On October 10, 2010, botanist and educator Richard Aaron led a small group of members of the Concord West Residents’ Ad Hoc Committee on a nature walk in the Concord West greenspace. The event was sponsored by the Concord West Seniors Club. It was intended not only as an opportunity for the participants to get better acquainted with the flora and fauna of the greenspace, but also as a “trial run” for regularly scheduled group-walks in the future. On both counts, it was a definite success, in spite of the late time of year, and we greatly enjoyed Richard’s engaging and informative stories about the plants we encountered.
These were some of the trees and plants we saw and learned about in the course of the walk: black locust, trembling aspen, wild asparagus, European buckthorn, various species of goldenrod, garlic mustard, carrion flower, Manitoba maple, Eastern white cedar, alfalfa, dog-strangling vine, evening primrose, milkweed, red osier dogwood, large-tooth aspen, scots pine, riverbank grape, calico aster, New England aster, horseweed, toadflax, white sweet clover, mullein, goatsbeard.
There will, of course, be many more life-forms to see in spring and summer.
The pictures below were taken during the walk by Alexandra Correa and Julie Seemann.
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- Reorientation
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- Guidebook consultation
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- Milkweed cascade
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- Eastern Red Cedar
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- Bugs in conference
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- Seen by the rails
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- Milkweed pod, opening
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- Brief discussion
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- Hairy woodpecker
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- White Sweet Clover
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- Still Life
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- Seen on the rail line
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- Exploring
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- Garlic Mustard
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- Milkweed magic
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- Asters under veil
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- On the trail
Save Concord West! 
Fantastic photos. It’s outstanding to witness nature’s beauty in these little green pockets surrounded by the chaos of urban life.
As beautiful as these pictures are they only tell part of the story.
Can you imagine the smell and sounds which are part of the equation?
The Concord west is a unique pocket. You wake up to the singing birds in the morning which you don’t have anywhere in the city. I lived here for 44 years. My children enjoyed the Concord West greenspace, let the future generation enjoy it too.