Lloyd Center For the Environment

WESTPORT — With a $2,000 grant to work with, all seventh and eighth grade students in the Westport Middle School will be taking part in a Diamondback Terrapin Science Program, through the Lloyd Center for the Environment, in the upcoming year.

DARTMOUTH — When the name of William M. Pinney, Jr. was announced by board president Mary Ellen Hawes Lees last Thursday night as the winner of this year’s George G. Haydock Award at the Lloyd Center for the Environment’s Annual Meeting, held at the Dartmouth Grange Hall, the audience erupted with an enthusiastic roar of approval and applause. 

Dartmouth, MA – The Alces Foundation, Grimshaw-Gudewicz Charitable Foundation, The Harold Whitworth Pierce Charitable Trust, and the Rodgers Family Foundation have awarded the Lloyd Center for the Environment $28,000 in grants to support its Science Curriculum Reform and Development Initiative in the Fall River public schools. 

Dartmouth, MA – Join Jamie Bogart, Research Associate at the LLOYD CENTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, on a unique journey.  You will experience a true spectacle in early spring as you observe the American Woodcock (Scolopax minor) courtship flight in the fields of South Dartmouth.  The American Woodcock is a unique member of the shorebird family because it spends its life near woodlands.  These upland birds are early migrants often visible before snowmelt, and are ground nesters.  In addition to open habitats, woodcocks require early successional to mature hardwood forest where their main food source, earthworms, is plentiful.

New Bedford, MA – Motor out to Cuttyhunk Island with Lloyd Center for the Environment’s Research Associate, Jamie Bogart, to view wildlife associated with the island in early spring. After a glimpse of flocks of sea ducks and the Elizabethan Chain from the “M/V Cuttyhunk”, step foot on Cuttyhunk Island for a walk to “the lookout”, the island’s highest point, whereby you’ll gain a sense of the island’s natural history, and enjoy superb panoramic views of Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound. Cuttyhunk bird life can be quite diverse, and we’ll stop for a look at any birds seen along the way.

Dartmouth, MA – Join LLOYD CENTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT’S Research Associate, Jamie Bogart, on a special journey.  By exclusive invitation, you will visit Mishaum Point, Nonquitt, Salters Pond, as well as the Lloyd Center’s maritime forest and waterfront, and the Slocum and Little rivers.  Departing from the Lloyd Center’s Headquarters, this unique trip will take place on Sunday, March 2nd, from 9:30am to 12:30pm.

On Sunday February 3, 2008, Lloyd Center staff scientists and volunteer surveyors completed the 2nd count for this season’s annual winter waterfowl survey, from the Sakonnet River in Rhode Island to Apponagansett Bay in Dartmouth.

On January 5, 2008, the Lloyd Center partnered with the Cuttyhunk Ferry company on board the ‘M/V Cuttyhunk’ for an excursion featuring seal viewing on Gull Island, and a walking tour of Cuttyhunk, the westernmost island in the Elizabethan chain. Led by Lloyd Center naturalists Jamie Bogart and Jasmine Smith-Guillen, and boat operator, Captain Jono Billings, a group of 25 enjoyed superb looks at wintering seals ,and stunning scenery from the “lookout” of Cuttyhunk as it exists during the island’s quieter season. 

Once a month, Lloyd Center Educators arrive in Quinn Elementary School’s third-grade classrooms armed with props, worksheets, activities and other materials. Why? - to teach the children about birds.  Through birds, students are exploring basic concepts of life science such as food chains, predator/prey relationships, adaptations, migration and extinction, life cycles, and habitat use. 

Dartmouth, MA – The Grimshaw-Gudewicz Charitable Foundation, The Harold Whitworth Pierce Charitable Trust, and the Rodgers Family Foundation have awarded the Lloyd Center for the Environment grants to support its Science Curriculum Reform and Development Initiative.  Financial support from these foundations enables the Lloyd Center to provide science programs to schools that might not otherwise be able to afford them, such as the public elementary schools in Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Fall River and Westport.  With the Commonwealth’s introduction of the Science/Engineering MCAS test in the fourth and eight grades, the Lloyd Center’s ability to provide interactive and effective science teaching has proven to be particularly important. 

Dartmouth, MA – Are you a “night owl”? Then join Lloyd Center Research Associate, Jamie Bogart as he travels the back roads of Dartmouth in search of screech, barred and great-horned owls. February is a great time to see and hear these silent night flyers because they are setting up nesting territories and respond readily to calls.  Owls are chiefly nocturnal birds of prey, feeding on rodents, birds, reptiles, and sometimes fish (usually scavenged).  They cannot move their eyes, so instead they move their heads. Owls can turn their heads 270o in either direction; this helps them triangulate to locate their prey.  Taped owl calls will be used to elicit a vocal response and to lure the owls into view. Hopefully, participants will see and hear these nighttime birds. 

New Bedford, MA – Hop on board the M/V Cuttyhunk and motor out to Cuttyhunk Island with the LLOYD CENTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT in search of wintering seals hauled out on Gull Island, a small sand bar the seals love, located just off Cuttyhunk and Penikese islands. Catch a glimpse of gray and harbor seals, or even ringed, hooded and harp seals. Gray and harbor seals are the most abundant seals in this area. Ringed, hooded and harp seals are known as ice seals and are only seen during the winter months in this region. These seals are called ice seals because their pups are born on the ice floes or the pack ice off the eastern coast of Canada. During the winter, many of these juvenile seals migrate south and are frequently seen along the coast of New England.

