In Your Words | Mass Audubon – Your Great Outdoors

Lily is a goat volunteer at Habitat Education Center in Belmont. If you’d like to get involved at Habitat, check out the award-winning Habitat Intergenerational Program (HIP), a volunteer community service and learning program that connects people of all ages and enables them to participate in environmental service projects together.

As a city high school kid with an interest in the environment looking for volunteer opportunities, it was clear to me that Mass Audubon would provide the experience in nature that I have always craved. Goat tending at Habitat Education Center in Belmont is unique, hands-on work that has brought me closer to nature than I’ve ever been.

There are plenty of rewarding and demanding chores to be done each day, from keeping the feeders stocked with hay to sweeping and scooping manure, but running the goats from their greenhouse home to the meadow is one of the most thrilling parts of being a volunteer.

All passersby love to watch as three or four of us run alongside the herd of six chubby goats, with the person in the lead shaking a tin can of pellets while trying to keep ahead of the two alpha males. Although they often seem quite lazy while basking in the sun for nearly half the day, goats don’t mess around when it comes to treats!

Habitat’s resident Nigerian Dwarf goats provide ecological care by clearing several acres of meadow land each year, reducing carbon emissions, and removing invasive species.

While I have an important job to do as a volunteer, the goats have their own mission: they are perfect “meadow mowers” in the summer. They eat invasive plant species and poison ivy and help to trim down woody plants in the meadow.

The goats certainly have unique personalities and traits. Lily is often dubbed the “roundest” goat by many visitors. Jacob sometimes requires a little more encouragement and attention from staff and volunteers, but he cracks us up when he won’t budge or refuses his medicine. Kudzu brushes against us asking for a rub, and Chester loves to lead the group to and from the meadow. They never fail to keep me and the other volunteers busy.

Each week I volunteer, I gain even more experience and responsibility working with animals and interacting with visitors. Goat tending has also become less of a job and more of an outlet to unwind from my busy life of AP classes, swim practices and meets, and family responsibilities. Sitting with the goats and brushing their fur or watching them nibble hay from their feeders are the little things that make me happy. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

In Your Words is a regular feature of Mass Audubon’s Explore member newsletter. Each issue, a Mass Audubon member, volunteer, staff member, or supporter shares their story—why Mass Audubon and protecting the nature of Massachusetts matters to them. If you have a story to share about your connection to Mass Audubon, email [email protected] to be considered for In Your Words in a future issue!

Barbara Brennessel is a long-time volunteer at Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, where her work includes cold-stunned sea turtle rescue.

Barbara and her husband Nick with a cold-stunned Loggerhead sea turtle

My husband Nick and I have volunteered at Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary for more than 15 years. In the spring, we survey and tag Horseshoe Crabs in Wellfleet Harbor.
Later in the summer, I monitor and protect Diamondback Terrapin nests, an interest sparked by attending a Cape Cod Field School program at Wellfleet Bay.

Barbara Brennessel measuring a Diamondback Terrapin

The highlight, by far, is how we mark the end of each year by volunteering to rescue cold-stunned sea turtles on Wellfleet and Truro beaches. These turtles get trapped in Cape Cod Bay’s cooling waters, especially when it gets below 50 degrees F; they become cold-stunned and thus lose the ability to swim south into semi-tropical and tropical areas.

We keep our phones handy so we can respond to calls from Wellfleet Bay’s Turtle Rescue Team. When the wind is howling from a westerly direction, we anticipate
being called to walk along a specific stretch of beach to look for turtles. We prepare for the cold, the wind, and a good sandblasting.

Our gear is always ready near the front door: boots, down parkas, hats, gloves, and headlamps for night patrols. This past year, we included face masks to our supplies so that we could adhere to COVID protocols. Our sled for transporting turtles from the beach is in the trunk of our car, along with a banana box or two in case we are asked to bring a turtle to the sanctuary.

Barbara during a Cape Cod Field School program on Diamondback Terrapins

We have seen some spectacular sunrises and sunsets while on turtle patrol. It is quite eerie yet also amazingly beautiful to be on a beach in the middle of the night. If you see a headlamp headed your way, who else could it be but another sea turtle volunteer!

Most of the two dozen or so turtles we rescued in 2020 were Kemp’s Ridleys, but the last few were loggerheads. Every live, rescued turtle has the potential to contribute to future generations of these endangered reptiles. It is tremendously satisfying to know that these rescued turtles have a chance to live a longer life, mature, and produce baby turtles.

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Category Archives: In Your Words

In Your Words: Lily, Age 18

In Your Words: Barbara Brennessel