Story Walking at the North Attleboro National Fish Hatchery

When you visit the North Attleboro National Fish Hatchery in North Attleboro, MA, you might notice something new. Local artist and educator, Nicole Vachon Hanlon, recently partnered literacy and fitness health with being out in nature.

Nicole Vachon Hanlon and a group of volunteers recently installed a couple StoryWalks® at the North Attleboro National Fish Hatchery and Mass Audubon’s Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary. StoryWalks® is a fun way to build interest in reading while encouraging healthy outdoor play. The installations were supported in part by a grant from the Foxboro Cultural Council, a local agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

The StoryWalk® project was originally created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT and developed in collaboration with the Vermont Bicycle and Pedestrian Coalition and the Kellog-Hubbard Library. Laminated pages from a children’s book are attached to wooden stakes, which are installed along an outdoor path. As you stroll down the trail, you’re directed to the next page in the story. StoryWalks® have been installed in 50 states and 11 countries including, Germany, Canada, England, Bermuda, Russia, Malaysia and Pakistan!

“I was inspired to create this after experiencing the StoryWalk® trail at the Burrell elementary with my children. It was a nature story scavenger hunt. I was planning to install at Moose Hill, and I really love the trail at the fish hatchery, so I thought it would be a great educational experience at the hatchery as well”  said Nicole.

This past July, the hatchery unveiled their StoryWalk® Trout Are Made of Trees by April Sayre with a little help from some friendly visitors to the trail. The story is an ecological spin on “you are what you eat!”  Visitors have two options to read the book, along the woodland trail around the hatchery or at an ADA accessible trail around the fish viewing pool that holds trout and salmon.

Through the creation of a StoryWalk® at the Hatchery, children and adults, can enjoy reading, learning about fish ecology and playing outdoors together!

Hatchery manager, Shane Hanlon, welcomes visitors to North Attleboro NFH’s first story walk

At the Mass Audubon’s Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary in Sharon, MA, you can stroll along and read She’s Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head by Kathryn Lasky. This is the story of how Mass Audubon first took flight over 120 years ago, and is filled with beautiful illustrations. About halfway through the story, you will have the option to continue to a new trail to finish the story or return to the Visitor Center and relax inside while finishing the book. Either way visitors can enjoy a little time in nature, learn a about Mass Audubon, and explore the sanctuary in a whole new way.

Many libraries and schools that are installing StoryWalks® in their communities and you can too! You can find some tips from Nicole on installing a StoryWalks® on the North Attleboro NFH’s website. See you outside reading soon!

Pulling the Pernicious Pepperweed Plant

Last month, 4th through 6th graders from the River Valley Charter School helped pull invasive pepperweed plants from the salt marsh at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Credit: Frances Rodriguez/USFWS

The pernicious perennial pepperweed plant is a fun tongue twister (repeat it 10 times), yet this coastal invader is no laughing matter. Native to Europe and Asia, it is classified as a noxious, invasive weed in 15 states, including Massachusetts and Connecticut, and outcompetes native salt marsh grasses, which help to filter stormwater pollutants, buffer against storm damage, provide habitat to fish and wildlife and support recreational and commercial activities for local towns.

Since 2006, The Great Marsh Perennial Pepperweed Eradication Project has worked with numerous volunteers who have pulled thousands of pounds of pepperweed, or Lepidium latifolium, from the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and surrounding areas. With the help of many local partners such as Mass Audubon and local schools, more than 70 sites have been restored and counting.

Two students from the River Valley Charter School fill a garbage bag with invasive pepperweed plants, allowing native salt marsh grasses a chance to regenerate and create a more resilient salt marsh at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. Credit: Frances Rodriguez/USFWS

Nancy Pau, wildlife biologist at the refuge, says supplemental recovery funds from Hurricane Sandy cover treatment of almost 100 percent of the pepperweed, where past funds only covered between 60 to 70 percent of the treatment needed.

For the past two years, the River Valley Charter School has helped Parker River National Wildlife Refuge staff battle dense stands of this aggressive mustard family plant, pulling pepperweed from 4.7 acres along the Plum Island Turnpike and along Plum Bush Down, a small residential area along the Great Marsh in Newburyport.

Lauren Healey (pictured above) and several other team members from Gulf of Maine Institute and Newburyport High School removed 14 bags full of invasive pepperweed from the Great Marsh last month. Credit: Lauren Healey/Gulf of Maine Institute

Last month, nearly two dozen 4th, 5th and 6th graders from the school held a repeat performance from the year before, pulling 15 large garbage bags full of plants from six areas where pepperweed control is badly needed.

“While the kids are having a good time and learning how to identify and properly pull the weeds, they are also turning the Great Marsh into a more resilient natural barrier that will help sustain wildlife and their own communities from future storms.” – Frances Toledo Rodriguez, Invasive Species Coordinator at Parker River Refuge

And that’s a perfectly good reason to publicize the peeps pulling pepperweed.

Related blog post: Restoring the Great Marsh

More about the Sandy-funded Great Marsh restoration project

More about the Great Marsh Pepperweed Eradication project