Seekonk Land Conservation Trust Annual Meeting

On April 9th, the Seekonk Land Trust held its Annual Meeting at the Seekonk Library. President Tom Webb opened the meeting with a slide featuring a large map of Seekonk. On the map, Webb pointed out the over 800 acres of land in Seekonk that the Land Trust has helped to protect through acquisitions, gifts, Conservation Restrictions (CR’s ) and Agricultural Restrictions (APR’s) since SLCT’s founding in 1967. In the last year, the Land Trust received two new gifts of land adding another 17 acres.

Activities of the Land Trust this past year included three nature photo walks to support the Seekonk Library’s Annual Nature photo contest and collaborations with Osamequin Farm on a native seed planting workshop and a winter woodland walk on their property. Our Stewardship Coordinator, Jessie Blackledge, organized a volunteer clean up at our Allen Avenue property, a trail workday with Scout Troop 1 and other volunteers to spread wood chips at our Cushing property, and Earth Day clean ups at our Martin Reserve and other locations in town. The Land Trust continues to award grants to Seekonk schools for nature field trips and projects, as well as a yearly grant to the Environmental Resource Center at the Seekonk Library.

The Mary C. Wilson Community Conservation Award, named after the founder of the Seekonk Land Trust, was presented this year to James Viara. A lifelong resident of Seekonk, Mr. Viara recently donated 4.2 acres of land on Greenwood Avenue to the Land Trust. We are pleased to report that this land will be used to develop an additional area of hiking trails for Seekonk.

After the presentation of the award, Erin Flynn, an archaeologist who works with the Public Archaeology Lab, spoke at length about her work on local archaeological sites and showed slides of a number of excavations in the area. She also brought a fascinating collection of Native American artifacts and stone tools which everyone present was able to closely examine.

Flynn reported that traces of Native American civilization in our area date back 12,000 years. The Public Archaeology Lab does archaeological surveys, cemetery investigations, monitors construction sites for signs of ancient life and consults with Native Americans and tribes. Located in Pawtucket, it also has a lab for processing, analysis and curation. Anyone finding artifacts on his or her land may wish to contact the Public Archaeology Lab in Pawtucket, RI at 401-728-8780 for more information.

For further information, please see https://www.seekonklandtrust.org  or follow us on www.facebook.com/seekonkLCT.