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More about Massachusetts Forest and Park Friends Network
Massachusetts forests in need of friends
Critical issues regarding forests and parklands in Massachusetts
Historic Resources in Friends Groups Forests and Parks
Campaign to stop illegal off-road vehicles from destroying our forests
Workshop Reports from the Partners in Parks Conference, June 2007
Photo: Mike Ryan
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks—John Muir
Historic Resources in Friends Group Forests and Parks
Endangered Historic Resources
Many of the properties managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) are home to historic resources including buildings, stone walls, cellar holes, monuments and other unique features. Some of these resources are endangered by lack of maintenance, lack of planning for their preservation, lack of funding, lack of documentation and illegal activities that damage them.
It is important to advocate for their preservation, but just as important to document what we can before it is lost. If you have such places within your parks you can help by:
• Take pictures and label them with the date and location.
• Keep a file with the pictures and any information pertinent to them.
• Share the information with your DCR staff if you feel they are not aware of them.
• Do not disturb artifacts. Take pictures, document the location, make a diagram sketch of the place where the item is located and share the information with your park staff.
• Conduct interviews with people who might be able to share memories, period photos and documents about the resource.
• Share the information you gather with your park staff, local historical society and keep copies for your own files as well.If you have historic resources within your park and would like to share photos of them with others please send your photos to slheller@comcast.net and we will add them to the MFPFN website. Please tell us a little bit about them and if they are endangered tell us what the problems are.
Without public advocacy many of the places that are part of our heritage will be lost.
• If you have a web site we encourage you to add a page, with photos, about your historic resources and let us know how to link to it!
Historic Landscape Preservation Initiative Historic Landscape Preservation Initiative sponsors special initiatives and offers technical assistance and training to support the preservation of historically significant landscapes throughout the Commonwealth. Link to Terra Firma, and other free HLPI publications to help citizens and communities understand and preserve historical landscapes. Available by mail or PDF files.
Howe Park At Spencer State Forest. Photos Courtesy of Mike Toomey and Friends of Spencer State Forest.
Upton State Forest Camp SP-25
Upton State Forest is home to three remaining Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp buildings with an intact parade ground and an identifiable footprint of the original camp. In 2003 a fourth building collapsed from snow load. In 2005 Preservation Mass listed the CCC Camp as one of the “Ten Most Endangered Historic Resources in Massachusetts.”
Each year a partnership with the Friends of Upton State Forest, DCR CCC Program Committee and the Upton third grade teachers brings students to the camp for a “Day in the Life of the CCC.” The Friends hold events, themed hikes and vernal pool workshops using the camp as a base.
The camp has also been home to the Massachusetts State Guards as Camp Stover, Massachusetts Fish and Wildlife Field Headquarters as Phillips Wildlife Lab, Department of Environmental Management Foresters and Carpenters and the DEM Mounted Patrol.
Without a viable plan for adaptive reuse and a long range plan for preservation of the buildings, a valuable historic resource will be lost.
Ellen Arnold photo
South Barn at Upton State Forest, built in 1935 as part of SP-25 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), collapsed from snow load and neglect in 2003.
The CCC camp at Upton State Forest was listed under the 2005 Ten Most Endangered Historic Resources in Massachusetts.
To view a poster of the Civilian Conservation Corps Camp at Upton State Forest click here.
