Blog 18

Today, Wednesday, wasn’t very exciting. A lot of people were out today and the weather made the day pretty much drag. I started off working on the Assists on OLIVER, until Shelley had me do some mail around 1:00. I folded some membership renewals, made sure everything was in the right envelope (they have to stay in order and the envelopes have the members names on them like they do on the paper I put inside). I did that until 3:00 and I was super tired at that point. There wasn’t a lot else for me to do, so Shelley had me check in the checks into the binder, which I’ve done before. It helps because Cathy isn’t here, and when they’re all in the binder checked in then it’s easier for Ellen to just put them in. I sorted them out until they were done. When that was finished I put together ‘thank you’ papers for renewing memberships into envelopes and ran them through my new favorite thing…the post meter! After that I checked them off for Shelley and then I sorted through the pay log things from 2011 and put them in their different quarter sections in the pay binder. After that I took a press release Mary had made for Art in the Barn and put them on different website calendars.  I talked to Cricket about volunteering at the Farmers Market this summer for a couple hours every Thursday, which I think I’m going to do. I also talked to Dani about possible going on a trail visit with her and David tomorrow if the weather is nice.

Blog 17

Tuesday was pretty much the same as Monday. I got in at around nine and talked to Shelley for a bit, because Abby and I were meeting at 9:30 so while I got the spreadsheet up and my notes, well questions, ready we talked about Art in the Barn, which is coming up in June. Abby came in and we went over what I found from the typed up newsletter that a volunteer, Pat, made and all of the paper files. One of my main questions about the Assists were the map and lot, because I didn’t find a lot of them. She brought me to this website on MassGIS called OLIVER. It is a really cool, and helpful, website. Its GIS based, so it has every property and is color coded by scale. I could go to any town/city in Massachusetts and find, or try to find, the property I was looking for. Abby showed me how to use it and what the different things meant, and we did about five of them because some were harder than others, and we actually had to leave some blank because we couldn’t find the map and lot. When you do find the right property it has every detail you need. It has the deed book and page numbers, map/block/lot, acreage and what was also really helpful was how many acres it was when it was put in the deeds, because they sometimes change, who owns it, etc. Unfortunately sometimes they do not have all of the fields filled in. I worked on OLIVER for almost the whole day.

Blog 16

Monday was a typical day. Nothing really happened and everyone did their normal routine. When I got in I started doing some Assisted Projects. About halfway through I took a break and went to Cathy’s computer, because she’s out this week, and printed some stuff Shelley needed out because the computer I use isn’t connected to the printer. I printed all of the minutes from all of the board meetings from 2012 and every month so far of 2013. I stapled each month together, hole punched them, and put them in a binder. When I was done with that I had to take out, from the same binder, contracts from 2012, and swap them with new ones from 2013. I had to hole punch too. I had to put the 2012 ones in a folder where the 2013 ones were. After that I went downstairs to Abby’s office and set up a time for us to meet about the Assisted Projects because I was almost done. I spent most of the rest of the day finishing off the paper files for the Assisted Projects. When I was done with that I did some membership mailing for Cathy and ran them through the post meter. I think the post meter is actually really fun to use, even though you don’t do much. I like the noise it makes when you slide the envelope through it. I ended the day talking to Shelley about summer volunteering and what I would be doing on Tuesday.

Blog 15

Friday was a pretty chilled out day because all the stress from the Annual Meeting was over. Everyone pretty much did their own thing and laughed all day and weren't freaking out over last minute details. I volunteered to go in early, even though it was my day to go in a little later, just so I could help Cathy get some mailing done. I split the job with a volunteer and together we hand-addressed a lot, like a lot a lot, of Art in the Barn letters to attendees, past artists, and just a lot of people. My hand hurt at the end of it. After that I worked a little of my Assisted Projects and then I had lunch and everyone at lunch was talking about the Annual Meeting and they were telling me that the composting went well and that they were so excited that I could help them get started at events. It felt good that I had helped them learn about something new and start them up with it. After that I decided to restock the ‘office supplies’ for everyone. The Greenbelt has a new logo, so they’re trying to get rid of all things that had the old logo on it, so I brought down a bunch of papers and letterheads that had the new logo on them and replaced old logo’s with those in the ‘the office space’. The office space is a large shelf type thing behind Sharon’s desk, and I did that until it was restocked. I worked on the Assisted Projects after that and then Shelley and I both tried and failed to understand the Geocaching GPS/GIS things. It was funny, but frustrating, and in the end we decided to give up because what we wanted to download wasn't working.

