East Leverett Meadow Edge Management Plan

For many years, Rattlesnake Gutter Trust (RGT) has been managing its 30-acre “East Leverett Meadow” for grassland nesting birds and wood turtles. CW member Molly Hale has conducted an annual bobolink survey in the meadow since 2003 and RGT maintains a kestrel nest box in the field. This year the trust called on CW to prepare a thorough ecological inventory and management plan for the edge territory that surrounds the main meadow.   Molly had already completed a management plan for the meadow itself last year.

Molly Hale and Pete Westover worked closely with RGT members to complete the report, which documents existing conditions in 12 management units through maps, photos, and narrative. The plan lays out a strategy to control invasive shrubs and vines, emphasize the edge’s natural diversity, encourage desirable species like winterberry, crabapple, and quaking aspen, open up land around specimen trees, and protect special nest spots for turtles and ground-nesting birds. Once the report had been submitted, RGT immediately dug in and with tractor and hand-labor began the first steps in implementing the report. More work is scheduled under a proposed five-year work program.