This summer the Wakefield Estate has been fortunate to have an energetic crew of 9 summer interns from Milton and other communities. The interns have worked on a wide variety of projects including weeding invasives, rehabbing various “garden rooms,” pruning, hauling, and creating trails within our successional woodland. The crew is headed up by two “Junior Supervisors”, Ben Albarelli and […]
The Wakefield Estate was the perfect setting for a Plein Air art class on June 29th. After a walking tour to explore the diverse landscape of the estate, 15 artists associated with the Hyde Park Arts Initiative set up their easels and drawing pads and got to work to capture a little bit of the estate’s beauty on canvas. The […]
Ten students and the horticultural instructor from Norfolk County Agricultural High School spent two days this week pruning trees and clearing brush from the area behind the old Davenport Farm House. The “Aggie” students worked extremely hard to expose the old stone wall that marked the original entry to the estate from Blue Hill Ave.
Polly Wakefield’s magnificent collection of kousa dogwood trees are hitting their peak bloom over the next 7-10 days. To marvel at these beautiful trees, the staff of the Wakefield Charitable Trust are hosting a walking tour through the dogwoods this Saturday, June 7th at 2:00pm. The tour will last one-our. Light refreshments will be provided. Parking is limited so […]
Using a highly sensitive remote sensing device, graduate archaeology students from Boston University crisscrossed the Wakefield estate to conduct a survey of Wakefield’s underground features and potentially sensitive archaeological areas. The data from the survey will be used by BU students to develop a long-term archaeological management plan for the Wakefield Charitable Trust.
Many hands helped bring a new flock of baby chicks back to the Wakefield estate this month! Sixth-grade students at Milton’s Pierce Middle School patiently watched over the eggs as they developed in the incubator and woodshop students at Milton High School built and installed the nesting boxes in the Wakefield estate’s newly revamped chicken coop. Middle school students next door […]
Last week marked the final week of the Wakefield Explorers after-school program – our pilot after school collaboration with Milton Public Schools, the Mass Audubon Society and UMass Boston Watershed Integrated Science Program. Forty fourth-graders from four Milton elementary schools participated in the outdoor science program. Wakefield staff and its collaborators will work over the summer to develop an ongoing […]
On Sunday, May 4, the Wakefield Charitable Trust hosted a lecture by Jeffrey Dukes, Assistant Prof. of Biology at U-Mass Boston, looking at the anticipated impacts of climate change on our local ecosystems. Following the lecture, Wakefield staff led a tour of the estate with Professor Dukes highlighting a number of potential impacts that a landscape such as the Wakefield property could […]
The Wakefield Estate is now home to a new hive of honey bees! The bees will help pollinate the estate’s abundant array of flowers, trees and shrubs. Later this summer or fall Scott Harris, the hive’s keeper, will demonstrate how the bee hive works and include sampling of fresh honey from the hive!
Drenching rain couldn’t dampen the spirits of twenty Milton elementary school students for the first day of the Wakefield Explorers after-school program. The four week pilot program, which kicked-off on April 28, will offer an outdoor educational experience to 4th grade students from four public Milton elementary schools. Each week students will cover a different environmental topic and recording their […]