Blog 14

Today was super busy with everyone getting ready for the annual meeting. When I got in Mike was outside mowing and doing yard work and a bunch of people were out getting supplies. I helped mail crew, which was just this really cute and funny old lady named Ruth. She talked about how much she loves baseball and traveling and that for her next trip she wants to go to Germany with her friend and take a three day exersion to see Germany and then from there go to France and do the same three day thing while taking a river cruise. She was really funny and made the time pass. We were stuffing the business sponsor envelopes and also Art in the Barn envelopes. When I was done with that I went and helped Shelley make some signs for tonight and make sure we have enough of every item. When all the mail was done I ran all of the envelopes through the post meter and got them all set to be bulk mailed. When I was done with that I emailed some people for Shelley to see if they were all set for tonight and then helped Sharon with labeling some envelopes while Shelley and David got outside ready. When I was done with those I went and got Shelley and I lunch and we ate outside because it was so nice with Mike and Dani and Cricket. I spent the end of the day helping Cathy with Art in the Barn things and Shelley helped. 

Blog 13

Monday and Tuesday were very similar. I basically worked on the Assisted Projects all day while also doing little things for Shelley to help her get ready for two events, the annual meeting and Art in the Barn. Although it’s kind of boring to sit there and work on the Assisted Projects all day, I did come across from funny things and learned about the town of Rowley’s history. I also helped Mike out and talked to Abby about GIS projects. I helped Cathy with the mail for Art in the Barn. I stuffed envelopes and made sure they were all addressed to the right people (so much fun, right?). As boring as it is I did get to talk to some of the mail crew, Anne and Natalie while I did it and they are two very funny ladies. I worked with them on that and also helped Shelley get some signs ready. I finished up work for Cathy getting the business sponsors ready and we set up for mail crew tomorrow to stuff, seal, and stamp them. Assisted Projects are really cool because I get to see all the projects from as far as 50 years ago that the Greenbelt has ever helped with or bought, and I get to read deeds and learn about Assessors map and lots, which I still don’t 100 percent understand although Abby keeps teaching me. Everyone was pretty busy getting ready for Thursday’s annual meeting and checking to make sure all food is covered and such. 

Blog 12

Friday was pretty cool. I went on a site visit with Mike, Dave, David, and Abby to an 86 acre property in Ipswich. We walked the perimeter of it, which was through marshes, paths, really long grass, and road. There was a lot to walk and we took pictures at every ‘corner’ of the property, which is just when the property we’re on meets a part we don’t want to be on. We went to this property because the state (MA) wants to buy it from its owner, which is the Sisters of Notre Dame which is a nursing home for nuns, but they need the Greenbelt to do a lot of the work. The state is using mostly federal money, so they don’t have more to send someone out to the site, and they also don’t have the recourses that the Greenbelt does, so they asked them to go and take care of it. They want to put a CR on it, which is a conservation restriction which means nothing can come in and do anything to the property without consent. The property was pretty nice except for some parts that are hidden by trees and thorns. We had to go see them so it was pretty tough getting through the branches and bushes while wearing rubber boots and bugs flying around you. It sounds pretty gross and not fun, but it actually was and we had a lot of laughs as we all failed to come out of the bushes and trees without scratches on our arms and ticks all over us, which we got off of everyone thankfully.

Blog 11

Today there wasn’t anything new for me to do, and when I got in I let a volunteer use my computer (it’s not really my computer, it’s just the computer I use almost every day) and I used Ellen’s computer in another room. The computer I always use is a PC, my laptop at home is a PC, and Ellen’s computer is a Mac. I don’t know a lot about Mac’s, and as silly as this may make me look, I couldn’t figure out how to get to libraries and had to ask Cathy for help. Once I found my document I needed was, I went back to getting the contacts for the remaining companies and such I had left from yesterday. I finished finding most of them (not all of them because they aren’t all available online) and I entered what I had into the spreadsheet. When I was done with that I helped Cathy with some mailing things, which wasn’t fun but I was glad to help her. I actually sat there and stamped about 100 envelopes and I also had to seal them all. Not fun, but it made Cathy’s life a little easier. When I was done with that it started to downpour and thunder and lighting, so everyone had to shut down their computers because last summer I guess the building got struck by lightning and it messed up the computers, so because of that I took that time to go downstairs to talk to Vanessa about a farmer she is working with that I wrote about in my essay. Tomorrow should be fun, we are going on a site visit to a place in Ipswich, so I’m pretty excited about that.

