On October 14th 2017 the Boxborough Conservation Trust (BCTrust) hosted a ribbon cutting and trail walk at the newly named and recently conserved Inches Woods in Boxborough.  The new trail, with access at the end of Emanuel Drive that includes parking and with a pedestrian entry on Depot Road, creates a link to the 108-acre Hager Land behind Blanchard Elementary School and the Sargent Memorial Library.

Noted local historian and invited guest speaker Alan Rohwer, Boxborough Historical Society board member and Chairperson of the Boxborough Historical Commission, described with illustrations  Henry David Thoreau’s walk through Boxborough on this land. Thoreau’s description of the great white oaks on Inches Woods, a much larger parcel in 1863 that included this land, inspired the BCTrust to choose the name.

As part of the BCTrust’s mission to heighten awareness on water resources, the new property signage will have the name of the property’s watershed on the sign. Inches Woods is part of the SuAsCo Watershed feeding the Sudbury, Assabet and Concord Rivers.

Eva and Will Kerin, Blanchard Memorial Elementary School students, were invited to launch the hike by cutting the ribbon at the trail head.  Everyone enjoyed a beautiful half mile walk on wooded upland overlooking a gentle slope with wetland vegetation and stone walls to the intersection of the trails on the Hager Land where they found the skeletal remains of a snapping turtle, and, skunk cabbage sprouts.  Afterwards, Tom Bieber hosted cider and donuts for all after the walk.