The chill in the late afternoon air on Wednesday, Nov. 1, foretold the first hard frost that was to descend overnight. Nevertheless, representatives from the Devens Enterprise Commission, the town of Ayer, Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge, Mass Development, Friends of Woodlands and Waters, U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, and volunteers attended the grand opening of a new trail and pollinator meadow along the Nashua River.
The volume of small talk picked up when a small woman with sparkling eyes and a beautiful smile, wearing big yellow mittens, showed up. Marion Stoddart, the savior of the Nashua River, was there to officially cut the ribbon to the new quarter-mile trail along the Nashua River. Later, Ayer volunteer Faith Salter cut the opening ribbon at the pollinator meadow.
The newly created meadow and trail are in the northern nonresidential portion of Devens at the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge. According to a spokesperson at the Devens Enterprise Commission, the new trail was “formerly a tank road in the time of the military base” and the trail has potential for expansion in the future. The entrance is marked by an informative sign at the junction of Bishop (off Route 2A in Ayer, before Tiny’s restaurant) and MacPherson roads (off West Main Street in Ayer). The signs and garden materials were supplied by Nashua Rivers Wild and Scenic Stewardship Council.
The entrance to the trail is across the road from the pollinator meadow, to the left of a utility building surrounded by a chain link fence. The trailhead is on the other side of a cement barrier at the opposite end of a parking lot that is reserved for hunters.
Signs at the pollinator meadow and at the trailhead describe the animals, plants, and natural and human history of life along the river. Among the photos at the trailhead are some that compare the toxic wastewater of the past to today’s clear swimmable water, due to the efforts of many, spearheaded by Stoddart. The trail offers glimpses of the river and adjacent floodplains, but its banks are too steep to put in a boat.
Ribbon cutting at the trailhead with Neil Angus and Marion Stoddart. (Courtesy photo)