Jacquelyn's Rough Draft

Jackie Rose

Local Land Conservation vs. Corporate Land Conservation

Today there are much more corporate, or factory farms then there are locally. If you were to look around our area you would find less than ten local farms, when if you looked about ten years ago, there would have been 15 or so. With the lack of local farms as well as the concern for many areas that are beautiful and bring benefits to a community, there are land conservation organizations that make sure these properties and farms stay safe. Land conservation is protecting a certain land because of its natural recourses or animal life. Organizations like the Essex County Greenbelt and the Trustees of Reservation work to protect this land and keep it local, and avoid factory farming. Corporate farming is described as, “food production for market sale” (tuition.com). This means that farmers let big companies take over their farm so they get more money. People think this is all well and good, but the food that comes out of it is not so healthy and farmers are always shocked to find what becomes of their animals. Local farming is when the food a farm produces goes straight to the consumer. Nothing added to their animal’s diet and healthier foods are what come out of local farms. The financial recession America is facing now is a result of today’s food industry. People need more money so they do what they have to do, and for some farmers, that means letting their farm go corporate, so they earn more money. Factory farming allows a massive amount of food to be sent out and sold around the country for a cheap price, but leads to many health risks. Local farming is more expensive then a pack of Purdue chicken, but it is healthier, and the consumer is supporting their community. Although local farming is a bit more expensive, it has more benefits concerning the health of humans, animals, and the earth compared to that of factory farming, which is why land conservation for local farms is so important.

One of the most common results of factory farming is fast food. It’s cheap and available whenever you need or want it. People today need food that is cheap, because of the recession, and fast food is an affordable way to feed the family. McDonald’s fast food restaurant doesn’t have an item on their menu that is more than $10.00, plus they have a dollar menu, where you can get an item for a dollar or less. This allows consumers to spend not so much money on enough food items to feed their family for the night. Buying from McDonald’s is cheaper than buying from a local farm or a farmer’s market, but it causes more health issues.

Local farms are not expensive, but they are pricier than a burger from McDonald’s. At a farmers market you can get fruit, vegetables, and meats that are healthy for you and your family and support a local business. Many vendors at Farmer’s Market have reasonably priced fresh food available there for consumers. At the Cape Ann Farmers’ Market, which opens on Thursday June 20, there are over 72 craft and food vendors to help deliver freshly available foods to the communities of Gloucester, Manchester, Essex, and Rockport. One of their goals that is listed on their website is to, “create community-wide changes that support more active lifestyles and increase the availability of healthy, affordable foods to help propel Cape Ann into a healthier future” (Cape Ann Farmers Market). The vendors at the market are local, so anyone purchasing the food there is supporting local businesses, eating local, eating healthy, and simply eating fresh food.

If a farmer wants to protect his/her land, they can contact a Land Conservation organization. If local, they can ask to get a conservation restriction, or CR, on their land which prevents anyone taking their land and changing it or harming it. CR’s can also be put on properties other than farms. The cost of a CR can get expensive, and it depends mainly on how many acres it is. What the farmer, or owner, and the organization have to do is figure out how much the property is worth and come up with the money. Different ways to get the money are to write grants, ask citizens of the town to vote to save it, and work with different organizations to pull in the money. CR’s can get as expensive as $2.5 million, which a lot of organizations don’t have, so they rely on these grants and other citizens to help protect it. With the cost of a CR, many farmers need the money afterward, so their food is a little more expensive than the burger or chicken nuggets from a fast food restaurant chain.

Land conservation and CR’s don’t just affect the property and the owner; it also affects the animals if it’s a farm, as well as plants and lakes or anything on the property. If a farmer decides to take his farm and put it in the hands of a company like Tyson, they sign a contract that essentially takes away all their rights from the food they give their animals to what kind of soil they use in their fields. A company called Monsanto that owns a majority of big name food companies, goes to all the companies they own farms, and makes them use their soil. What Monsanto does to the farmers is basically making them sign a contract for them to own their land. Monsanto are famous for having one of the first genetically modified organism, or GMO’s. These GMO’s are seeds put in the soil where crops are grown and they grow into the food we eat, and if a farmer is caught using any other seed than Monsanto seeds, they are sued. Nobody knows what these MGO’s do to our food, except those who look. They contaminate the crops, making them unhealthy for humans and animals to eat, they cause diseases like E. coli in plant crops, and if animals consume them, they can put diseases into the meat that eventually will be sold to a family, eaten, and then spread into a person’s body.

Nobody knows, or really cares, about these MGO’s until something goes wrong. Either sickness or sometimes a death is what makes people wonder what is really in their food. With such strict rules from the FDA and USDA, some farms don’t even have to tell you how they grow their crops or how they treat their animals. In the documentary Food Inc, they talk about Monsanto and shows examples of how they take over people’s farms, and lives. One example they show is of a chicken farmer, Carole Morison, whose farm is now owned by Monsanto.

