Author Archives: Mass Audubon

Kids at camp

The Power of Camp

Posted on November 19, 2020 by Mass Audubon

Today is Summer Camp Day of Action for Black Lives. 

As a statewide conservation organization that operates 19 nature day camps and a residential summer camp serving more than 15,000 campers, we stand with our colleagues and friends in the camp world affirming that Black Lives Matter at Camp.  

Nature itself is untainted with prejudice; however, too many Black and Brown community members have felt the sting of systemic racism when exploring the outdoors, connecting with and studying nature.  

Designing thoughtful and impactful summer camps in nature, about nature, and for nature is core to our work and why our commitment to our summer camp program runs deep. We understand the power of camp to uplift and empower youth, families, and communities. Our camps are focused on nature, yes, and they are also about people and community.  

Creating safe, welcoming, and inclusive communities for positive youth development is what camp is all about. It is our most essential work, and yet we know we need to continue to do better for all our campers.  

Why? Because we know that camps are agents of change—the communities of campers, staff, and families that we build can serve as a model for the just, fair, and equitable world that our Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) campers and their families deserve.   

We commit to creating and fostering spaces that are welcoming, equitable, and inclusive for all of our campers, staff, and families. 

We pledge to cultivate an inclusive community and recognize that this work will be ongoing and ever-evolving.  

What We Are Doing 

  • Forming a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) Camp Director Committee that works collaboratively to define the role and responsibilities of Mass Audubon camps in activating Mass Audubon’s DEIJ strategic priorities 
  • Providing professional development workshops for all camp staff including facilitating activities and group initiatives that build an understanding of and appreciation for DEIJ in the camp community and in life 
  • Celebrating the diversity of our current campership and camp staff and honoring the voices and perspective they bring to building our camp community 

What We Are Committed to Doing   

  • Listening, learning, and acting to ensure that our nature camps are safe, welcoming, and inclusive spaces for Black and Brown campers and their families, because what happens at camp can deeply affect individuals and communities  
  • Working diligently to increase the representation of BIPOC staff and campers at our camps  
  • Fostering relationships with young people who move through our camp programs as campers to become staff and future environmental and social justice leaders  
  • Using our platform as the largest provider of nature-based summer camps in Massachusetts to promote diversity and inclusion and lift up BIPOC voices of our staff and colleagues who are doing inspiring and impactful work in camp and in the environmental education field.  

Mass Audubon camps are committed to the learning and growth that is required to move this commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice into deeper forms of action and leadership. We know we have lots of work to do and we look forward to working with our colleagues across the nation as well as our camp families on this important work.  

volunteer planting a tree at Arcadia

Planting a Forest with the Climate in Mind

Posted on November 6, 2020 by Mass Audubon

More than 50 volunteers turned out in the last days of a mild October to help restore a floodplain forest at Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Northampton. Together, these nature heroes planted around 1,500 of the 2,000 trees and shrubs going in the ground before winter.

Volunteer planting a tree at Arcadia
Volunteer at Arcadia

In this first phase of the project, 8.5 acres of field that is unproductive for both farming and grassland bird habitat will be turned back into land dominated by trees—including pin oaks, silver maples, and even American elm.  

Floodplain forests are uncommon in Massachusetts, hosting rare plants and wildlife habitat, storing stormwater during floods, and, like all forests, keeping carbon out of the atmosphere. 

But visitors to Arcadia who walk the Fern Trail are lucky to be able to see the large shagbark hickories and tulip trees, that make up one of the best examples of this natural community in the state. The restoration project will significantly expand Arcadia’s protection of this special forest type. 

Climate Implications 

This is a climate adaptation project, preparing us for the impacts that have already begun and will be continuing through the coming years and decades. 

Like all living things, trees have optimal conditions where they grow and reproduce. As temperatures continue to rise because of climate change, tree species’ ideal habitats are shifting northward; however, natural movement rates over generations of trees are generally too slow to keep up with rapid warming.  

This restoration project assists the trees’ northward migration in two ways.  First, for some of the species native to the Connecticut River Valley, saplings are being sourced from nurseries further south so they go into the soil already better adapted to warmer climates.  

Second, volunteers are planting trees that currently don’t occur in the wild in Massachusetts, such as sweet gum, a tree that exists in floodplain forests further south, up to southern Connecticut. These choices increase the likelihood that the forest will flourish in the future, since Massachusetts’s climate is projected to become comparable to the climate of the south between 2070 and 2100.  

The Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration has selected this restoration for Priority Project designation and have been a key partner in the process. Mass Audubon is also partnering with the Nature Conservancy’s Christian Marks, who has planted his Dutch-elm-disease-tolerant American Elms on the site. 

— Jonah Keane, Arcadia’s Sanctuary Director