Letter to the Editor: January 2022

To the editor,

With increased mowing in Rock Meadow, does that mean that all that lovely milkweed which grew so wild, lovely, and plentiful will be lost to the mowers? We need that milkweed for the butterflies! That would be so sad. Where is the mowing to take place?

Carlee Blamphin

Dear Carlee,

Mowing at Rock Meadow has not increased, except for the trails. Meadow mowing occurred just once, on October 21. This was intentionally late in the growing season so as to leave the milkweed intact for the monarch butterfly migration, which is mid-August through late September and early October, according to the Massachusetts Audubon Society. 

The Conservation Commission had received a number of queries about milkweed plant preservation and delaying the mowing.  

The trails at Rock Meadow are mowed more frequently. Wider trails, mowed more often, have allowed for use of the conservation land with greater social distancing on the trails during the COVID-19 pandemic. This mowing should have no effect on milkweed plants in the meadow.

Thank you for your very good question and for your concern for Belmont conservation land.

Jeffrey North

Managing Editor, BCF Newsletter