When talking to Morison, they must blur out her face so no one knows who she is, essentially hiding her identity from Monsanto because she is breeching her contract by letting outsiders in, which shouldn’t be acceptable in the first place. She shows the viewers her chicken coop, which is about the size of a horse stable and talks about how she has to go around and pick up dead chickens, saying, “this isn’t farming, this is mass production” (Food Inc.). Her chickens are dying faster than they should because of the food she is forced to feed them. Their food has special hormones and chemicals added to it to make the chicken grow faster, because the company that owns her farm (i.e. Tyson or Purdue) needs a massive amount of chicken at full growth to sell. It usually takes a chicken around five months to be fully grown, but that isn’t fast enough for these companies so they need to speed up the process. As a result of their heightened growth, some chickens die of tumors, birth defects, and actually becoming too large to even move so it can’t get food.

Chickens aren’t the only animals being somewhat abused in this industry. Cows and pigs are popular animals we eat, so of course we need more of them as quick as we can get them. According to Food Inc. the largest slaughter house in the world is the Smithfield Hog Processing Plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, where, “32,000 hogs a day are killed” (Food Inc). Perfectly find animals that don’t need to be killed just yet get brutally killed by different methods. Before even being brought to the slaughterhouse, some of the pigs can’t even walk, so workers have to beat the pig until it musters up courage to walk, or they throw the pig into the truck violently. Once at the slaughterhouse, how they get killed is a sad fate, whether they are conscious or not. Being cut, beaten, thrown into machines, and all sorts of other horrific treatments.

For cows, they get the same treatment, too. While they are still alive, they have bad living conditions. They stand ankle deep in their own feces, they eat contaminated corn and feces, and they contract diseases. The most common disease they get is E. coli, and it’s spread from one another by their living conditions. When brought into the slaughterhouse, the cows are still covered in the manure, and they aren’t cleaned off until they are put into boiling hot water. They are tied by their ankles, while still alive, from the ceiling and hang there being brought different places, all the while having their bodies and heads slammed into walls. They are put into shouts and thrown into hot water, their heads can get cut off, or they can just be cut in half by a chain saw. If they aren’t put into the water, they still have the manure on them, and as Food Inc. says, “if they’re slaughter 400 animals an hour, how do you keep that manure getting on to those parts? That’s how the manure gets in the meat” (Food Inc.). When they slaughter that many animals a day, they don’t check every single one of them, and neither does the FDA or the USDA, they just put a stamp on it and let it pass.

The amount of safety inspections on meat the FDA has given has decreased over the years. It may be because they were much more needed before, without having cleaner supplies to slaughter the animals with and no technology to check what things were, or it could be that there is just way to much meat to inspect. Whichever it is, it should not be happening. In order to make sure that the food people buy is safe for them to eat, everything needs to be checked. According to Food Inc., “In 1792, the DFS conducted 50,000 food safety inspections. In 2006, the FDA conducted only 9,164” (Food Inc.). Although the information for how many have been done in recent years is unavailable, a new law was passed in 2011 by President Obama. The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was passed on January 4, 2011. The FDA says the act, “It aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it” (fda.gov). This quote even shows that before this act had been passed, they weren’t primarily focused on preventing contaminated foods, but just to respond to emergency breakouts.

As the world becomes more and more aware of what is going on behind the scenes of where our food comes from, more people are starting to do more about it. Through petitions to voting more and more companies have started to become known for what they do. All of this connects to land conservation, because without the availability of it, there wouldn’t be anywhere for farmers and land owners to go who want to protect their land. Of course, all of this information about how animals are treated wrong and how big businesses can take over some ones farm, all depends on location.

Around this area you won’t find many farms overtaken by a big company. You won’t find any, actually, but you can find a Monsanto plant in Cambridge. There are no farms around Cape Ann that belong to Monsanto, but further out in the state there are. Land conservation organizations are what are keeping our farms from becoming a product of Monsanto. Although most farms aren’t functional anymore, they are still important to the community, and CR’s are what keep them here. Without a land conservation organization keeping farms and properties clean, well kept, and safe from and outside danger, citizens would be seeing many pretty places turn into disgusting and creepy looking fields.

