• Students from Deerfield Academy removed another section of invasive honeysuckle at Dinosaur Footprints. Students also counted this year’s crop of the rare false pennyroyal—their tally of 96 individual plants is a new record for us. But the invasive species black swallowwort continues to plague the reservation.
  
  
• Four hundred visitors recently toured the Mission House, as a stop on the Stockbridge Chamber of Commerce House Tour. Thanks to our stalwart guides who did a great job interpreting the house. The house was tastefully decorated by the Stockbridge Properties Committee with greenery and a fun exhibition comparing old kitchen implements and new.
  
  
• Conservation Works! 2002 was very successful at Tyringham Cobble. Regional Director Steve McMahon and the Stockbridge Management Unit Staff cleared brush on the Cobble with members of the property committee and local volunteers.  A great lunch, put on by the committee, was enjoyed by all.

NEWS SHORTS FROM THE SUMMER 2002:

• Welcome new employee Wendy Sweeter, HCI Program Coordinator.
  
  
• A beautiful weekend in Cummington left nearly 5,000 visitors to the 17th annual Bryant Homestead Craft Festival smiling as the event went smoothly.  The festival included a new animal zoo this year, including goats and a baby yak.
  
  
• The lecture series at Naumkeag in Stockbridge has been a hit, starting with food historian Francine Segan’s interesting talk on dining etiquette of the Berkshire Cottage era.
  
  
• At Naumkeag's annual Garden Party, we opened the newly restored Formal Guest Room to show folks how we use the proceeds from this event.
  
  
• "The Raptor Project" came to Bartholomew’s Cobble. Roughly 300 people enjoyed the display of live raptors — probably the largest event crowd the Cobble has ever seen. Proceeds benefited the Colonel John Ashley House.

NEWS SHORTS FROM THE SPRING 2002:

• More than 40 people (including at least 20 people from the Pioneer Valley Hiking Club) volunteered at Bartholomew’s Cobble in Sheffield. They burnt brush, installed steps to a canoe landing, replaced a split-rail fence, built two 16’ foot bridges, repaired bridges, patched foundations and more—all in less than 3 hours.
  
  
• Volunteers helped pull the invasive exotic garlic mustard at Dinosaur Footprints in April. They collected quite a few bags, and one volunteer is planning her own work day to pull more of this invasive species at this Holyoke property.
  
  
• The designers at Housatonic Curtain Company, a subsidiary of Country Curtains, are busy constructing the reproduction curtains for the formal guest room at Naumkeag in Stockbridge. This is a very generous donation of time and expertise by the Housatonic Curtain Company. Meanwhile, a local auction house tipped us off that a watercolor, labeled "Mabel Choate, Naumkeag" was up for sale. It shows a vase of pussy willows in a window, with a distant view of the Berkshires as seen from Naumkeag. Happily, we were able to purchase it for a modest amount. 
  
  
• Our Land Conservation Field Office in Northampton welcomes Jocelyn Forbush as Director of the Highlands Community Initiative.
  
  
• When the 112-acre Chevalier Farm at the foot of Monument Mountain came on the market, The Trustees and our neighbors at Monument Mountain High School feared the worst: a multiple-lot subdivision that would scar a highly visible landscape and hem in the school. Instead, we teamed together, and with the help of the state's Division of Fisheries & Wildlife (DFW), produced a result with far greater public value. The Trustees' subsidiary, the Massachusetts Land Conservation Trust, purchased the entire property for $885,000, then immediately resold it in three parcels. Seventy-eight acres, including extensive wetlands along Konkapot Brook, went to DFW; the reminder was sold to the School District and its nonprofit affiliate for future school use, with restrictions protecting the Route 7 frontage across from Monument Mountain and portions of the field next to the DFW parcel.