In every season, there is something to be joyful about at our nature center up the hill from Boston Post Road.

By Robin Jovanovich

 

In every season, there is something to be joyful about at our nature center up the hill from Boston Post Road.

 

Over the summer, campers enjoyed seven weeks of nature and the outdoors, with a different theme each week, “Jaws & Claws” and “Not So Scary Movies” among them. For the youngest naturalists, the summer began with two weeks of June Bugs camp.  Bunches of families headed to the center for a recent weekend campout.

 

For Taro Ietaka, who was named Director of Conservation and Land Stewardship at the center earlier this year, the highlight of the summer was hosting Inner-City Scholarship campers for two weeks. “It was a first for me. The children loved everything from going down the new slide and trying to go up the chimney climb [both part of the center’s natural playground], to spending time in the garden, with the animals, in the butterfly house and garden.”

 

When not leading campers, Ietaka could most likely be found surveying the 47-acre landscape. He’s identifying “opportunistic” species — invasive plants — and working on pulling them up and out. He’s been able to trace several of them, including Chinese wisteria and English ivy, back to the original garden around the mansion. (The property once belonged to the Parsons family. The mansion burned down in 1942.) Ietaka’s also happy to report that he’s found trillium and cardinal flower down by the brook.

 

On September 25, Nature Center staff looks forward to a visit from garden “royalty.” Members of the Garden Club of America are coming to have a look at the native garden cultivated by the Little Garden Club of Rye.  

 

Residents of all ages are looking forward to Ghost Stories by Campfire after fall arrives.

 

First-time visitors and regulars have a lot to look forward to. Ietaka is working on signage and a descriptive pamphlet for the garden next to the building. He’s been redoing the trails with Eagle Scouts. If all goes according to plan, which it doesn’t always with Mother Nature, Ietaka’s plans also include creating a storybook trail.

 

Happy trails.