If you travel to some places that are ‘in the middle of nowhere’ there are plenty of disgusting and creeping looking places that aren’t being protected, and farms that are being taken over. Although this doesn’t happen in a lot of places in Massachusetts, it does happen in states like Texas and California, and many more. The location of a farm ultimately decides what options are available, and if a farm is somewhere in Texas, far away from anything else but more farms, you’re most likely going to turn to a Monsanto cropping, Purdue producing farm. Farmer’s need money and this is what drives them to agree to the terms and conditions of these companies, and even though they invest as much as $500,000 a typical farmer will only make $18,000 a year. Farmers still have to buy their own equipment, food, and utilities and what they make doesn’t cover it all. They are often in debt so they must abide by their contracts because the companies will make changes and have new updates they need to get, and the farmers have to get them or else they don’t get paid. They often have to sell their house to the company to pay for the equipment, which gives Monsanto the right to take that away from them if they don’t go by Monsanto rules and their contract. If they can’t pay for something, it’s tough luck because they don’t care if you don’t have enough money to pay your rent, they’re going to take your house away from you like a bank would and most likely find something to sue you over...and yet no one can stop them doing this.

People are now starting to try and stop companies like Monsanto from doing what they’re doing. They haven’t been successful yet, but they’re trying. Until something like land or a life is at stake, no one cares. An example of this is how in 2000 the Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation sued Nestle Water. They said they sued, “after reviewing the damage done to the watershed by Nestlé’s extensive withdrawals” and that, “a judge ordered Nestle to cease pumping immediately” (Stop Nestle Waters). Previous to that, years before there had been another issue with Nestle, but they went ahead. According to an article written by Jim Olson on the issue, this time around they lost their high pumping, and, “that limited Nestlé’s pumping to an effective gpm” (Record-Eagle). Land conservation isn’t the only thing protecting properties and water, there’s water conservation too, and without it a small town in Michigan wouldn’t have a safe and clean water supply.

Water and land conservation organizations do everything they can to make our community lands and properties safe for public use and for the owner, if it’s not the organization. Having land available for the public to visit is good because it allows citizens to go out and see the beautiful places that are in their communities that they might not have been able to see if it weren’t for land conservation. It promotes part of a healthy lifestyle because you can go for walks and hike to see some beautiful places, and it brings you closer to your city or town. The operations manager at the Essex County Greenbelt Association said, “I wouldn’t have even known what was beyond it if I didn’t go walk through it, and it was so beautiful” about a Greenbelt owned land called Tompson Street. Greenbelt puts signs in front of all their properties that are available to the public, so they can be seen and used. Walking around these properties provides exercise, and if you drive a car, it lowers your carbon footprint for a little while.

Most everybody nowadays have and drive cars. A person’s carbon footprint is how much of greenhouse gasses they give off. Driving cars is one way to heighten it. Cape Ann consists of many small towns, and the distance it takes for someone to drive from their house to the supermarket, farm, or farmers market doesn’t add up to a lot of carbon emissions being set off. By driving to the supermarket and getting food that isn’t local, you are adding to that foods carbon footprint. Chances are it isn’t from around here and had travelled far and wide to get here. All products in a grocery store that aren’t local had to travel to end up there, some farther than others. If someone buys an avocado at the grocery store from South America, they are adding more and more carbon emissions to that little fruit just by driving it from the store to your house.

That avocado has been through a lot. It was grown in South America, picked and packaged in a box, and then sent off to a distributor. The being sent off is either by plane, boat, or a little of both. Once it reaches the distributor, it then faces its next travel type, which is either another plane or it is driven in a truck. It took a long time for that avocado to end up in a grocery store in Massachusetts, and it should be rotten by now. The way they keep fruits and vegetables fresh is by spraying certain chemicals when they are picked, and then having the grocery store spray water on them until they are bought. Why go through all of that and then eating an avocado that should have gone bad but was sprayed with chemicals you didn’t even know about, when you could just go to your local farm or farmers market?

The only carbon footprint you are adding to is yours if you chose to buy locally. You may drive the same distance to the grocery store that you do to the farm or farmers market, but which place you go shapes how healthy your avocado is. Going to the farm or farmers market, you know who the farmer is and you can ask the, questions, you can see how they grow it, and you know that it is a fresh avocado. That avocado is as fresh as it will get, and it hasn’t travelled anywhere except from where it was picked to where it’s being sold, unless it’s at a farmers market and then that’s the same distance that you drove to get it. Although you can get fresh food from a farm directly, in Cape Ann you can’t get certain foods all year round.

In the winter foods aren’t available that are in the summer, and so you can’t go to the farm to get that fresh, healthy avocado. Although you can’t get every single summer fruit and vegetable in the winter, you can a good list of them. Through different methods like drying, indoor gardens and greenhouses, there has been many ways for citizens to still get fresh fruit in the winter. There are also many fruit and vegetable wholesale retailers, like Cape Ann Produce, who can supply someone with a large amount of fresh fruits and vegetables year round, you pick what you want and let them know. They deliver it to you and there you have it. The winter fruit and vegetables do for most Cape Ann citizens and then when the seasons change they switch to summer fruits and vegetables again, but there are ways to get a bit of both when you want.

