. The land became familiar to local walkers and birders, but inhospitable to many native species due to the dry sandy soils and intense heat the barren lands hold.
Now, attention turns to the flora and seeds already present on site, like little bluestem, sweet fern, and goldenrod waiting to thrive. NCLT staff and volunteers will begin introducing small blocks of seedlings of native grasses like little bluestem, Pennsylvania sedge, and poverty grass and wildflowers such as godenrods and milkweeds, carefully chosen to match the dry, sandy conditions that define inland sandplain grassland habitats. Ecologists say these grasslands support a surprising wealth of biodiversity, offering refuge to at-risk pollinators, ground-nesting birds, and plants found in few other locations across the state.
“There are a wide variety of native plants, birds, and insects on the Massachusetts Species of Greatest Conservation Need list that can benefit greatly from this emerging habitat” said Emily Merlino, Director of Land Programs. “We’re giving the area a new and important future in the landscape.”
It will be years before the site fully transforms into the habitat it aspires to become. But the groundwork is quite literally in place. In the meantime, visitors can continue to enjoy the conservation area through hiking and other passive recreation as they watch this project unfold.