Mass Audubon’sAllens Pond

A Brief Guide to Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary in Dartmouth, Massachusetts

Mass Audubon’s Allens Pond

©2011 Karley Searles

All rights reserved

Printed in the USA

Published by

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

285 Old Westport Road

North Dartmouth, MA 02747

Typefaces used are Archer, Meta, and Whitney

For Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary

Contents

History

A brief history of

Mass Audubon and

Dartmouth, MA.

Discover the habitats

and wildlife at Allens

Pond.

Learn how you can

help at Allens Pond.

The Sanctuary How to Help

History

Brief Overview

Mass Audubon works to protect the nature of Massachusetts for people and

wildlife. Together with more than 100,000 members, Mass Audubon cares for

33,000 acres of conservation land, provides education programs for 225,000

children and adults annually, and advocates for sound environmental policies at

the local, state, and federal levels.

Advocacy

Mass Audubon works with other conservation organizations, legislators,

universities and citizen groups to shape, strengthen and ensure the fulfillment

of environmental laws, policies and regulations. They inform and educate people

about pending legislation and its potential impact, and enable the public to better

understand the government’s actions regarding environmental issues. Working

with scientists from Mass Audubon and other organizations, Mass Audubon

provides data and analysis to help guide public policy.

What is Mass Audubon?

John James Audubon

Editor of Forest and Stream, he formed the first

Audubon Society in 1886 with close to 40,000

initial members. Their numbers grew so quickly

throughout the next year that he had to disband

the group.

George Bird Grinnell

George Bird Grinnell was tutored by Lucy Audubon, John

James’s widow. Knowing Audubon’s reputation, Grinnell

chose his name as the inspiration for the organization’s

earliest work to protect birds and their habitats. Today,

the name Audubon remains synonymous with birds and

bird conservation the world over.

Harriet Augustus Hemenway

Hemenway and her cousin Minna Hall started

a campaign urging fellow socialites to stop wear-

ing hats adorned with the feathers of endangered

birds. Their work led to the founding of the

Massachusetts Audubon Society.

Influential People of Mass Audubon

Propper Boston ladies Harriet Hemenway and her cousin Minna Hall are absolutely

incensed by the latest style: ladies’ hats topped with not just feathers but whole birds.

The fad dovetails with the women’s suffrage movement: “Fashion was killing birds as

well as killing women’s chances to have the right to vote and be listened to. For who

would listen to a woman with a dead bird on her head?”

Harriet and Minna found the Massachusetts Audubon Society; take their crusade to

sportsmen, socialites and schoolchildren; lobby for laws to protect wildfowl; and even

help bust an illegal feather warehouse. Catrow contributes flamboyant caricatures of

the behatted Bostonians in convincing period costume, and his watercolors of birds

mimic John James Audubon’s own naturalistic paintings. Despite Lasky’s and Catrow’s

enthusiasm, however, Harriet and Minna in their zealotry seem just as exaggerated and

one dimensional as their fashionably feathered foes. —Publishers Weekly

In Children’s Literature

Mass Audubon in Numbers

500,000

50100,000

34,000

Members

Acres

public Mass Audubon sanctuaries

Visitors annually

Dartmouth was first settled in 1652 and was officially incorporated in 1664.

It was named for the town of Dartmouth, Devon, England, from where the

Puritans originally intended to depart for America.

The land was purchased with trading goods from the Wampanoag chiefs

Massasoit and Wamsutta by elders of the Plymouth Colony; reportedly thirty

yards of cloth, eight moose skins, fifteen axes, fifteen hoes, fifteen pairs of

shoes, one iron pot, and ten shillings’ worth of assorted goods.

Don’t be fooled by the sanctuary’s address; the sanctuary’s mailbox is across

Horseneck Road in Westport, but all of the sanctuary’s land is in Dartmouth.

Dartmouth, Massachusetts

34,000public Mass Audubon sanctuaries

The Sanctuary

The field station as viewed from the entrance at Allens Pond.

Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary was established in 1986 with the purchase

of seventy acres along Horseneck Road and Buzzards Bay from one of the

oldest families in the community. As years went by, the sanctuary grew as

Mass Audubon and accquired more land.

With 905 acres and a diverse variety of habitats including a coastal salt

pond, salt marsh, heath, scrub and forested uplands and early successional

agricultural habitats, Allens Pond offers miles of hiking trails accessible

from two locations: a small parking lot is located at Allens Neck Road next

to the Horseneck Holy Ghost in Dartmouth and the Field Station is located

at 1280 Horseneck Road in Westport.

Allens Pond

The entrance to the trail walking from the Allens Neck Road location.

Mass Audubon’s goal is to use the sanctuary as a model for research and adaptive

ecological management and the staff as a community resource for local avian

research and conservation initiatives.

Staff members work year-round to maintain seven miles of trail, provide outreach

to local schools and communities, support a corps of volunteers, and conduct

ecological monitoring of animals such as piping plovers, least terns, ospreys,

grassland birds, and butterflies, as well as habitats including the salt marsh

and a fifty five acre, warm-season grassland.

Staff members also work with local towns and organizations to help protect and

preserve the watersheds of Buzzards Bay. Buzzards Bay has only a few coastal salt

ponds and, as they are productive habitats for wildlife such as fish, shellfish and

birds, they are a particularly valuable resource to protect.

The Sanctuary’s Goal

A staff member looks for a Monarch to tag.

Barrier Beach

A sand ridge that rises slightly above the surface of the sea that runs roughly parallel to the shore.

Habitats

Coastal Salt Pond

Pond and marsh communities with brackish to fresh water.

Salt Marsh

Flat land that is overflowed by salt water.