Another example is chicken and meat. You can buy chicken and meat from the grocery store and not really know how it was raised, treated, or what it was fed. Buying from a local farm you would know all of that. You could see firsthand how the farmers treat their animals. You can talk to the farmer about it and ask questions on what it eats. Eating locally doesn’t just promote local businesses, it is healthier. Local farms produce wholly natural foods, while a majority of big brand foods from the grocery store have added hormones and chemicals in their meats just because of what they feed them. In most factory farms they feed their chicken and cattle corn, and solely corn, while what they should be eating is grass. Grass is healthier for them and it has no added chemicals to it like they put in corn. All farmers want healthy food for their consumers, and that’s why local farmers rely so much on land conservations to help them keep and protect their farms.

People wouldn’t have the option of having fresh food whenever they wanted without land conservation. Many people don’t even know who or what land conservation organizations do, even though they are extremely important in today’s world. If all working farms in Cape Ann were to sell to a big business, there would be no more fresh fruit, vegetables, chicken, or meat. Every meat and chicken would be made like McDonald’s hamburgers and chicken nuggets and every fruit and vegetable would have chemicals, as well as pesticides, stuck on it for you to eat. Land conservations help farmers keep their farms, support their farms, and protect their farms with the support of citizens and consumers.

A real time example of a land conservation organization helping protect a farmer and his farm is how the Essex County Greenbelt is helping a farmer, called Farmer Bob, with his farm in Georgetown. Farmer Bob and his wife are an elderly couple whose health are declining. Farmer Bob and his wife are what land conservationists call “land rich, cash poor” says Vanessa Johnson, Land Conservation Project Manager at the Greenbelt. What that means is that on his 16 acre farm, Farmer Bob has eight acres of working farm land, meaning he is rich in land, but he doesn’t have that much money.

What Farmer Bob and his wife want to do is sell the development rights to the farm to the Greenbelt, for less than the farm is worth. What this will do for Farmer Bob is it will give them a tax reduction, and will be compensated for selling the development rights. Farmer Bob is selling the Greenbelt his farm for $250,000 which according to Johnson is “$100,000 below its worth”. Even though they are selling it at a lower price, the Greenbelt has to look for partners to help pay for it. In this project, the Greenbelt has asked the Town of Georgetown to help by lending $150,000 and they would get the leftover money they needed seeking donations and by writing grants, one of them is a federal grant that funds CR’s for farmlands.

If Georgetown helps Farmer Bob and the Greenbelt with the money, then the Greenbelt would put a CR on it. Although Greenbelt owns it, Farmer Bob still works on and for it. There are other reasons why Farmer Bob and his wife wanted to get a CR put on the farmland besides the money they need. They wanted to do it so they would have money for their retirements, and also so they can leave the farmland as inheritance to their children. If Greenbelt does not get the money from the town then they will have to use internal funds to buy it out, but Johnson says they are not sure if they will if it comes down to that.

Local land conservation means something to the citizens of Cape Ann, while corporate conservation does not. The benefits of local conservation outweigh those of corporate, and while many people take for granted the fresh food that is available to them, in the future there are predictions that more and more people will turn to local foods as opposed to foods that are genetically modified. The new consciousness everyone’s having about child obesity is leading to a nationwide phenomena about fresh, healthy foods. Factory farming damages the earth, hurts animals, and can make you sick, which is why land conservation on local farms is so important. Local conservation can guarantee safer, healthier and fresher foods for future generations, which why it is better than factory farming.

Blog 10

Today was much like all week has gone so far. Monday I helped Cathy with some of her projects and we had a birthday party for Ed Becker, who has been with the Greenbelt for a really long time and still works in the office. We got pies from Russell Orchards and ice cream from Down River, but of course the conversation while the 14 of us ate the delicious food was of land conservation, and the two people who drowned. Yesterday I spent all day working on a project I’m doing with Cathy looking at a bunch of businesses in Cape Ann, which is what I did when I took over for the volunteer Ann except it was for Merrimack Valley and I just entered the information she got. I wrote down all the businesses, which include restaurants, tours, sails, shops, and inns, phone number and an address for each. I finished writing down all of the businesses yesterday and finished the day off with filing for Shelley and sorting through plastic and compostable cups in the attic while talking to Mike about a site visit we’re taking on Friday. Today I sat down with Abbey and talked about my GIS project because I finished with a newsletter that I started with so it’s now time for me to start on the harder stuff, which are the written files. She walked me through two to teach me and I’m actually really excited about it. I get to learn more about assisted projects the Greenbelt is doing and where they are located and a bunch of cool information that I’m going to need for my major. For the rest of the day today I just worked on my business sponsor project, but just getting contacts for ALL OF THEM. It was dreadful but Cathy split the businesses with me so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

