Land Trust Holds Annual Meeting

SLCT vice president, Willit Mason, presents the Mary Wilson Community Conservation Award to James Viara at the 2025 annual meeting.

Our annual meeting was held on April 9th at the Seekonk Library. President Tom Webb opened the meeting with a slide featuring a map of Seekonk, highlighting the over 800 acres of land in Seekonk that the Land Trust has helped to protect since its founding in 1967. Two new land gifts were donated to the Land Trust in the past year, adding another 17 acres.

Webb summarized Land Trust activities, which included three nature photo walks to support the Seekonk Library-Land Trust Annual Nature Photo Contest, and collaborations with Osamequin Farm on native seed planting and a winter woodland walk. Our stewardship coordinator, Jessie Blackledge, organized a volunteer clean-up at our Allen Avenue property, a trail work day with volunteers and scouts from Seekonk Troop 1 at our Cushing property, and Earth Day clean-ups at our Martin Reserve and other locations in town. The Land Trust continues to award grants to Seekonk school teachers for nature field trips and projects, and an annual grant to the Environmental Resource Center at the Seekonk Library.

This year, the Mary C. Wilson Community Conservation Award, named after the founder of the SLCT, was presented to James Viara. A lifelong resident of Seekonk, Mr. Viara recently donated 4.2 acres of land on Greenwood Avenue to the Land Trust. We are pleased to report that this land will be used to develop a new area of hiking trails in Seekonk!

Our guest speaker, Erin Flynn, an archaeologist at the Public Archaeology Lab in Pawtucket, spoke about her work on local archaeological sites with a slideshow of several excavations in the area. She brought a fascinating collection of Native American artifacts, and reported that traces of Native American civilization in our area date back 12,000 years. The Public Archaeology Lab does archaeological surveys, cemetery investigations, monitors construction sites for signs of ancient life, and consults with Native Americans and tribes. Anyone finding artifacts on their land may wish to contact the Public Archaeology Lab for more information.

The Land Trust always welcomes volunteers. Please consider helping out!
For further information, follow us on www.facebook.com/seekonkLCT.