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BES Nature Trail Network and Spruce Pond LbNA #40355

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:May 31, 2008
Location:
City:Boylston
County:Worcester
State:Massachusetts
Boxes:1
Planted by:Tahanto Envirothon
Found by: Monkadoo Marauders
Last found:Apr 25, 2014
Status:FFFFFFFFaF
Last edited:May 31, 2008
From Rt. 290 take exit 23B onto Rt. 140 North towards Boylston/West Boylston. Drive 1.2 miles to Sewall St. which will be on your left, with the Butler-Dearden paper company on the corner. Turn left onto Sewall St. Drive 0.3 miles, passing by the Sewall River wetlands to the Boylston Elementary School(BES) on a hill to your right. Drive up the hill and park in the back of the school. You will see a large opening in the trees with blue markers for the trail. (There may still be a large construction trailer parked to the right of the trailhead next to a mound of soil).

Enter the BES Nature Trail Network created in 1994 by the Environmental Educator, Sue Moore for the BES annual "Nature Day."

At the fork, turn right noto the Blue Birch/Pond Trail, named for the birch trees and Spruce Pond which you will see at the end of the trail. The trees on the trail will be marked in blue. Notice the roots on the trail caused by erosion and damage from ATVs. This makes it difficult for trees along the trail to thrive.

Do you see the white birches on the ground? They like the sun. They are the first trees to grow in a field or after a fire. They are being shaded out by other trees now.

Notice the abundance of white pine trees which make the trail shady. There are also many needles on the trail. How many needles do white pines have in a cluster? You can spell the word white with the amount of needles! W-H-I-T-E!

Turn left on the 1st trail. Take a left where you see several fallen white pine trees on the ground to your left. A tree with a blue dot on it will be on the right side of the trail. The corner of the school will be directly behind you, if you can see it through the trees!

The trail now curves and winds to the right. Step over a worm-eaten log. The trail curves to the left and then to the right again. Just follow the blue dots on the trees.

The trail has a slight angle to it at this point and it covered with green moss. The trail then goes slightly uphill. Now you will notice that there are acorns and leaves on the trail from oak trees.At the top of the hill, the trail turns left and goes slightly downhill. The Boylston Girl Scouts helped clear and mark this trail in 1994 when the trail was created.

Follow this trail and when you are almost to the bottom of the hill, you will notice a set of two large oak trees on the right growing out of the same stump in the shape of a "V." Go to the backside of the tree and facing the trees, find the letterbox on the left side at the base.

Please replace the box carefully for the next person to find!

Return to the trail and continue down the hill to Spruce Pond, which is really a bog. Notice the black spruce trees growing on floating sphagnum moss mats. That's right, there's water under the mats with trees on them. It's unusual to see black spruce trees this far south. Can you find wood ducks swimming? or see red winged blackbirds flying or perched on the phragmite reeds claiming their territory.

Spruce Pond covers the groundwater aquifer for the wells of the Town of Boylston. You can see the intersection of Rt. 140 and Rt 70 from your vantage point. The 2001 Tahanto Envirothon Team, coached by Sue Moore, was responsible for improving the stormwater management of that intersection to prevent toxic chemicals of cadmium and zinc from entering the pond and the aquier.