Conservation Club is a 10 week outdoor adventure, wildlife and service club for middle and high school students that meets weekly. It blends service learning and wild adventures, and is accessible to all in our community. The purpose is to give youth a rare opportunity to take on leadership and design roles in authentic projects that impact wildlife and local habitats. Far beyond traditional one day community service projects, these are ongoing, thoroughly planned and researched conservation projects with long term impacts. This gives the youth an opportunity to learn the skills of environmental scientists, civic leaders, and outdoor adventurers all in one place. Youth voice is a core part of the program, with our participants working with adults to select, plan, and carry out projects that are meaningful to them. The project work itself always involves youth working with wildlife, outdoors, surrounded by living things, and includes outdoor adventures and challenges such as hiking, wading, and canoeing. Each session is three hours long and consists of social time with snacks, a planning meeting, and either an exploration of a wild location, or indoor project work, ending with a reflection meeting.
Special thanks to the New England Biolabs Foundation for their consistent support of Conservation Club!
2024-2025 Conservation Club projects
Fall 2024 Emily Way Woodland Projects: Emily Way Woodland is a small patch of mature meadow and woodland located in the Montserrat area of Beverly. It is public city land and has several walking trails. The Beverly Open Space Committee proposed we study and document the tree and animal life there, as it is relatively unknown.
Map of Emily Way Woodlands showing all the largest trees by species. Several of our youth made this map, by marking all the largest trees during several field hikes, then returning to photograph and identify them. While we didn’t take formal measurements, The ruler is held up to the tree to show relative size.
Songbird, Owl, & Flying Squirrel Nesting Houses Animals that rely on tree cavities have limited available habitat. Our youth worked with volunteers to construct nest boxes for specific animal species for which they found suitable feeding habitat. We used box plans from Nest Watch. The linked slideshows provide information about the animal and its importance, as well as the building process. Some of the nest boxes have already been placed in Emily Way Woodlands, and the rest will be installed later this year.
Trail Camera Wildlife Footage This link takes you to a folder containing labeled footage of wildlife we documented with trail cameras placed around Emily Way throughout the fall of 2024. You will find turkeys, deer, and coyotes.
2023-2024 Conservation Club Projects
This year our Conservation Club members met for ten weeks in the fall at Waring School and in the spring at Camp Paradise, both in Beverly.
Our fall project was to explore a shallow wetland and document the mammal life using it, through a combination of trail cameras and tracking. Our students created and presented: a five minute nature documentary featuring the mammals of Beverly Commons Reservation.
Video documentary about wetland wildlife in Beverly Commons (5 minutes)
Our spring projects were:
1. A completed Field Guide to the Amphibians of Camp Paradise, available here
2. Completing and submitting a vernal pool certification form, in order to offer higher protection to a pool where we documented both spotted salamanders and wood frogs breeding.
2023 Conservation Club projects
Fall 2023: Video documentary about wetland wildlife in Beverly Commons (5 minutes)
Spring 2023: Slideshow about wildlife in Chebacco Woods
Map of wildlife discovered in Chebacco Woods (emphasis on amphibians and reptiles)
Fall 2022 Conservation Club projects
Discoveries at patton homestead slideshow (spring 2022)
Living Things at patton field guide (spring 2022)
Conservation Guide to Patton Slideshow (2021)
Conservation Club Patton Homestead Wildlife Camera video library (2021)
Conservation Club Wildlife Field Guide (Spring 2020)
Conservation Club Ipswich River Monitoring (spring 2019)
Addressing Misconceptions about Eastern Coyotes Project: (Fall 2019)
Brochure designed to address misconceptions about coyotes
Short video “news reel” about coyotes
Slideshow displaying our best trail camera footage
Wood Turtle “Head Start” Project (Fall 2019)
Graphs monitoring our hatchling turtles’ growth and comparing it to other turtles in the program
If you are participating in the Wood Turtle Head Start with Grassroots Wildlife Conservation, a Division of Zoo New England, and would like to see the full guide we made to raising Wood Turtles, let us know and we can send you a copy.
View the spring 2019 Conservation Club’s Guide to Ipswich River Life by clicking here.
Visit the fall 2018 Conservation Club’s YouTube channel by clicking here
AMPHIBIAN AND REPTILE PROJECT (Spring 2018)
Welcome!!! Conservation Club is a club where middle school kids get to go out into nature and get to realize what it's like to help preserve the Earth. This website has a lot of ideas that will expand your knowledge about amphibian and reptiles in Massachusetts.
Where to find Reptiles and Amphibians
Threats to Reptiles and Amphibians