Essex County NNNeeewwwsss Trail Association Volume 23 Number 3 Summer/Fall 2004 From the President Don Curiale volunteers to keep up with these investigate and establish a salaried, part- changes and demands as we continue time position for a Coordinator. The If you listen closely to the soft sounds to fulfill our mission of preservation Coordinator will work an eight-hour of the rustling leaves along the trail, you and maintenance of open space and week and perform various tasks from might hear the sounds of change. The trails for passive recreation in our direct mailing, answering phone calls, Essex County Trail Association contin- local communities. and monitoring trails, to assisting volun- ues to grow, adapt, and meet new But eventually something has to teer officers, and attending official town challenges. give. It could be volunteer burnout, and/or public meetings. The job is There has been internal pressure for overworked membership secretaries, flexible and developing. ECTA and its Board of Directors for the treasurers, or frustrated directors. The ECTA Board wants you, our past year or so. Membership presently This is a fear no organization needs loyal members, to be proud of your reaches 700 or more yearly, but this will or wants to entertain. But quick Association that takes its job seriously. soon change. With the addition of West growth and demands are a healthy We want to be an organization that Newbury to our organization, we can challenge and a challenge ECTA will responds to your needs efficiently and in expect more mailings, materials, and meet. a timely fashion. An organization that trail maintenance projects. We can At its last meeting, the Board of can adapt to meet the demand of change expect more demand on our loyal Directors of the ECTA voted to for better trail maintenance. Thank you. Trail Maintenance their hard work in the park in June. Moulton Street The Moulton Street trail that runs Update New England BioLab Trails parallel to the street near the ski hill BioLab trails have been pruned and has been cleared of overgrowth. Bradley Palmer State Park groomed. Again, we ask dog walkers The owners of the gray one-story Due to circumstances beyond ECTA’s to please leash their dogs on private contemporary on Moulton Street no control, the cleanup in Bradley Palmer property, especially on the new longer want riders to use the edge of State Park has just been completed. Barowy Trail. Thank you. their property as a cut through between Debris was removed, fallen branches the Sears’ property and Moulton and trees were cut up, and overgrowth Pingree Reservation Street. You will have to use the road. pulled back. We realize there are All trails on the Pingree Reservation erosion problems on many trails. We in Hamilton have been cleared and Marini Easement are trying to tackle those in the near pruned for overgrowth, including the The Marini Easement on Linebrook future. ECTA would like to thank Dan private trail that leads to the Myopia Road has been posted for useage. Streeter and his bike volunteers for all Schooling Field and near the railroad tracks. The Essex County Trail Association is dedicated to the preservation and maintenance of open trails in our local communities for the purpose of passive recreation and the benefit of the environment. The ECTA works to build coalitions with national and local associations, to serve as liaison between membership and landowners, and to encourage responsible trail use. Visit www.ectaonline.org. ECTA Board of Directors Going Off the walking with a toddler and pushing a carriage, explained to him was the Susanna Colloredo, Chair Beaten Path to Dis- Ellen Alden emanation of bullfrogs. He smiled Leslie Brooks cover Our Nature and left for the direction of the gravel Ann Getchell By Alan Lupo parking lot. After all, some of those Carol Greata Reprinted from the Boston Globe, July 8, bugs were dragonflies, aka darning Mary Lee Mahoney 2004, Globe North section needles, and he remembered that long Kristal Pooler Don Curiale ago, the word on Tewksbury Street Rick Silverman The urban columnist makes no excuses. was that those bugs would sew your When it comes to suburban, exurban, lips up should you cross them. ECTA Officers and rural phenomena, he is a slow- He also heard some birds, but they President Donald Curiale moving work in progress. generally do not scare him unless they 1st Vice President Leslie Brooks Consider. There he was in down- are vultures or maybe sea gulls on a 2nd Vice President Abigail Jackson Treasurer Disa Cheston town Ipswich. He walked up and down bombing mission. Later, in the kind Secretary Marianne Lynch the street. It was not noisy. He did not of extensive