Marblehead Conservancy committee honored

MARBLEHEAD – A group of Marbleheaders has been honored by State Rep. Lori Ehrlich, D-Marblehead, and selectmen for their work on the town’s walking trails, but they don’t look ready to sing “Happy Trails To You.”The Marblehead Conservancy was created in 2001 to protect, acquire and enhance the town’s open space, and one of the fledgling organization’s first steps was to create a Trails Committee.Since then the Trails Committee has logged 10,000 work hours creating and rehabilitating about four miles of trails, removing several acres’ worth of invasive plants and planting more than 5,000 native tree and shrub seedlings in their place.Those work hours were logged each Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning in the seven years since the committee began – and they don’t include meetings and preparation time which could boost the total effort to 15,000 hours.They also hold Earth Day and Arbor Day celebrations each year, helping Marblehead to become a Massachusetts Tree City. They have removed hundreds of bags of trash from open spaces and sponsored 35 group trails and forestry programs, 15 with the Boy Scouts and seven with local schools.They’re not finished either. “It’s hard to say what percent done we are,” Conservancy Co-Chairman Don Morgan told selectmen.The trails they have finished include about 1.5 miles in Steer Swamp, a mile in Wyman Woods, a half-mile in Forest River and Hawthorn Pond and a quarter-mile at the Robinson Farm and Ware Pond. They built boardwalks at the two ponds. All these properties are conservation land.The committee members include Co-Chairman Robert French, Vice Chairman Dick Marcy, Fred Madio, Sandi Peaslee, Maureen Ashley, Joan McDuff and Doug Perkins. French is also president of the Conservancy. The committee works with the Conservation Commission, Recreation, Park and Forestry Department, Municipal Light Department, Water Department and School Department.