News

The Lloyd Center for the Environment, located at 430 Potomska Road in Dartmouth, sits on 82 acres of oak-hickory forest, freshwater wetlands, salt marsh, and estuary. The Center’s seven walking trails offer scenic views of Buzzards Bay, DCR Demarest Lloyd State Park, Mishaum Point, and the islands. Kettle holes, moraine, and a Native American midden…

by Ashley Gesner, Lloyd Center Education/Outreach Specialist With careful planning and consideration, the decision had been made. Of course, there were nerves at first, the pandemic created a new situation and there was a level of uncertainty. However, there was also excitement! Our summer programs are loved among staff, but how could we run it…

by Jamie Bogart, Lloyd Center Research Associate Every August, shorebird staff take part in an end-of-season meeting when cooperators share results from the different regions of Massachusetts and the rest of the Atlantic Coast. Around this time we offer the summary of our sites, as we did a month ago in our Lloyd Center shorebird…

by Jamie Bogart, Lloyd Center Research Associate As of the June update, we reported that the “parking lot pair” of Bakers Beach had its nest exclosed again this season and as expected, produced four chicks. This however, is one of those pairs where the challenges start when the chicks emerge. Two seasons ago, the brood…

Samantha Medeiros is a graduated senior from Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School (GNBRVTHS). Samantha is furthering her education at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in Biology. As an intern during the school year, with the Lloyd Center being her placement, Samantha would assist during the various in-school programs and help feed and…

by Adeline Bellesheim, Lloyd Center Educator/Naturalist The announcement from Governor Baker to close schools and daycares in Massachusetts for the remainder of the school year has left many wondering how this will affect the education of our students. The 2020 school year has been a roller coaster of uncertainty. Just as educators and students were…

Shorebird Mid-Season Update 2020 by Jamie Bogart, Lloyd Center Research Associate One question entering this plover season was how the issue of a weary public waiting to break free onto their favorite beach might impact shorebird protection, whereby extensive beach must be secured to ensure the nests are protected adequately. Since that time, people have…

by Adeline Bellesheim, Lloyd Center Educator/Naturalist As the weeks go by during this pandemic, the new “normal” starts to feel more comfortable. Like any other work operation, the staff at the Lloyd Center is adapting to these intense changes. Although it has been months since the entire staff has sat in a room together, there…

When Jamie Bogart goes to the beach, it isn’t always for fun. Bogart helps conserve piping plovers, a threatened species of shorebird that lives along the Atlantic coast and around the Great Lakes, in his role as research associate at the Lloyd Center for the Environment in Dartmouth. Last week, he headed out to West…

Generous friends of the Lloyd Center help sustain us with their membership support. If you have been a member in the past, we are asking you to please give what you can today, and if you have already renewed your membership, we send our deepest gratitude! Our hardworking staff, who have made the transition to…

 by Adeline Bellesheim, Lloyd Center Educator/Naturalist It is safe to say that these are strange times we are living through. With Massachusetts schools and daycares officially being closed for the remainder of the school year, feelings of uncertainty and anxiety continue to rise. The pressure on parents to care for and educate their children is…

by Jamie Bogart, Lloyd Center Research Associate As these days role on, we’ve become accustomed to adjusting our behaviors in a variety of ways, to accommodate the new social distancing strategy used to “flatten the curve” of COVID-19. If not reduced to solitary confinement, we’re steering clear of others around us. We’ve acquired a new…

by Jamie Bogart, Lloyd Center Research Associate We are perhaps never more thankful for, or more in need of, a connection to the nature that surrounds us than now. While we miss large group excursions to natural areas for guided educational tours, we are fortunate to still have access to the landscape. Provided we obey…

 by Jamie Bogart, Lloyd Center Research Associate The mid-winter wildlife walk held on February 22 would be expected to feature a white landscape complete with snow covered branches and tracks from animals on the move in search of food, during what is winter’s peak period. This spectacle, mammal tracks in snow, was to be the…

by Adeline Bellesheim, Lloyd Center Educator/Naturalist The outbreak of COVID-19 is unlike anything that we have experienced in living memory. With the recent emergency order announcement by Governor Baker put into place on March 24, tensions and anxieties are running high. The Lloyd Center for the Environment is a nonessential business, and is therefore closed…

Dear Friend of the Lloyd Center, Koko, the Eastern Screech Owl, is one of the Lloyd Center’s animal ambassadors that was recently featured in an educational video on social media. Amid the current health crisis, we’ve had to discontinue our Coastal Field Studies programs, field trips, and environmental science programming in the schools. These activities…

Please renew your current membership today! Membership support is key to the Lloyd Center’s ability to instill a life-long respect and affection for nature in citizens of all ages through research and education; to advance a scientific and public understanding of our coastal ecosystems and the need to protect them; and to promote a legacy…