Welcome to the Swampscott Conservancy! We’re so happy you’ve come to visit us. Please enjoy your experience on this site, and we hope to see you at our next meeting or event!
The Conservancy’s next meeting will be held remotely on Wednesday, January 22 at 6:30 pm. Click here to see meeting agenda.
View informative videos on our YouTube channel.
Read our Current Newsletter and catch up on past editions:
The Swampscott Conservancy is announcing a Youth Conservation Grant Program designed to provide support to Middle and High School students who wish to make positive environmental change in their community and more broadly New England.
Who can apply? Students who live or attend school in Lynn or Swampscott and are in Grades 6 to 12 are eligible to apply for funds to support a project aimed at making a difference in our natural world. Individual students or groups are welcome to apply. Click here for more information and to apply.
Toni Bandrowicz, President of the Swampscott Conservancy, has written four articles for the Open Space Committee regarding the design and development of the Hawthorne property as open green space. They underscore the unique opportunity that Swampscott has to create a seaside park that will be an exceptional resource for future generations of its residence. This issue is not really about dollars and cents, it is about the character and the heart of a small community that has resided by the sea since 1629.
The Swampscott Conservancy’s letter to the Select Board regarding the April 3, 2024 Hawthorne Proposal is available here:
Swampscott Conservancy’s Photo of the Month
The Swampscott Conservancy looking for high quality photos that capture Swampscott’s natural beauty – scenery, plants, and animals. Submit your photo as an email attachment to swampscottconservancy@gmail.com
Include your name, the location and the date where the photo was taken in Swampscott. If your photo is chosen as a “photo of the month”, it will be featured here as well as the Swampscott Conservancy’s Facebook and Instagram sites. Also, please be aware that the Conservancy may use your photo, with credit, in other contexts, such as in a calendar or notecards.
A young rabbit hides during the day near Puritan Road. Photo taken by Jack Lawler.
Nature in the Neighborhood – November 2024
The High Line
I was in New York City recently and took the opportunity to visit the High Line, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. If you don’t know, the High Line is a 1.45-mile-long elevated linear park and greenway that extends from just below 14th street up to 34th on the city’s west side. This “Park in the Sky,” as it has been dubbed, had been an abandoned elevated rail line that was repurposed into what is today – one of the most popular visitor attractions in the city. In some places, the remains of the rails can still be seen hidden in the greenery or embedded in the walkway. I can attest to its popularity, as I was there on a weekday and, even then, it was crowded with strollers of every age and ethnicity, both locals and tourists. In addition to bringing people, the High Line has also brought economic and social revitalization to a declining and neglected section of Manhattan. Its overwhelming success has generated a worldwide trend in elevated parks.
In many ways, the High Line was what I expected: landscaped beds of mostly, but not entirely, native plants. This time of year, the highlighted flowering plants were purple asters and black-eyed susans, but there are more than 500 plant species along the path. The New York Times calls it “one of the best-known naturalist gardens anywhere.” There were also some things I didn’t expect, such as the eye-catching contemporary artwork or the chance to walk under the canopy of a birch tree grove 30 feet up from street level.
I began to notice that everywhere I walked in NYC there were naturalist gardens such as Little Island, a unique urban oasis in Hudson River Park, and Brooklyn’s Domino Park on the East River. And not just large parks such as these, but also along the streets and sidewalks throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn.
This profusion of native plantings is the result of a 2013 law (Local Law 11) whose goal is to decrease the presence of exotic monocultures in NYC’s 30,000 acres of parkland in favor of native plants. Thus, the law requires maximizing the use of native plantings and drought and salt tolerant plants while also minimizing the presence of exotic monocultures on all city-owned properties. Where native plants are not appropriate, it requires that non-invasive species be used.
Closer to our neighborhood, there are a number of communities in Massachusetts that have adopted either native plant laws or policies, including Somerville (passed a Native Planting Ordinance establishing a minimum requirement for native plants and trees planted in city-owned parks, open spaces, and streets) and Ipswich (adopted a policy that prioritizes native plantings for its municipal spaces and encourages residents to consider native plants for their gardening and landscaping).
An increasing number of communities are recognizing the significant ecological benefits of native vegetation and are promoting sustainable landscapes by choosing at least a percentage of native plants for use in municipal public landscaped areas and, just as importantly, encouraging private homeowners to do the same.
Native plants enhance the beauty of the landscapes, maintain and restore biodiversity, support native pollinators and birds, and protect local ecosystems and environmental health. Additionally, using native plants, instead of their non-native counterparts reduces:
Doug Tallamy is the author of several books, including Bringing Nature Home and Nature’s Best Hope, that aim to awaken readers to the fact that wildlife populations are in decline because the native plants they depend on are fast disappearing. His solution is simple: plant more natives! To see a video presentation by him hosted by the Swampscott Conservancy go to: youtube.com/watch?v=C9aD5N5D3QM&t=1s
“In the past,” Tallamy has said, “we have asked [only] one thing of our gardens: that they be pretty. Now they have to support life, sequester carbon, feed pollinators and manage water.”
NYC’s Local Law 11 recognizes the critical role that native plants play in keeping neighborhood ecosystems diverse and providing healthy habitat. Implementation of the law has resulted in the creation of gardens that support a sustainable planet and are pretty.
Toni Bandrowicz, President
The Swampscott Conservancy
Donations to the Swampscott Conservancy are an invaluable resource that must be tapped in the fulfilling of the crucial and altruistic goals that are laid out in our organization’s mission statement, and which are embodied by our dedicated members and our ongoing activities. All monetary contributions will be applied in the direct interest of furthering the natural wonder of our community; whether a member or not, your assistance is greatly appreciated and will be perceived in one way or another by any and all who immerse themselves in Swampscott’s natural, open spaces. Thank you for supporting The Conservancy and empowering your local community!
