The Breakneck Hill Conservation Land was acquired by the town of Southborough from Ray Davis. This beautiful piece of land has walking trails, plentiful wildlife, our resident cows, and distant views of Mt. Wachuset on a clear day. It's a great place to walk your dog (mind the electric fences!), do a little cross country skiing or just stroll up into the pasturelands to see the cows. The land is populated by eagles, foxes, plentiful rabbits, and even the occasional coyote or deer.

Topological map:

465_bhmap


Aerial view (via Google Earth):


Pasted Graphic













Beginning in late 2005 and continuing in 2006, the town of Southborough will be commencing with a project to replace some of the invasive plants that have taken over much of the old apple orchard with more compatible native species. While the cows do a good job of keeping the invasives under control on their pastures, the back part of the land is increasingly dominated by (among other things) bittersweet, which has entangled and actually pulled down many of the old apple trees. Most of this work will be funded with grants from the US Department of Agriculture.

While the long-term result of this should be an even more attractive, biologically diverse site, there will be some disruptions over that time as the invasives are removed. Please be patient! We think the final result will be something we can all be proud of.


e" alt="IMG_0982" src="files/page0_blog_entry58_2.jpg" width="512" height="384"/>

As the land has rebounded from the restoration project last year, the wildlife has really started to come back. Some new additions to the conservation land include birdhouses scattered across the landscape.