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 Monday, February 23 at 6:30 pm. Click here for more information.
View informative videos on our YouTube channel.
Conservancy News
Read our Current Newsletter and catch up on past editions:
The Swampscott Conservancy strongly supports open spaces at the Hawthorne site. For more information see the Nature in the Neighborhood article below or click here.
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.
New Year’s Greetings
from the Swampscott Conservancy!
All of us at the Swampscott Conservancy want to take a moment to express our gratitude to you for your past support of our work. We remain committed to protecting and enhancing the open space and natural resources in our town and acting as an advocate for the environment at the local level.
It is only with member support that we were able to offer the many activities we have over the years, including leading hikes to hosting educational presentations, and from maintaining and opening up new hiking trails to selling native plants and installing native plant gardens.
As we set our sights on a new year, we hope you will consider renewing your membership for 2026 or, if youâre not yet a member, youâll join us. Information on membership and making donations to the Conservancy can be found at: swampscottconservancy.org/make-a-donation/
You can also support the Conservancy by buying our clothing and gear from Bonfire at bonfire.com/store/swampscott-conservancy/
Your contributions provide the most significant portion of the Conservancyâs operating revenue and enable us to continue engaging in science-based education and conservation efforts.
We also invite you to become more directly involved in our ongoing activities. We welcome your suggestions for new actions that the Conservancy can engage in as well as your offers to organize and lead them. Weâre always looking for volunteers to help us in fulfilling our mission!
We hope you resolve to spend more time connecting with nature in our neighborhood in 2026!
Best Wishes for the New Year,
Toni Bandrowicz, President
Swampscott Conservancy
Nature in the Neighborhood â February 2026
Let it snow
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
These are the opening verses of Robert Frostâs much-loved poem âStopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.â This winter, not only the woods, but the yards and roads in our neighborhood have been filling up with snow, more so than in recent years.
Depending on your outlook â and probably age â snow can be either magical or an annoyance.
For the magical-minded, a covering of snow brings a hushed serenity and enchantment to the world, inviting people to stop, like Mr. Frost, and appreciate the stillness and beauty of a snowy wood.
Many also appreciate snow because it allows for outdoor opportunities not available in the summer months, like sledding, skiing, and snowshoeing â and for the young at heart, snowball throwing and snowman building.
However, for others, snow means shoveling and plowing, treacherous driving, and cancelled flights to warmer climates.
Snowflakes form when water vapor in the upper atmosphere freezes and becomes ice crystals that are heavy enough to fall to earth. Thanks to a 19th century Vermonter, Wilson âSnowflakeâ Bentley, we know what these ice crystals look like. According to the Smithsonian Science Education Center, Bentley used a microscope and camera system to capture high-quality images of the snowflakes at extremely high magnification, managing to photograph over 5,000 snowflakes during his lifetime. By photographing white snow crystals against black velvet before they melted, he was able to reveal the unique crystalline forms of each individual snowflake.
Youâve no doubt heard that no two snowflakes are alike, and itâs generally agreed that this is true. But, with one estimate of about 1 septillion (thatâs a trillion trillion) ice crystals dropping from the sky every winter, itâs one of those things that will be difficult to prove … or disprove.
If youâre looking for nature in our neighborhood this snowy winter, you need go no further than your backyard, where you may find a flock of Dark-eyed Juncos (also known as âsnowbirdsâ because they appear with the arrival of winter) frolicking in the snow. Other wintertime birds that frequent backyard bird feeders include Tufted Titmice, Black-capped Chickadees (Massachusettsâ State Bird), Blue Jays, Downy Woodpeckers, and Northern Cardinals.
Snowy Owls (Bubo scandiacus), with their striking white plumage and piercing yellow eyes, are frequent visitors to the Nahant Causeway in the winter and, oddly, also Logan Airport. Migrating from the Arctic, they seek flat, open terrain, like the Tundra theyâre used to, which the airport offers. A short award-winning video, with stunning photography, documenting raptor specialist Norman Smithâs efforts to capture and relocate Snowy Owls from the airport is worth viewing: www.annamillermultimedia.com/owls.
Criss-crossing the snow, youâll find not only bird, but animal tracks. Audubon provides information on these tracks, including a fun activity sheet for young adults to learn how to identify the common tracks they may find, as well as the story they may tell: massaudubon.org/places-to-explore/activities/family-fun/young-explorers-activity-sheets/stories-in-the-snow-activity-page.
Even if you are not a big fan of snow, itâs hard to deny itâs beauty. So, when snow comes to our neighborhood, take time to pause and appreciate something magical in nature – before heading out to the shed for the snow shovel.
A word on climate change.
Just because itâs bitterly cold and thereâs more snow around this year doesnât mean climate change isnât real.
What the scientific data shows is clear. Average winter temperatures have been rising across the U.S. over the past decades, and many places are experiencing fewer cold days. That doesnât mean that the weather in any given location will vary from day to day, so you can still expect extreme cold at times like this winter.
Although it sounds contradictory, Yale Climate Connections (an initiative of the Yale Center for Environmental Communication) points out that the warming of the planet can even cause unusually cold and snowy weather. âWarmer temperatures can weaken the polar jet stream, a belt of high wind that circles the globe below the Arctic. A weaker jet stream can move erratically, pushing frigid air from the Arctic down to the continental U.S., causing extremely cold conditions. Warmer temperatures also evaporate more water into the atmosphere. And when it gets cold, all that atmospheric moisture can then fall to earth as snow.â
While here in New England we will still get years with cold winters and snow like this year, they are becoming farther and farther apart. A recent study by Dr. Stephen Young, a professor at the Department of Geography and Sustainability at Salem State University, shows that New England is currently warming and losing snow cover faster than global averages. His study points to how sea levels are rising, and severe droughts and floods are already starting to appear in numerous parts of New England due to this warming.
The Swampscott Conservancy and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lynn in Swampscott will be hosting a talk by Dr. Young on March 16th at 6:30 pm at the Church, located at 101 Forest Ave. in Swampscott. The talk is open to the public and free of charge. He will explain the climate changes that are occurring in New England, the science of why these changes are occurring, and what our future might look like. His presentation will be based on his recent (December 2025) publication in the journal Climate: âDecreasing snow cover and increasing temperatures are accelerating in New England, USA, with long-term implicationsâ which was written with his son, Joshua Young. It can be found at: https://www.mdpi.com/2225-1154/13/12/246.
Toni Bandrowicz, President
Swampscott Conservancy
EMPOWER OUR CAUSE!
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!
