Matt MacNayr, of Matt MacNayr Restoration, designed and built the viewing platform at the Basin Pond Trail in Lee.

Landmark Volunteers carry 22-foot timber to bridge site.

We are proud of our staff’s capacities, and we are lucky enough to work with some great contractors, but when it comes to land stewardship, we are often reminded just how essential our volunteers are to the success of our mission.

In 2007, BNRC lands saw a flurry of volunteer activity that produced great results. Trails and bridges were built by Landmark Volunteers at our Hallowell property in Lenox. A crew of Student Conservation Association volunteers and Peter Jensen rallied through a 3/4 mile section of trail at the Alford Springs property. To cap the year off, volunteers pulled off a great one-day effort to assemble a viewing platform at the site of the breached dam on the Basin Pond Trail.

But this part of the story starts almost a year earlier. Following the opening of the new trail in November 2006, BNRC planned to construct a viewing platform at the trail’s terminus that could offer hikers a restful seat. To our delight, Matt MacNayr offered to take on the project as a volunteer. Matt drafted the design and assembled the platform in his back yard using locally milled and naturally rot-resistant black locust. Hardware was donated by Dresser-Hull Lumber in Lee, and purchase of the locust lumber was underwritten by Robert and Judith DeIasi.

On Columbus Day we called in the troops. Matt disassembled the platform in the morning rain. Undeterred, and fueled by coffee and donuts, a team of volunteers trucked the materials to the end of Beaver Dam Road and shuttled the timbers across the beaver dam to the site.

The rain ended as the materials made it to their final resting place and Matt coordinated the assembly. Shortly after noon the finishing touches were complete.

Our thanks to Matt, Dresser-Hull, the DeIasis and the many volunteers who braved all sorts of weather to help us on our projects this year!

Landmark Volunteers and Rice Fellow Jon Kravitz move hemlock timbers into place for a foot bridge at the Hallowell property in Lenox. Look for an official trail opening in the summer of 2008.	Student Conservation Association MassParks AmeriCorps with Peter Jensen and Rice Fellows Dan LaFrance and Jon Kravitz at the end of a 3⁄4-mile connector trail at Alford Springs in Alford.

Resource Report is published by the Berkshire Natural Resources Council
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