Well, today wraps up the major events until the Jan 1 sunrise walk at the Bog. You would think COSS would take a breath. Nope. There is always something happening in town, and so many groups are doing exciting work. Our members will be out enjoying those events and showing support. It will be nice to be on the other side of the table for a bit and enjoy events instead of running them.
The decorated winter tree scavenger hunt is in full swing. I want to take a road trip to Littleton to see how they run theirs. They started their program after seeing a single decorated tree at Lime Quarry about ten years ago. They brought the idea back to their town, and now it is a huge town wide event. It is great to see how ideas spread from one community to another.
I am excited to help Cooking Buckets Sugar House this season. Not only will we be helping with their trees, but for the first time the maple trees at Sunny Meadow are big enough to produce sap. It will be great to cover that story because we believe we will be the first town in Massachusetts to try a plantation style sugar bush at a town property. This is a long term project supported by many hands, and we look forward to seeing what the first season brings.
The Cheys are doing their big end-of-season cleanup, which includes a lot of work on their hydroponics systems and pumps. We are also keeping an eye on the greenhouses. They are all up and running now, but one bad storm and heavy snow can drop a greenhouse in a few hours. We will not have equipment stored on site this winter, but if the weather looks bad, we will get equipment over to help as fast as we can. The town has clear guidelines for winter use at Sunny Meadow, and we fully support and follow them.
Work at Koulas Farm is moving fast. Three new trails are on the drawing board and should take two to three years to complete. The Friends of Koulas Farm believe in turning a year of work into a few months of effort, and they are aiming to have the early trail sections ready by spring. Approval to clear the old farm road came only a few days ago, and that section of road is already open. It is great to see steady progress that fits within the Conservation Commission guidance.
The Scout front is quiet for now. With snow coming Tuesday and no projects at risk of aging out until spring, it is a natural lull. We are still in the enrollment bubble caused by the Covid years, but seeing fourteen Scouts at the Day Before Thanksgiving Walk is a sign that things are turning around. I expect many new Scout projects to start in 2026.
The new COSS web page has a major amount of work ahead, especially with photos. We have more than twenty thousand pictures from the last fifteen years, so it is time to start building proper galleries. While getting things ready today before the Explore the Stone Forts of Great Brook walk, I noticed something interesting. The in car map systems are now showing all the trails at Thanksgiving Forest, and the coverage is far more complete than the official maps. Not only that, the trails shown are correct. I do not think we can link directly to these systems without a fee for website use, but we will sort something out in a way that fits our resources. It is great to see accurate and current maps showing up on devices that many residents already have.
As for today’s walk, it was a lot of fun. We had a two hour walk, visited six stone forts, and saw two Native American stone grinders. It was a great turnout and a great day to be out on the trails.