NE Wildlife Trackers Conference at The Trustees' Doyle Community Park & Center on October 20!

The Northeast Wildlife Trackers Conference takes place this year on Saturday, October 20, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm, at the Trustees' Doyle Community Park and Center in Leominster! 

A great event for anyone interested in New England wildlife, from beginner to expert, we'll hear from a variety of world-class presenters!  Speakers cover a myriad of topics ranging from field advice to enhance tracking skills, to a wildlife monitoring program that depends on citizens' smart-phones, to the controversial topic of whether cougars are recolonizing New England.  Keynote speaker Roland Kays, Ph.D. of North Carolina State University, will present his talk "Camera Traps as Binoculars for Mammal Watchers."  Kays's research includes the use of motion-triggered cameras ("camera traps") in wildlife science - learn more about this kind of research at the project's Smithsonian-hosted website, http://www.emammal.org !

This is put on by the NE Wildlife Trackers, and is not a Trustees event, so check out http://www.northeastwildlifetrackers.org/ to find out how to register. 

While we're at it - can anyone ID what kind of critter made these tracks?  Spotted on a Trustees' CR property in Central MA! 

For the Love of the Land (our 20,000 acre landowner profile)

The recent edition of Special Places and The Trustees Annual Report includes a wonderful profile of the landowner in Westport who donated a conservation restriction and helped us reach our milestone of protecting 20,000 acres with Conservation Restrictions. To read more about the story see the digital edition of Special Places at http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/09e60ae3#/09e60ae3/12 . For other editions of our magazine click here.

100,000 acres protected by Patrick administration (and counting!)

Recently the Patrick-Murray administration announced an extraordinary achievement -- protection of 100,000 acres in the state in less than six years since they took office. And this milestone was even more impressive because, for the first time, the amount of protected open space (1.25 million acres) exceeds the amount of developed land in Massachusetts. The state's efforts to conserve land and create parks in 310 communities helps build a strong, resilient network of protected places that will benefit everyone in the state. Congratulations!

For more information click HERE

New webpage for CRs on The Trustees website!

Interested in learning more about the Conservation Restriction work at The Trustees, including a list of resources for landowners and managers? Check out our brand new webpage at http://www.thetrustees.org/what-we-care-about/land/conservation-restrictions.html.