arcadia | Mass Audubon – Your Great Outdoors

As Laura and Mary Fisher walked around the Arcadia Nature Preschool this past December, the memories came flooding back. The sisters attended the preschool in the 1990s and vividly recall free play around the sand table, pretending to be pollinators, and going outside rain or shine every day.

Preschool 1

Not only do they both consider Arcadia Nature Preschool, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, as the best educational experience of their lives but agree their experience at Arcadia set them on the path toward their current professions and passions.

“There was never the notion that you couldn’t—or worse, shouldn’t—do something because you were a girl,” says Laura. “Everyone got their hands dirty, especially me. The preschool taught me always to say ‘I can do that.’ And that still applies now in all areas of my life.”

Fisher sisters by school house

As a lawyer, Laura has written and published scholarly articles about the intersection of policy, nature, and agriculture. As a volunteer, she runs the Easthampton Community Garden.

Mary studied biology in college and is now a chemistry teacher at a high school in Springfield. “I told my mom that sending me to Arcadia Nature Preschool was the greatest thing she could have done for me,” Mary adds. “Preschool set the stage for my going into science. The hands-on activities of the Preschool are the same as the experimental approaches of the research lab.”

Celebrating 40 Years

This year Arcadia Nature Preschool celebrates its 40th anniversary of the first nature preschool in Massachusetts and one of the first in the nation. You can be part of the celebration by:

Attending 40 Years of Wonder special event on Saturday, May 22, complete with birds of prey, seed starting activities, nature games, and a gathering of past teachers and graduates.
Ensuring that Arcadia reaches and inspires more young people like Laura and Mary for the next 40 years by supporting Environmental Education at Arcadia.

Written by Carolyn Cushing, Special Projects and Events Coordinator at Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary

By Jonah Keane, Sanctuary Director

Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Northampton and Easthampton is Mass Audubon’s flagship sanctuary in the Connecticut River Valley. Sandwiched between the two cities’ downtown areas, its 700+ acres of forest, river, wetlands, and restored grasslands are remarkably diverse and easily accessible.

Even though the wildlife sanctuary has been around from more than 70 years and thousands of visitors have walked the trails, canoed the river, or taken a program, you might be surprised by some of Arcadia’s lesser known history and inhabitants.

A River Runs Through It

RiverRunsThroughIt

The heart of Arcadia is an ancient oxbow of the Connecticut River. You know the large oxbow visible from Interstate 91? It used to be a part of the river prior to 1840, when the river changed course and separated the bend from the channel. That same process occurred 800 years ago directly to the west, meaning that if you were on what is now Arcadia’s Fern Trail back then, you would have been in the river!

Hotel Heronry

Located in the wetland known as Ned’s Ditch (sadly, the origin of this moniker remains unknown) in the middle of the meadows is a great blue heron rookery. A rookery is the place where great blue herons nest communally.

Herons typically use the same rookery every year, until, eventually, the trees collapse. As many as 59 nesting pairs have called this rookery home. And more recently, a pair of bald eagles successfully nested here as well!

Bird’s-Eye View

The viewing tower (think big tree house) on the Fern Trail has been overlooking the marsh for decades. From the tower, you can observe ducks, geese, herons, otters, beavers, and many more critters. In the winter, you can see out through the trees to the Arcadia Meadows, too.

The tower sits squarely in the yearly floodplain, and markers on the tower’s legs indicate just how high the water level has reached during two of the area’s biggest storms (the highest coming from the Great New England Hurricane of 1938).

Imperiled but Protected

MassAudubonArcadiaMillRiver

Arcadia is home to three “Priority Natural Communities” that are state listed as rare and imperiled, which means these communities of plants are found in only 20 or fewer locations across the Commonwealth. The most visible from the trail network is the floodplain forest. This forest contains lovely large silver maple, shagbark hickory, and black birch trees, a treat for the budding botanists out there.

Nature For All

The rope-and-post accessible trail. The round bead means there a stop with braille signage and/or audio tour.

Arcadia is home to one of Mass Audubon’s universally accessible multi-sensory interpretative trails. The goal of these trails is to create a richer experience for visitors with a wide range of vision, hearing, and mobility levels. In addition to Braille signage and a rope-and-post guiding system, Arcadia’s Sensory All Person’s Trail features an audio tour that you can download or listen to via cell phone.

This post was adapted from a guest blog post on MassVacation.com.

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How Arcadia Nature Preschool Impacted Two Sisters