Dog Owners Help Clean up Middlesex Fells

Park Serve Day April 16 in Medford, Across State

FellsDOG volunteers at Park Serve Day at Flynn Rink at the Middlesex Fellls Reservation. From left to right, Michele Biscoe, Somerville; Robert Bransford, Winchester; Mary Bransford, Winchester; Mary McKeon, Medford; Michelle Li, Somerville, and Joel Feingold, Brookline. Photo by David Monahan.

The Middlesex Fells Dog Owner Group (FellsDOG) participated in Park Serve Day, a day of volunteerism organized by the MA Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) at parks across the state on Saturday, April 16.

Volunteers from FellsDOG, the Friends of the Middlesex Fells, New England Mountain Bike Association – Greater Boston Chapter (GB NEMBA) and the Massachusetts Sierra Club met at Flynn Rink at 9:00. Teams set out to different locations around the Fells and worked until 1:00 collecting trash.

FellsDOG members Mary McKeon, Medford, and Michelle Li, Somerville, joined a team led by GB NEMBA President, Adam Glick, and Vice President, Tim Post, to clean up trash along the Dark Hollow Pond trail in the western Fells from the Sheepfold to Bear Hill. Glick and Post are both certified in trail design.

“I learned so much about trail design and maintenance from the NEMBA members of our team!” Said Michelle Li, a dog owner who came from Somerville to help clean up the Fells. “As we hiked and filled our bags with trash, Adam and Tim pointed out areas of erosion and sustainable solutions for addressing those areas.”

Cori Couture and Craig Swanson, who live in Malden with their dog, Willow, collected trash behind the maintenance facility across from Stone Park. “Lynn Hildenbrand from the DCR asked us to head toward Doleful Pond, and we cleaned up much of the path leading to it,” said Couture. “However, before we got to the pond itself, we came upon a smoking campfire.”

Couture and Swanson reported the campfire to the authorities.

Mary and Bob Bransford of Winchester and Joel Feingold of Brookline directed their efforts at Sheepfold, a popular destination among dog owners from neighboring towns. Mrs. Bransford said she was “humbled” when she learned that Feingold, whose dogs have both passed away, “was spending his Saturday morning with a shovel at Sheepfold.”

Other FellsDOG members picked up trash around Flynn Rink and along Woodland Drive.

FellsDOG has a discussion group on Google Groups at http://www.fellsdog.org.

– Information and photo submitted by Michele Biscoe