Greenbelt Hosts Inaugural Essex County Open Space Conference

How to help municipal open space volunteers identify, fund, purchase, and manage open space was the focus of Greenbelt’s first-ever Essex County Open Space Conference at Northern Essex Community College on November 12, 2016.

Over 90 participants attended from 27 Essex County cities and towns.  Presenters from local trail organizations, open space committees, Mass Audubon, Greenbelt, and the State of Massachusetts led 6 workshops, covering topics such as how to prioritize land acquisition, creating trail maps, an introduction to land conservation, and using free on-line mapping tools to map natural resources.

“Greenbelt wanted to create a forum for connecting community open space leaders to one another, enabling them to share their knowledge and experience,” said Greenbelt’s Vanessa Johnson-Hall.

Participant Deb Hamilton, representing Essex County Trails Association, commented “Getting all of these different constituencies together and talking – that’s an opportunity we don’t get within just our town.”  “The response was very positive, and Greenbelt will definitely be doing this again,” added Vanessa.