Kestrel Land Trust

10/11/2026

Fall is a time for friends, fun, and festivities! Join us for our 6th Annual Mt. Tom Trail Race on October 24th, where we bring together our community to enjoy the beautiful autumn weather in the Valley.

🥾👟 Hit the trail with 5 different ways to participate for a range of ages: from long tough trail running routes to family-friendly hikes and fun runs along the Mt. Tom State Reservation! Costumes are welcome and encouraged! We will have pizza and prizes at our afterparty at Bray Lake.

No matter how you participate, you'll be supporting Kestrel Land Trust's work to conserve and care for the land around Mt. Tom and across the Valley.

Learn more and register for the race on our website (kestreltrust.org) or at the link in our bio!

10/07/2026

Looking for a way to get out on the trails while helping to conserve and care for the lands you love? Join us for the 6th Annual Mt. Tom Trail Race on Saturday, October 24, 2026. Enjoy the beauty of autumn at the Mt Tom State Reservation with four ways to participate for ALL trail running levels, even if you have never ran a trail race!

Beast Coast Trail Running presents this trail running race, which takes place entirely within the Mt Tom State Reservation, starting and finishing at Bray Lake. The race follows routes along trails throughout the Reservation, straddling Easthampton and Holyoke (no city road stretches). The terrain is rugged, single-track hiking trails. Maps and GPX will be available.

There are four ways to participate, something for all trail-running levels!

-5K Fun Run or Hike: Begins at 11:00 am
-10K Trail Race: Begins at 10:30 am
-25K Trail Race: Begins at 9:30 am
-25K Relay Race (2-person teams running 25K trail race relay-style): Begins at 9:30 am

After the race, stay to enjoy a pizza lunch, prizes for winners, and a chance for anyone to win a prize. Costumes encouraged! Register for the race on our website.

10/03/2026

Beautiful day in Belchertown at the Lake Wallace Fall Festival! Stop by and say hello.

09/30/2026

This past Saturday, Kestrel Land Trust teamed up with the Connecticut River Conservancy and WRSI for the 30th annual Source-to-Sea cleanup! At Northampton Meadows, volunteers removed:

-30 bags of trash
-Over 100 pounds of scrap metal
-4 TVs
-12 pallets
-4 bricks
-1 stereo
-Hundreds of beverage containers
And many more!

Thank you so much to all the wonderful volunteers that joined us in our cleanup. Your contributions are important for keeping our watershed safe and clean!

09/24/2026

Happy Watershed Week! To celebrate, Kestrel will be participating in the 30th Annual Source-to-Sea Cleanup hosted by the Connecticut River Conservancy to help keep our riverways clean, and you can help!

Date: Saturday, September 26, 10AM-12PM

Location: Northampton Meadows (more detailed instructions on our website)

Please sign up on our website if you would like to join us. Be sure to check out the CRC’s website for more Watershed Week events!

09/23/2026

Want to see a local stream in a whole new way? On October 3, get a guided tour of Buffam Falls Conservation Area and adjacent Pelham lands, led by Kestrel's own Conservation Manager, Lee Halasz. We'll look at all things water, including dams, bridges, a swimming hole, cold vs warm streams, and culverts that are all part of the Fort River Watershed. We'll also talk about how wildlife moves through the area.

Come out for this pleasant stroll through one of Pelham's natural jewels! PLEASE RSVP: [email protected]
☕ Coffee & pastries included after the walk!
🌧️ Rain date: October 10
This event is presented by PVPC MA .

09/21/2026

We're thrilled to have protected ANOTHER huge swath of our forests as Forever Wild in parcels throughout the Valley!

Under the stewardship of land trusts, the forests will be forests forever and open to the public for back-country recreational use.

09/11/2026

Our favorite falcons had an AMAZING year in the Valley! So many new chicks fledged. As of July 10, we banded kestrel chicks at 9 Kestrel Land Trust managed boxes, 2 privately managed boxes, and 4 boxes managed by Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary. 71 chicks were banded, with a total of 73 chicks tallied.

Some of the private landowners with our kestrel boxes were able to capture some special moments on their bird cameras this year, including feeding behaviors! Parent kestrels will feed large insects and small mammals to their chicks, and they continue to do so for weeks after they have already fledged.

09/09/2026

If you care about protecting clean water, local farms, wild forests, and public trails, please join us in voting YES ON 6 this November. The Nature For MA initiative will provide more funding for land and water conservation efforts statewide, using pre-existing sales taxes from sporting goods.

09/03/2026

On August 20th, 5 members of the land and trail crew installed 85 feet of bog bridging at Pemberton Memorial Forest in Pelham. Earlier this summer, the crew installed 100 feet. There are only 15 feet to go! Previous volunteers helped carry the 200 feet of wood into the forest, covering an average of .75 miles.

Bog bridging makes trails more accessible to hikers and mitigates damage to sensitive habitats. The process has relatively low impact, with minimal disturbance to the ground.

Come check out the trails at this quiet conservation area. You can find a map of the trail on our website!