MLRA Committee Pages

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Nature Coordinating Committee

Link to an article about the Lewis W. Barton Arboretum from Medford Leas Life. 
Link to the Arboretum and Nature Preserve page on the administration site, medfordleas.org 
The MLRA Nature Coordinating Committee (NCC) meets quarterly.  It consists of representatives of Volunteer services to the Lewis W. Barton Arboretum and Nature Preserve.

The NCC reports to the Estaugh Arboretum Oversight Committee, meeting shortly before that group's quarterly meeting. Archive of NCC reports since August, 2011. 

Currently the 10 activities which are represented at the NCC quarterly meetings are:

Apiary: Bee Keeper Corey Melissas maintains hives on both the Medford and Lumberton Campuses.  

Bird Club: Meets once a month for programs involving speakers or films. Also one or two field trips per month to Bird Sanctuaries. (description and link to Bird club page at right)

Courtyard Mapping: Maintains current maps, posted on each courtyard wall, of the plantings in the courtyard. 

Farm: Provides space where residents maintain plots on which they grow flowers and/or produce. The landscaping crew assists with cultivation and water.  (description and link to Farm vidoe at right)

Lumberton Trails and Site: Maintains a series of woodland trails on the Lumberton Campus and plans woodland activities.  (description and link to Lumberton Trails & Site page at right)

Nature Bulletin Board: Maintained in the Atrium, entitled “Nature Preserve” . The Nature Preserve is the natural portion of the Arboretum.  (description and link to BB derived  photo essays at right)

Nature Library: Over four hundred books on Nature related topics are shelved in the Nature Center.  (description and link to Nature Library page at right)

Nature Walks:  Meets at various times and places to walk through the Medford campus observing various flora, for example wildflowers in the spring.  (description and link to Wildflowers website at right)

Portable Nature Display: Maintains a display board for exhibiting Arboretum materials at public events, such as the Barton Lecture.

Woodlands/Trails: Oversees five miles of walking Trails on the Medford Campus and strives to keep the woodlands in the Nature Preserve natural.  (description and link to Woodlands/Trails page at right)

Seven of the activities which are represented at quarterly NCC meetings are illustrated through this website, and so is the apiary.  Links open pages in a new window.  Close the new window to return to this page. 


The Apiary
This section consists of an archive of the newsletters of the beekeeper along with an archive of Medford Leas Life articles about the apiary.

The club's page has a short history of the club, a schedule of birding trips, and photos of birding activities which can be viewed individually or as a slideshow.

Nature Bulletin Board
The website magazine has photoessays derived from bulletin board displays:  An Afternoon Slosh Along Kreibel Way and Heroes of the Trails.

The page contains a trail map which can be enlarged with a click and has links to  photoessays and slideshows that illustrate the beauty of the nature preserve and the work of the residents who maintain the trails and preserve the woodlands. 



This video begins with an aerial view of the farm and then moves to an interview with Rona Keilin.  
Turn your speakers on.

The committee's page has a trail map which can be enlarged with a click, and two slideshows of the meadow: one identifying wildflowers of the meadow, the other of the meadow in the rain. 

This is by far the largest section of mlra.org.  Each of the 180 plus flowers in the wildflower group's  database has a page, and those pages are indexed four ways: alphabetically by both common and scientific names and pictorially by both color and season. 

A description of the contents and sign-out procedure are on the nature libary page. 

Apiary: In 2009, the Estaugh Arboretum Oversight Committee authorized an apiary at Medford Leas.  Correy Melissas, who established and maintains the apiary, is the daughter of a former resident.  While the Apiary is not currently represented at quarterly meetings of the NCC, it is  a volunteer service contributing to the Lewis W. Barton Arboretum.


Subpages (3): NatureLibrary NCC documents The Apiary -- Bees at Leas