Podcast 5 – Phil Stanway

Phil Stanway at Red Wing Farm

On November 18, I drove to Chelmsford, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston.  In the parking lot of Jones Farm, I met Phil Stanway.  Phil is a computer programmer in his day job, but he also spends 25 or more hours a week as the volunteer head of the Chelmsford Open Space Stewardship.  I hopped in his truck and he gave me a whirlwind tour of the properties they manage.  Andrea Freeman of the Putnam Conservation Institute suggested I contact Phil – thanks Andrea!

This was kind of a different interview for me, since it was in a moving truck and outside, and my field recorder was not always up to the task.  That’s why it’s shorter than  lot of the other podcasts.  But I think it’s unique among them in really giving you a sense that you are there.  You can download the audio here, or listen below.

The YouTube version had to be a bit shorter, because of their time limits.  I omitted the last stop on the tour, which I didn’t have any pictures of anyway, because it was dark at that point.

The Chelsmford Open Space Stewardship group has an operating budget of $500 a year to manage 10 properties in town (most of the town’s Open Space).  There are about 20 volunteer stewards, who among them put in about 6,000 hours a year.  Phil said that the group never has meetings because they “don’t believe in them.”  Instead, they keep track of everything on their excellent website, www.thechelmsfordian.com.  If you’re interested in learning more about their group and their events or looking at over 5,000 pictures, be sure to check it out.

The sites we visited were:

• Red Wing Farm
• The Lewis property, which the town had recently acquired with Community Preservation Act Funds
• The Lime Quarry, which is Phil’s site
• Bartlett Park, in the center of town, which they manage for the Chelmsford Land Trust

We talked a lot about geocaching opportunities on their sites.  I don’t know much about geocaching, but it’s a sport in which you use a GPS to find boxes hidden in the woods.  This seems like a good place to learn more. The Chelsmford group seems to have a good idea in using it to bring more people to enjoy their properties.