Blog 9

Today wasn’t very exciting. I went in and did some things for Cathy on Raisor’s Edge. I put in new members into the program and also runners from last night that registered at the trail run (they didn’t pre register). After that was done I was supposed to work on my assisted projects project, but I couldn’t use the computer I always use because it was in the room where someone was having a meeting today, and the computer I was using didn’t have access to the folder I needed to get to. I talked to some of the Greenbelt employees for a couple minutes waiting for a volunteer, Anne, to be going home because I was going to use the computer she was using to finish up what she was doing. I started on hers but it took longer than expected because I couldn’t read some of her handwriting so I had to do a little research. I had to leave early today because I had a meeting at school. 

Blog 8

Thursday was fun. We had an event in West Newbury so I went to that to help volunteer and run it. It was a 5K trail run at the Pipestave Equestrian and field’s place (I don’t know the exact name of it). Instead of going in my usual hours I didn’t go in until 3:30 and I helped them load the truck and cars with everything we needed and then we drove to West Newbury to the trail. Once we were there it was really really cold and was sprinkling a little bit. That part when it was freezing was not very fun, but it got better. Once the truck came, it had fallen behind us, we set up the tables with different things on each. We had a table for registration, a table for food, and a table for cups of water. I helped fill all the cups of water, and there were a lot of them. We filled two long tables full of cups of water and it took a long time. I also helped set up the barrels, which we had three of. We had one for trash, one for recycling, and one for compost. I put the signs on each of them and put the trash barrels in. Once the race started we split up into groups, some staying at the water/registration table and others went to different spots throughout the trail. I went to the half mark with two other girls from the Greenbelt to cheer them on. It was fun, despite being freezing cold. 

Blog 7

Today was cool, I went in at 11 and I worked on my project with the assisted projects the Greenbelt has done throughout the years. I finished a 22 page newsletter that had a list of all the properties that the Greenbelt has done something with (aka assisted projects) in two hours today. It was interesting to see all of the properties from around the 70’s and maybe a little bit earlier to 2011, and even though I finished the newsletter I still have a lot more newsletters to get through plus files we have at the office. At 1:00 everyone in the office, including me, went to Down River Ice Cream because they had free baby cups or cones of ice cream so of course we had to get some. After that I had a meeting at school but I went back to the office after and finished up some things for the Pipestave 5K Trail Run we’re having tomorrow in West Newbury. I’m excited for tomorrow because I’m volunteering at the Trail Run. I also have helped the Greenbelt start up composting at their events and I gave them a contact, the one we have for school, and they are going to be composting at their events from now on. The trail run should be fun and I got a T shirt which was cool. Although the trail run will run until around 9/9:30 tomorrow we aren’t going up to Pipestave until around 4 to start getting ready. 

Blog 6

Friday at my internship we went to a site visit with a couple acquisition volunteers. I have been looking forward to this all week. I went in at 11 and met with the acquisition volunteers and one member of the Greenbelt and we all got ready to go meet the other two guys at the marina. We were going to see a potential site that the Greenbelt can get from the current owner on the marsh. It is right near Hog Island so we took two skiffs out to visit it. When we got there it was high tide so there wasn’t much to see except some of the top of the marsh, but I learned about the land. The owner bought it around the 70’s and with the help of one of his friends built something for ducks. It got washed away and they never went back out until now because the owner has passed away. His friend contacted the Greenbelt because the man’s wife doesn’t want to keep it anymore, so we may get it. What the Greenbelt will do if they decide to conserve it is put a CR on it, which is a conservation restriction so no one can do anything with it except us. After the CR they will decide if they want to keep it or if they want to sell it to another group like the Trustees of Reservation. The CR will stay in place forever if they do decide to get it, and it will probably just stay the same. I learned a lot and it was really cool to go out on a site visit and I cant wait to do more. 

Blog 5

Today went by really fast. It was nice outside and everyone was busy doing their thing. I worked in a different office today, but I worked on my GIS project. I finally got myself used to how to work town assessor websites and find what I want to find. We are having a trail run at one of the sites on May 2^nd, and for prizes we’re giving out $5.00 gift cards to Down River ice cream, for the winners. I went down to Down River but they didn’t take cards, which is what they had given me at the office to pay for and I didn’t have $80 then and there to buy it, so I had to go back. Cathy went on an errand and said she was going to get some money so while she was gone I worked on my usual database work, entering people into a program and making sure their emails are correct if they’re already in the system. Today I had to put in that they are doing the trail run coming up, because then we know that they were there. When Cathy came back I finished a couple more of those and then went back to Down River, got the 16 gift cards, and went back. I’m really excited for tomorrow because we are going on a site visit somewhere in Essex. We’re going by boat and I’m so excited. Next week I’m doing more site visits which I’m excited about too.

