If I had alllllll the time in the world, I would spend it coming up with cool education programs to be sponsored by the Weston Forest & Trail Association. Unfortunately, time is short and state track meets are long (congrats to the girls D5 state champs last night!).

Fortunately, Weston is surrounded by amazing land trusts, some with actual paid staff who come up with awesome seminars and then invite us along. Next up in my parade of appreciated conservation organizations is the Acton Conservation Trust.

Two days ago I pulled the first tick off my leg, and then yesterday another one was making its merry way up my arm before dying a fingernail death. and toilet flush. Ticks are among the few mini-beasts that I find no remorse in killing, though I do try to make it a quick death for them. Everyone just wants to live–did they ask to be ticks? No.

Tick-borne disease is a no-good very bad thing, including one version that nearly killed my 90-pound lab in Brazil (4 transfusions!) and of course Lyme disease. Nothing stops me from heading into the woods every day, but I am pretty cautious about checking for uninvited guests when I get home.

On March 1, from 7-8:30 in person or on zoom, join Susan Rask, Former Concord Public Health Director, and Tricia McGean, Public Health Nurse for Lincoln and Carlisle, as they present tick facts and life-cycle information, tick-borne diseases in Massachusetts, practical prevention strategies and tick ecology.

And in a much-anticipated cameo, former Weston Conservation Administrator, now Lincoln’s Conservation Director, Michele Grzenda will give us a brief overview of how eastern Massachusetts’s deer population has changed over time and how deer overpopulation affects tick population and forest health. She’ll also review the impacts deer have on forest health and the relationship between deer and deer ticks. One hint on the last part: it’s a very close relationship.

Understanding Ticks: Strategy, Habitat, Ecology and Conservation
March 1, 2023
7:00-8:30 pm
Acton Town Hall, Room 204 or virtual via Zoom

Click here to register. 

For more information or questions, please contact me at jharris.ActonConservationTrust@gmail.com.