research for which he is Membership Judy Gregg see road rage. He did not hear sirens or legend, he learned that birds seen at airplane engines. Nobody sidled up to this park have included red-bellied ECTA Area Representatives him with a tale of woe to hit him up for woodpeckers, great crested flycatch- Essex Kay Joseph 768-6275 a quarter. Not once did anybody who ers, wood thrushes, ovenbirds, Ipswich even looked like a political player northern waterthrushes, and Augusta Macrokanis 356-1047 approach and whisper into his ear some rosebreasted grosbeaks. This too was Jean Hyde 356-0523 plot so Byzantine that it would have educational inasmuch as he always Rolanda Dane 356-6524 Hamilton confounded Machiavelli and the best of had thought an ovenbird was a turkey Bea Britton 468-2733 the Borgias. cooking for Thanksgiving. He also Sue McLaughlin 468-7715 He was, in a word, or rather, four wondered if the great crested fly- Susie Richey 468-4205 words, out of his element. Rather than catcher was as deadly as the brine Arlene Maginn 468-4644 flee from this self-imposed aberration of from kosher pickles, but that ques- Topsfield Abigail Jackson 887-6314 his normal lifestyle, he knew he must tion, as of this writing, remained Wenham plunge even deeper into the abyss of the unanswered. Beverly Granz 777-3375 region’s outback. He drove to Bradley Back at the gravel lot – he can Deborah Stanton 762-8434 Palmer State Park in Topsfield. It is a handle gravel – there was a history of swath of 721 acres of woods, wetlands, ECTA Board of Advisors the park and the fellow who had Stu Thorne Don Greenough meadows, flowers, all that sort of stuff. donated it to the state. Now, because Scott Solombrino Bruce Corwin It boasts 20 miles of hiking trails, of the urban columnist is a highly Nancy Merrill Al Craig which he hiked about the equivalent of a trained journalist, he already had Wayne Castonguay Jim MacDougall half mile. The man knows his limits; he figured out that Bradley Palmer State Lois Cheston Lily Rice Hsia Arlene Maginn is out to impress nobody. Park was named after Bradley Two elements of nature deterred him Palmer. Not to boast further as to his Trail Advisor Legal Advisor from walking too far. Their scientific journalistic prowess, but he even Holly Pulsifer Dorothy Stookey names are ‘bugs” and “frogs.” In his knew that the word “State” was not old neighborhood of Tewksbury Street, the guy’s last name. Winthrop, frogs did not exist, and bugs He skipped over the parts about were to be battled with unto the death. how you can hike, bike, ride a horse, ectaonline.org The only good bug was a dead bug, and cross-country ski,, fish, canoe, and Make ECTA online your the latter could be viewed in much other ways you can hurt yourself and electronic connection to your prominence stuck to the flypaper that got down to the biographical informa- trail organization. hung over the counters of groceries, tion. Palmer, born in 1866, was the delis, and butcher shops, not to mention son of a Pennsylvania pol and became the dead flies floating in the brine of an attorney, diplomat, and philanthro- pickle barrels at Kaplow’s Creamery. pist, the history marker noted. Bookmark But here at the state park, he could Palmer built a Tudor Revival mansion www.ectaonline.org. both see and hear the buggies; they were as his country estate on this land that that close. And he could hear a strange, he would later donate to the state. He throaty foghorn sound that a grandma, entertained the likes of the Prince of (continued on page 4) Connections Letters From the Bay State Riders Association comes information on a national partner- ship, Take Pride in America, which has been established to encourage volunteers to initiate programs to improve, among other things, our parks and recreational areas. By participating in workdays, equestrians can show their commitment to preserving and maintaining recreational areas for horse use, and also be recog- nized for their efforts at the federal level. Check out the website www.takepride.gov for more details. It is important to keep track of the time spent volunteering and working on the places we ride, particularly government owned land, so that our work can be documented and used to show our level of Dear Don, support. I want to extend my sincere Beal Easement Ride thanks for the time you took out By Deborah Stanton of your busy schedule recently to prepare the letter of support for The Beal Easement trail makes an enjoyable ride with varied terrain and sights. I the grant submitted to the met a friend at Ledyard Farm in Wenham, and we hacked from its entrance to Department of Conservation and Myopia and back on a sunny Wednesday.