by Margaret Kusner ·
Thursday, April 8, 2021
On March 26, the Sudbury Valley Trustees (SVT) announced they had been awarded a National Environmental Education Foundation grant to fund projects at the Smith conservation land on Whitcomb Avenue in Littleton.
The Smith Land is contiguous with the Black Pond/Vasenka conservation land off Littleton County Road in Harvard and connects with the Black Pond trail in Harvard. It is an important link in the High Ridge Initiative, a project to protect a stretch of ecologically important land from Oak Hill in Littleton to Great Elms conservation land in Harvard.
The grant will be used to build graduated terraced steps on a particularly steep area of the trail and to hire a summer intern to pull out invasive plants such as Asiatic bittersweet.
SVT Director of Stewardship Laura Mattei said the land has seen a threefold increase in use, so it’s important to maintain high-quality habitat with safe and comfortable access.
The NEEF grant program is designed to help organizations, such as the Sudbury Valley Trustees, restart land management programs that were delayed because of pandemic-driven reductions in resources and volunteers.