Forest

Land covered chiefly with trees and undergrowth.

Shrubland

Land on which shrubs are the dominant vegetation.

Grassland

Land occupied chiefly by herbaceous plants and grasses.

Allens Pond is one of the most ecologically

significant coastal systems in southern New England.

Because of the pristine and rare habitats the sanctuary protects, Allens Pond is seen

as one of the most ecologically significant coastal systems in southern New England.

In fact, it is centered within a site identified by The Nature Conservancy as one of the

most intact coastal complexes remaining in the North Atlantic Coast Ecoregion and,

as such, they have designated it a portfolio site of conservation priority.

Allens Pond Wildlife Sanctuary is a great place to observe spectacular bird life

and salt marsh activity with over 300 bird species recorded during migration or

nesting season.

The sanctuary’s half-mile stretch of beach provides important nesting habitat

for rare piping plovers and least terns. The sanctuary also attracts birds of

prey in all seasons including nesting ospreys, migrant bald eagles, short-eared

owls,peregrine falcons,and northern harriers. From midsummer through fall the

salt marshes and tidal flats host many species of shorebirds and wading birds

such as yellowlegs, snowy and great egrets, willets, and great blue herons.

Birds

Rare Birds at Allens Pond

Some rare birds sighted at Allens Pond include the Common Loon, Pied-billed Grebe, Sharp-shinned

Hawk, Northern Harrier, Bald Eagle, American Bittern, Peregrine Falcon, Piping Plover, Least Tern,

Roseate Tern, Common Tern, Common Moorhen, King Rail, Short-eared Owl, and Cooper’s Hawk.

A Piping Plover at Allens Pond Photo by Myer Bornstein

A Common Tern at Allens Pond Photo by Myer Bornstein

Butterflies

Allens Pond has a butterfly garden that serves as a “way-station” for these

butterflies. The way-station provides necessary resources for monarchs to

produce successive generations and sustain their migration. Volunteers tag

these monarchs to track them as they migrate. Data is sent to the University

of Kansas’ Monarch Watch program in an effort to help better understand

how and why monarchs migrate.

An Orange Sulphur butterfly

Common Butterflies

Common butterflies at Allens Pond include the Black Swallow Tail, Mourning

Cloack, Monarch, Red Autumn, Cabbage White, Orange Sulphur, Clouded Sulphur,

Eastern Tailed-Blue, American Lady, Painted Lady, Question Mark, Common Buck-

eye, Pearl Crescent, Least Skipper, Peck’s Skipper, and American Copper butterfly.

Monarch butterflies are not able to

survive the cold winters of most of the

United States so they migrate south and

west each autumn to escape the cold

weather. The monarch migration usually

starts in late September every year.

A Monarch butterfly is tagged before it heads south to migrate.

A Monarch butterfly

Other Animals

The animal life consists of more than birds and butterflies. The deer are out at

dawn and dusk. Otters are also roaming, but very rarely seen. There’s a variety

of salamanders. Diamondback terrapins trudge along their own routes, and

weasels can sometimes be spotted scuttling along the stone walls. Farm animals

can be found on the outskirts of the property.

Allens Pond in Numbers

1986

300+

7+ 593

29

the year Allens pond was founded

Acres of land

Rare Species of wildlife

Bird species sighted

Miles of trails

How to Help

Open space in Massachusetts is under ever-increasing pressure, with acres

of fields, forests, and farmland lost to development every day. If we’re going

to stem that tide before it’s too late, it’s essential that we work together to

secure the most imporant places across the state.

Protecting the nature of Massachusetts requires an extraordinarily diverse

and concerted array of activities that depend upon an effective partnership

among the staff and volunteers, public and private conservation

organizations, and, of course, the members.

Supported by membership dues, Mass Audubon’s statewide system of

wildlife sanctuaries has grown to 32,000 acres. These sanctuaries are

home to 175 endangered and threatened native species, and provide

members and visitors witha wealth of opportunities to explore and

enjoy the natural beauty of Massachusetts.

Why is protecting nature important?

Volunteer Oppertunities

Help with fundraising

Public Programs

Lead rambles and kayak trips.

Sanctuary maintenance

Help maintain an inviting atmosphere in which people of all ages

can learn about and enjoy nature by assisting with trails and

grounds maintenance, like clearing stone walls of invasive plants.

Gardening

Tend the gardens around the cottage. Plant and maintain flowers

that are native to the area. Create a special butterfly garden.

Information kiosk

Maintain literature and information at the trail site kiosk. Re-

search stories to share.

Ecological monitoring

Help count breeding birds with staff. Monitor species of interest

such as orchids and turtles.

Ways to Help

Young volunteers clean the beach at Allens Pond. Photo by Myer Bornstein

When you visit, please

Pick up trash

Trash is a life-threatening danger to wildlife

Do not tresspass on other people’s property

Keep moving

Nature can handle movement. When you settle into a space,

like a beach, species are driven away and this disrupts their

living patterns.

Follow the rules that are posted

Thank you

Connecting with Allens Pond

1280 Horseneck Road

Westport, MA 02790

508-636-2437

allenspond@massaudubon.org

www.massadubon.org/allenspond

www.facebook.com/MassAudubonAllensPond

Trails are open every day from dawn until dusk. Allens Pond Wildlife

Sanctuary offers vsitors the opportunity to observe, interact with, and

learn about the great diversity of habitats in the sanctuary. Visitors

have many options to choose from including two western loops: one

around a fresh pond, the other with a giant boulder to climb for treetop

views. Two smaller loops provide east and west overlooks of the pond.

You can contact Allens Pond using any of the following methods: