2024 Summer Meeting Tours
Join us for these great opportunities to experience Boston and see conservation up close during NACD’s 2024 Summer Conservation Forum and Tours hosted in partnership with the NACD Northeast Region!
Host State Event: Red Sox vs. Astros Baseball Game
Friday, August 9, 2024
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
A trip to Boston isn’t complete without a visit to iconic Fenway Park! Since 1912, Fenway Park has been the beloved home of the Boston Red Sox. It is the oldest Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium still in use, and has played host to the World Series ten times. If you love baseball and history, this is your spot!
On Friday, August 9, meet up with colleagues at Fenway Park and enjoy watching the Boston Red Sox play ball with the Houston Astros starting at 7:05 p.m. NACD has reserved 100 seats in the bleachers above the visitors bullpen for Summer Meeting attendees to enjoy the game while socializing with conservation colleagues from across the country.
Tickets cost $125 each and include a Friends of NACD Summer Meeting t-shirt and a $25 credit to be used at Fenway Park’s concession stands. Purchase tickets through the NACD registration website. All tickets are electronic. You must download the MLB app to your smartphone and provide NACD with the email you use for the MLB app in order to receive the tickets. Tickets will be transferred to the purchaser through the MLB app by July 19.
Fenway Park is an open-air outdoor stadium and inclement weather could result in a rescheduled game. All tickets are nonrefundable. If the purchaser is unable to attend the game, they are responsible for arranging any ticket transfer in the MLB app to another attendee.
This is a social event and attendees are responsible for their own transportation to and from Fenway Park.
Come meet us at the ball game!
These tickets are not included in the cost of registration but are available for purchase within the registration link.
“Duck of a Day” Boat Tour Hosted by the Northeast District Employees Association
Sunday, August 11, 2024
1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Hop aboard Boston Duck Tours and enjoy a fully narrated and guided, historic tour of Boston in a “DUCK,” a World War II style amphibious landing vehicle that travels on land and water. You’ll be greeted by a legendary ConDUCKtor, who’ll narrate the tour. Cruise by all the places that make Boston the birthplace of freedom and a city of firsts, from the golden domed State House to the Boston Common, the historic North End to fashionable Newbury Street, Quincy Market to the Prudential Tower, and more. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, it’s time for a Big Splash as your ConDUCKtor drives the DUCK right into the Charles River for a breathtaking view of the Boston and Cambridge skylines. Come and experience the best introDUCKtion to Boston!
Tickets cost $85 each, which includes the tour and round-trip bus transportation to the New England Aquarium, payable through the NACD registration website.
Proceeds support the Northeast Association of Conservation District Employees (NACDE), which offers Northeast Region employees conference scholarships, training opportunities, and a chance to make their voices heard at the national level.
This tour conflicts with the Board of Directors meeting. However, we encourage family and non-Board members to attend this historic tour.
These tickets are not included in the cost of registration but are available for purchase within the registration link.
Host State Tour: Urban Agriculture and Conservation in Boston
Monday, August 12, 2024
1:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
This tour will visit three urban sites in Boston that will help to illustrate how urban areas interact with agriculture and conservation. Participants will visit all three locations but will be split into two groups and two tour loops to enhance listening, learning, and access at these urban locations. Half of the participants will start at loop one and then move to loop two afterwards, while the other half starts at loop two and then move to loop one.
Loop one includes a visit to a local Boston watershed, the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA), which will demonstrate the unique challenges and solutions present in urban watershed conservation.
In partnership with the Charlestown community, the City of Boston, and Massport, the MyRWA is creating a vision for how a high-quality park along the Little Mystic Channel can provide better opportunities for recreation, access to nature, social gatherings, and climate resiliency. This waterbody is a long-forgotten corner of Boston’s waterfront, characterized by years of deferred maintenance and a lack of open space amenities. This area is also susceptible to coastal and inland flooding in the near-term and the entire neighborhood threatened by increasing surface temperatures in the summer. This tour will show how MyRWA builds solutions, rooted in science and understanding of environmental injustices, so that all people across the watershed, no matter who they are or where they live, have safe and easy access to nature and a healthy environment.
During loop two, participants will visit two urban agriculture sites to get a better idea of Boston history while learning how urban agriculture supports communities and brings people together. The two urban site visits will be to the Urban Farming Institute (UFI) and The Food Project.
The UFI is a pioneering, social-innovation organization, founded in 2012, to support the development of urban farming in Boston and in other urban areas of Massachusetts. UFI’s mission is to build a healthier, more locally dedicated food system, and develop and promote urban farming practices while working diligently to engage individuals and foster a vibrant, healthy community. With a mission deeply rooted in sustainability and social equity, they strive to empower individuals and neighborhoods by creating opportunities for meaningful engagement in the cultivation of food. During this tour you’ll learn about how the growing momentum to green cities, increase health outcomes, and develop more sustainable solutions for urban economic development has resulted in urban farming quickly emerging into a viable industry solution. This emerging industry can help to promote and support innovative approaches that address economic disparity, particularly in lower income neighborhoods.
At The Food Project, they believe that everyone has the right to fresh, healthy, affordable food. Their goal is to transform the food system into a more just, community-engaged model that supports food security for all while connecting diverse communities to each other and to the land. Since their founding in 1991, young people have been the driving force of The Food Project and work on their farms and with community members to realize the right to food that nourishes communities and the planet we share. Each year, The Food Project employs 140 teenagers in this vital work on 70 acres of urban and suburban farmland across eastern Massachusetts, where they grow 200,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables and use this food to enact innovative food system initiatives that increase access to fresh, healthy food for all.
This tour is included in the cost of registration.
Host State Tour: Conservation Agriculture – Agricultural Education, Aquaculture, and More
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
8:30 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
This tour will take place south of Boston in Bristol and Plymouth Counties. This area offers much to see in terms of rich history, beautiful views, and conservation agriculture. During this trip, we will tour a vineyard, a high school leading the way in agricultural education, and a cranberry bog implementing a variety of conservation practices. The three sites we will visit are the Westport Rivers Vineyard in Coastal Westport, Bristol County Agricultural High School in Dighton, and A.D. Makepeace Company in Wareham.
At Westport Rivers Winery you will tour the Russell Family’s vineyard. The Russell Family has been growing Vinifera grapes since 1986. At the heart of their mission is the belief that they are stewards of both land and possessions; that these are not truly owned, but rather are temporarily gifted and to be used in a fashion honoring those who came before and those who follow afterward. The Russell family is committed to using this South Coast farmland both for agricultural products (including food, wine, and beer) and for education (about the value of working natural resources). Westport Rivers Winery and Buzzards Bay Brewing were founded upon this deep regard for local agriculture and education. Over the years, the Russell Family has permanently preserved 400 acres of working farmland and forest.
Bristol County Agricultural High School was founded by an act of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1912 as an all-boys agricultural school. Students lived on the 220-acre campus while learning and working the land, then a vegetable farm. Over the years, the school has evolved to meet the needs of the agricultural industry. Today, Bristol Aggie offers six science majors: Agricultural Mechanics, Animal Science, Arboriculture, Environmental Conservation, Floriculture, and Landscape Design and Contracting.
The A.D. Makepeace Company, founded in 1854, is one of the world’s largest cranberry growers, and the largest private property owner in Massachusetts. Makepeace and its subsidiaries have been in the business of growing cranberries since the 1800s when Abel D. Makepeace established hundreds of acres of bog across southeastern Massachusetts and became known as “The Cranberry King.” Today, the company farms some 1,750 acres of bog in the towns of Carver, Middleborough, Plymouth, Rochester, and Wareham. A.D. Makepeace is one of the largest cranberry growers in the world.
We will wrap up the tour day with friends, fellowship, and a clambake. This traditional New England seafood cooking method also doubles as an outdoor party. To prepare a clambake, a fire is dug in a pit and allowed to smolder all day, burning under large rocks. When the stones are hot, a thick layer of seaweed is added, followed by layers of food. The pit is then covered with more seaweed and a tarp, and everything is left to cook for about an hour. The practice originated with coastal Native Americans who taught early settlers how to steam seafood on the shores of New England. Attendees will have a choice of lobster, steak, or chicken for their main dish. Sides include clam chowder, Cape Cod steamer clams, mussels, linguica, red bliss potatoes, corn on the cob, homemade coleslaw, and watermelon.
This tour is included in the cost of registration.