We’re glad you’re interested in helping to take care of our town conservation lands! As Friends of Southampton Open Space, we care deeply about preserving the open spaces in our town for everyone to enjoy - and everyone can play a part.

The town publishes a Volunteer Handbook that is a detailed resource for anyone interested in volunteering. But if you’re not up for reading the handbook, we’ll summarize the basics in this post to help you get started.

Easy volunteering that ANYONE can do

For a lot of the volunteer work you can do on our town trails, the town asks you to sign a basic “Hold Harmless” form to release the town from liability in case you get injured while you help.

But you don’t need to sign this form if you’re out enjoying our trails and you pick up some garbage to keep the trails clean! This is the easiest way we all can contribute to preserving our trails.

One other basic way that anyone can help is by informing the Conservation Commission (email: concom@townofsouthampton.org) when you’re visiting one of our town open spaces and you notice that something is in a bad state - for example, a bridge that’s washed out, a tree that’s fallen over the trail, invasives or poison ivy taking over a section of the trail, etc. You can also contact us at FOSOS and we’ll make sure the Conservation Commission hears about the issue.

For when you want to do MORE

If you want to invest more of your time and energy in volunteering to help the town maintain our open spaces, there are a few different ways to help.

Before you get started

Before you get started, it’s important to download the Volunteer Handbook. We’ll cover many of the important topics from the handbook in this post, but the handbook has two forms in it that you’ll need before you get started:

  • Release of claims, indemnity, and hold harmless agreement
    • All volunteers wanting to help with the activities below will need to sign these forms, and minors will need a guardian to sign the parental consent form as well.
    • Signed forms can be submitted to the ConsComm via email or by dropping them off at the town hall in the Conservation Commission mailbox.
    • Note: Each person only needs to sign these forms once, and there is no time limit after which you need to sign again and resubmit. You do not need to specify the property you’ll work at on the forms.
  • Hours sheet
    • When spending time on the activities below, the town asks that you document the time you spend and let the ConsComm know what you’ve been up to.
    • You can use this hours sheet to get volunteer credit for the work you do, including for Hampshire Regional High School Community Service!

There’s one last thing to do before you begin any more involved work on our town’s trails - ask the Conservation Commission what you can do to help!

The ConsComm has priorities for trails that need maintenance and work that needs to be done. To learn more about where you can step up to help, send ConsComm an email or attend a meeting.

Investing in our open spaces

You’ve made it this far. You’ve spoken to the ConsComm to learn where they need help, you’ve signed the release forms, and you’ve got the hours sheet downloaded and ready to fill in.

What kinds of work can you expect to do?

Trail trimming

To keep the trails open for hiking, we occasionally need to go in and trim back trees and brush that are beginning to grow over the trail. While doing this work, you should make sure that all cut branches and brush are moved well off-trail with the cut ends pointing away from the trail.

The handbook has detailed information about things to think about when working on trail trimming maintenance, so it’s important to read this guide to know what tools to bring and how to approach this work. There is also a useful section on Why Pruning Technique Matters that we recommend you read up on before you begin.

You should also read up on invasive management before starting trail trimming work - it’s possible that some of the overgrowth is due to invasive plants, which require a special approach to ensure they don’t completely take over the conservation area.

Invasives management

The Conservation Commission publishes a Guide to Invasive Plants, which is important reading before getting started on managing invasives in a conservation area. The volunteer handbook also has detailed instructions for how to approach this work.

Invasive plants need to be controlled to maintain biodiversity of native plants and animals, reduce pest breeding grounds, and keep trails free of overgrowth. The most common invasive plants in Western Mass are Garlic Mustard, Japanese Knotweed, Oriental Bittersweet, Poison Ivy, Multiflora Rose, and Japanese Barberry. Each plant has specific management techniques so be sure to review your plant’s information before you start on its control.

Trail garbage clean-up

Sometimes a trail gets into a bad state, and we need to have a more dedicated effort to clean up garbage in the conservation area. For this work, you’ll use work gloves and trash bags to collect trash and remove it from the conservation area. Do not attempt to clean up any large or hazardous materials if you think you could get injured - just take a picture and mark the location, and notify the ConsComm of the issue.

Other ways to contribute

If you value having public lands that we can enjoy as a community, but you don’t have the time to contribute to trail maintenance yourself, please join FOSOS or donate to our group! All donations and membership dues are tax-deductible.

We use donated funds to maintain structures (like bridges, signage, and parking lots) in our town conservation areas and to fund the construction of new trails. Every dollar counts!

We hope you found this post helpful - thanks for reading and caring about our town’s open spaces, and we hope to see you on the trails!