Blog 4

Yesterday was my first day back to the internship after my trip to London. Yesterday I got back into what I was doing before I left, which was sorting some things out in Razor’s Edge which is an online database for members of the Greenbelt. I also helped labeling. Today wasn’t very eventful and I have found out that cold and rainy days like today are always going to be non eventful. Today I met a couple volunteers and helped them label some more things. After that I met with a member of the Conservation team, Abby, and we sat down for a couple hours and she taught me about a project I’m going to work on. I’m going to use online databases, newsletters that could back to the late 70’s, and records we have at the office to put into a spreadsheet all of the Assisted Projects the Greenbelt have done. It’s going to be kind of hard, but I’m up for the challenge. After we talked about that and Abby showed me things on the computer and on different towns Assessors page online, I sat down with Cathy and Shelley and talked about compostable cups for an upcoming trail run. We talked about what size/what type we should get and I did some research and found them six to choose from and I will show them to them Thursday and we are all going to pick the best one they should get. I also talked to Mike about what I get to do on Friday, which is going out to a site. We are getting there by boat and looking at a prospective property, I can’t wait! 

Blog 3

Yesterday we were supposed to go out to a site in Newbury, but because of the weather we decided to stay in. We were going to go and clean up and walk all the trails to make sure there was no trash or branches in the way. We are having an event there in a couple weeks; it’s a trail run, so in advance we have to make sure it’s cleaned up. Since we didn’t go we rescheduled to sometime after vacation (because I’m going to London!). So instead of going out we stayed at the office. I cleaned up some addresses on a program called Raisers Edge and made sure everything in there was correct. I also talked to a guy who works in the stewardship department; his name is Mike, about the new Ospray camera we put out. It went live a couple days ago so we have all been excited. Mike and I talked about how we are going to possibly put up another perch. The weather was really cold and rainy and just gross so everyone was in the office today so we all had lunch together. It was really cool to eat and talk with everyone because not everyone is there at the same time. We really only talked about the OsprayCam and projects that I will be working on. Because of my project as a scholar, I am going to help them start composting at events so I have been talking to Conor, the guy who picks up the schools compost, about getting them started. It’s been a good first week, but I really can’t wait to get out on the fields. 

Blog 2

Today was better than the last two days at my internship. When I got there they told me that I was going to be going to Down River ice cream to go behind the building into the marsh and pick up postcards the Greenbelt had put there that had flown off into the marsh. We got there and the lady I was with, Cathy, didn’t have her boots with her so she stayed on the dry part of the marsh. Since I had boots I went into the marsh and picked up what I could, along with some bottles that had been thrown in there. When we were done we went back to the Cox Reservation and I helped Cathy with some stamps again and helped her set up for some ladies who are coming in tomorrow to do the mail. After that I walked the trail Clamhouse Landing and made sure there were no branches in the way. I did some computer work after that and then helped clean up the attic. After doing the attic I talked to Shelly about composting because she wants to start composting at Greenbelt events, and since I know a lot about it from my Scholars project, I am able to help her. After talking we went and looked at what they use for cups now and I said I could research other things for her and told her about what I knew. After that I helped a guy named Mike go around all the trails and clean up trash and make sure it was clean. 

Blog 1

Yesterday was my first day at the Essex County Greenbelt and it was cool. I met everyone that works there (there aren’t that many) and got familiarized with what everyone does. After that I started on a project to help them out a bit which was to make a PowerPoint presentation for an upcoming event, Art in the Barn. I made three slides for each contestant and put five of their works in them. When I was done with that I went for a walk down one of the trails with a girl named Dani who works there. Today there wasn’t much for me to do, so I worked on some little things. I put some names of people who attended events into a program on their database, which was interesting because I got to know how it works. At 10 there was a board meeting about this other program they have that I went to. I learned how to use it in case I do it in the future. After the meeting I stamped a lot of envelopes. That wasn’t really that much fun, but I know that when I get back from vacation I will get to go out and do more things, so I didn’t mind. I went for another walk and ate lunch down at one of the sites after I finished one box of envelopes. When I got back I finished another box of them, put them away, and entered more people into the program. Overall it wasn’t the most fun projects I did, but it was ok because I got to learn new programs and soon I will be going out to sites and doing more. 

New Labels

New Labels