Westport, MA – Is one of your New Year’s resolutions to get outside and walk or to learn more about the natural world around you? If yes, this is the perfect trip for you. Celebrate the start of the new year with a relaxing walk on Gooseberry Neck beach! The walk will focus on coastal ecology and bird identification. Winter is a wonderful time to walk the coast and observe the effects of wave action on the slope and shape of the beach.

Dartmouth, MA – Celebrating the coming of the fall season, hundreds of enthusiastic Lloyd Center members gathered at the Center’s Hardscrabble Farm nature preserve last Sunday to enjoy a wide variety of nature related activities at the always popular annual Family Fun-Fest.  Drawn to many attractions, guests were kept busy tagging butterflies, discovering the thrills of kayaking on the Slocum River, taking guided walks on nature trails, and participating in unique scavenger hunts.  There was face-painting, wonderfully comic caricatures by a talented artist, seaweed-pressing, bagel-bird-feeder creations, and lots of happy children fashioning nature-masks, wreaths, and Japanese “hanging fish”.

Fifth-grade students from Quinn Elementary School visited the Lloyd Center for the Environment as part of the Turn-the-Tide Education Program.  Donning hip boots and nets, students were getting “down and dirty” in a field study at the estuary and discovering for themselves the species which inhabit the salt marsh, estuary and tidal mud flats.

The Lloyd Center for the Environment is pleased to announce the winning entry in the competition among graphic art students at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s Center for Visual and Performing Arts  for the design of a twelve-month desk calendar for the Center, making use of original photographs donated by noted nature photographer, Geoffrey Dennis.

DARTMOUTH, MA - All Lloyd Center volunteers – new and existing, are invited to join Volunteer Coordinators Mary Mandeville and Tammy Greenspan for a volunteer meeting.  The meeting will be held on Saturday, November 10th at 1:00pm at the Lloyd Center’s headquarters located at 430 Potomska Road in Dartmouth.

Dartmouth, MA –  Geo-  what? Join Chris Wenzler and learn about geo-caching, the outdoor “treasure hunt” activity that is sweeping the nation, and then go out and score your first caches!

Attention beach walkers: The Lloyd Center for the Environment is seeking volunteers to adopt a beach of their choice to survey once a month in search of “beached birds” that may have washed ashore. Our goal for this informative workshop is to assign sites from Marion to Wareham.

DARTMOUTH (MA) –  Neither rain, nor predictions of winds gusting up to 25mph, stopped the hearty rowing and paddling community from enthusiastically racing in the 2nd running of the Lloyd Center Slocum River Regatta here today (Saturday, 15 September) .

Taunton, MA – Join Research Director, Mark Mello, for this annual fall foliage tour on one of the most aesthetic rivers in eastern Massachusetts.   We will canoe the Taunton River and the portion of the Nemasket River where it flows into the Taunton.  This trip will take place on Sunday, October 21st from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. The cost of the trip is $20 for Lloyd Center members and $25 for non-members. Transportation and all equipment will be provided.

Dartmouth, MA - Join Lloyd Center Research Director, Mark Mello,  for a walk in Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve in search of butterflies.  Mark is one of the Northeast’s leading experts on Lepidoptera and co-author of the recently published field guide, Butterflies Across Cape Cod ...

Dartmouth, MA – Enjoy a day of birding with Lloyd Center Research Associate, Jamie Bogart on Monomoy Island, Massachusetts’ National Wildlife Refuge!  Most migrating shorebirds that travel the Atlantic “Flyway” stop over on Monomoy, making it one of the area’s greatest birding sites.

Join Lloyd Center Research Director, Mark Mello, for a canoe trip on the Westport River.

DARTMOUTH – Friday the 13th may be an unlucky day for many, but for those seeking to raise the level of environmental protection here on the South Coast, that very date just marked a particularly auspicious beginning to the 2007 summer season.  Casting away all superstition, supporters of the Lloyd Center for the Environment filled all 750 seats at the Center’s traditionally sold-out “Simply, the best!” Clambake dinner-dance, bid generously on a fine array of donated auction items and danced the night away to the strains of rocking music from the famous “Men in Black”.

Supported by the Westport Arts Council through a $2,000 grant from the Helen E. Ellis Charitable Trust administered by the Bank of America, Feathery Focus, an outstanding Lloyd Center environmental science curriculum, is a component of the standing science curriculum for all third-grade classes in Westport

After months of exposure to hands-on science classes and activities involving the dynamic and complex ecology of birds, taught by naturalist/educators from the Lloyd Center for the Environment, excited third-grade students from Dartmouth finally had a chance to visit the Center’s Hardscrabble Farm facilities and nature preserve for a much anticipated in-the-field experience.

Opportunities for children to enjoy and develop a love for their natural surroundings seem few in our electronic society as the vast number of television shows, computer games, game stations and handheld devices draw children away from experiencing the great outdoors.  Often forgotten, encouraging young children to experience the natural world around them is not just a fun activity – it is vital, for the future of our culture and indeed, the future of our planet.

Join Lloyd Center Research Director, Mark Mello and participate in a unique daylong scientific research project counting butterflies.

The final mile of Dartmouth’s spectacular Slocum River estuary will come alive Saturday morning, September 15, as scullers, canoe-paddlers, kayakers and rowers of all ages battle their way over a challenging 2-mile loop course that starts and finishes directly in front of the Lloyd Center for the Environment’s 55-acre nature preserve...