Volunteers Needed!

Volunteer your time and skills and help support the Refuge! The Friends and Refuge Staff rely on volunteers to run the Friends group and to support the Refuge's programs. And, the Friends and Refuge Staff organize work parties throughout the year that help keep the refuge clean, maintain the trails of the refuge, manage invasive species, provide suitable habitat and support special projects. This page lists scheduled volunteer opportunities and work parties run by the Friends and Refuge Staff. Be sure to check our other Volunteer pages for other ways you can volunteer.

Starting August 9th
Participate in the Nighthawk Survey at Assabet River Refuge this Year

The 2010 fall SuAsCo and Nashua River Valleys & Beyond Nighthawk Survey begins this year on Monday, August 9, and runs through the first ten days of September. The purpose of the survey is to collect key statistics on the continuing dramatic decline in Common Nighthawk migrants that began in the Boston and SuAsCo valley areas more than 100 years ago and has now spread across all of central and northern MA north to northern Canada.

No specific time commitments are required to participate in the survey and each participant gets to decide where and when to do the survey. Observers report their sightings via our website and receive reports back on a real-time basis of what others have seen. All hours recorded on the National Wildlife Refuges in the Eastern MA Complex in observing nighthawks are automatically credited to the appropriate refuges.

For those who have never seen a nighthawk or would like to brush up on their nighthawk identification skills, ARNWR and Oxbow Friends, OAR, Stow Conservation Trust, SVT, and USF&WS are co-sponsoring a nighthawk briefing from 7:30 to 9 pm on Tuesday, August 17. This briefing will address how to identify nighthawks, where and when to look for them, and how to report your observations. Then on a second evening shortly thereafter, participants will have the opportunity to get some hands-on field experience by joining a small field team led by an experienced nighthawk observer to look for nighthawks at one or more observation sites in the SuAsCo valley. At ARNWR these sites may include the hill where the USAF radar tower is located, White Pond Road bridge, Puffer Pond/Taylor Way, and/or the Desert/Memorial Forest area.

The August 17 briefing will be held at the Sudbury Valley Trustees Wolbach Farms headquarters on Wolbach Road off Rte 27 in Sudbury.

For further information about the survey, please go to our new Nighthawk Survey website at borobirding.net. If you are interested in participating in the Nighthawk Survey and/or the briefing, please contact Hank Norwood at hankn583@aol.com.

Starting July 31st
Help the Friends at the Maynard Farmer's Market this Summer and Fall

The Friends plan to have an information booth at the Maynard Farmer's Market on Saturday July 31, Saturday October 2, 2010, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm, rain or shine! Mill Pond Parking Lot Clock Tower Place, Main Street (Rte 62), Maynard.

The Assabet River Refuge covers 3,200 acres in total and is the largest contiguous conservation area in the vicinity and a large physical presence in the town of Maynard. We're preparing a new map to inform Maynard residents of the Refuge in relation to the town and its other conservation lands.

If you have time to organize the booth or a couple of hours to spend at the booth to inform your fellow town residents about the refuge at the Farmer's Market please contact Betsy Griffin (davebets@mac.com).

Going on Now!
Invasive Plant Removal at Assabet River, Oxbow and Great Meadows NWRs

Volunteers are needed to help clear invasive plants from Assabet River NWR, Great Meadows NWR and Oxbow NWR.

The Fish and Wildlife Service have a three part program to control and eradicate these plants – Early detection, Mapping and Removal. The work parties listed below are for removal.

If you want to help, you must register ahead with Amber Carr (Amber_Carr@fws.gov or (978) 443-4661 ex. 33). Dates are subject to cancellation due to bad weather or if no people sign up.

For more information on invasive species removal, see here.

Assabet River NWR: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Meet at the Hudson Road gate. Bring a snack, water, gloves, sunscreen, bug repellent, long pants, long-sleeved shirt, and a smile. We will be using loppers and weed wrenches to remove invasive plants from the refuge.

Great Meadows NWR: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Bring a snack, water, gloves, sunscreen, bug repellent, water shoes, and a smile. We will be removing water chestnut from the impoundments by canoe. Please bring a canoe, paddle and life vest if you have one. The refuge will provide a limited number of canoes, paddles, and life vests — please let me know if you will be using ours.

For work on the Concord impoundments meet in the parking lot at the Concord impoundments off Monson Road.
For Riverfest, meet at the parking lot at FWS HQ at 73 Weir Hill Road, Sudbury.
For work at Weir Hill Road, meet at FWS HQ at 73 Weir Hill Road, Sudbury.