“A Local Gem” Discovering the Cummings Conservation Area
This hike is part-1 of a 3-part series of interpretive guided hikes.
September 21, 2:30pm-4:30pm (rain date: 9/22) The first of these guided hikes will begin along the Baily Brook cold-water stream and travel through the cool shade of a hemlock glen before ascending over a glacial esker formed at the end of the last ice age. We will view and discuss examples of native plants, cold-water fisheries, glacial erratic boulders, floodplain forests and the Otter River and its unique wetland ecology. Local naturalists and historians Doug and Barbara Fleming will discuss the natural history of this special place and its unique geology and ecology. Doug will share his memories of this land from his time spent at his grandparents’ home on Bridge Street and will provide us with a personal perspective which will capture our curiosity and leave us wanting to know more.
October 26, 2:30pm-4:30pm (rain date: 10/27) The next hike in this monthly, 3-hike series will focus on the O’Brien-Cummings family that owned this land for over 100-years and the factory and dam that produced shoddy wool and other products with power produced from the Otter River.
November 23, 2:30-4:30pm (rain date: 11/24) The third hike will explore the railroad that cut through the middle of this property and discuss the impact and influence it had on the local people and how, before cars and the modern highways system, it connected many small, rural Massachusetts mill towns and farms to Boston and to places like the mountains, lakes, and oceans of Upstate New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
This event is co-sponsored by the North County Land Trust and Millers River Watershed Council and hosted by the City of Gardner Conservation Commission.