Hey, there! Log in / Register
Sledding war erupts in Wellesley
By adamg on Sun, 12/22/2024 - 5:49pm
The Swellesley Report is filing dispatches from the front lines of a war that's erupted in normally bucolic Wellesley between people who just want to do some sledding and a gardening group that is trying to keep them off a prime hill to protect the tulips and other plantings at the bottom of the hill.
Yesterday, the Swellesley Report learned first hand that the Massachusetts Horticultural Society had not only fenced off a popular hill on the Elm Bank land it leases from the state (with fences that could be electrified, no less), its officials and local police were on hand at the closest parking lot to shoo away all the families that kept trying to show up with sleds and tubes and toboggans. The reason: To protect all the tulips and other plantings in gardens at the bottom of the hill.
Today, the news site reports, sledding rebels tore down the fencing down and people were serenely sliding down the hill. The local state rep was aghast the society was blocking sledding, but allowed as how tearing down fences was perhaps not the best way to address the situation.
Like Harvard University with the Arnold Arboretum, the society has a long-term lease on the land - albeit just 99 years, not the 1,000 years a canny Harvard negotiated with the city of Boston back in the 1870s.
Unlike the society, however, Harvard has never planted tulips at the bottom of the Ahb's prime sledding run, down Peters Hill to South Street in Roslindale.
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Update in comments at Swellesley Report
“This town
Needs an enema.”
-The Joker (Nicholson) Bat Man (89’)
What's their actual concern?
Soil compaction? (Does that even happen from foot traffic when the ground is frozen?)
Tiptoe through the tulips!
Tiptoe through the tulips!
I bet these boomer bloomers
I bet these boomer bloomers are the same people who say, “why don’t kids play outside anymore?!”.
You’d be surprised how people think
There are some people who go on about how good it is for people to be outside enjoying themselves, but keep on going on about how parades and ethnic celebrations should be banned in Boston.
Wait until you find out how most of the families get to the park.
I read this as "shedding war"
and I am very disappointed.
And most deservedly so.
And most deservedly so.
Went sledding as a teenager
Went sledding as a teenager in the land of horses and goats . Wasn't prepared for bottom line of barbed wire at the bottom of the hill. Blood all over my face. Good times!
Gee ZHUSS!
I hope you're making that up. That's horrific.
Tulips?
Why are there tulips on/under the ground... in December?
Hmm ...
Not familiar with how tulips work?
The idea is you plant the bulbs in the fall so that they bloom in the spring.
A few things
1) someone updated the Elm Bank wikipedia page with the following, which will probably be taken down, but still is appreciated:
2) I don't have a PhD in plants but … don't tulips and such live in bulbs underground and lay dormant during winter? Wouldn't a layer of snow insulate them further from trampling above? Maybe some amount of ground compaction would occur, but maybe someone at Elm Bank could focus their tulips on something not at the bottom of a sledding hill.
3) Given that private golf courses in Newton generally don't mind kids sledding down their hills, you'd think MassHort could figure out how to allow this to go on.
4) Good that Rep Linsky is on top of this. Since the site is owned by the Commonwealth, the non-horticulturists should get some say in what goes on there.
Oh deer
I don't know why they want to keep people off the frozen ground either but the electric fence is likely to keep deer out. There's a small arboretum in one of the North shore towns and they have a bunch of signs explaining their fences and the damage the deer caused. Although they also have gates so people can walk through.
Not all the Newton golf courses
The Brae Burn Country Club blocked sledding access a few years ago. https://village14.com/2022/11/03/fortress-braeburn/
Are private landowners liable for sledding injuries in Massachusetts? If they are, that's a major incentive to ban sledding.
If your sledding
Is digging up tulip bulbs, you're doing it wrong.
Plowboggan
Geez grandpa don't you know the new craze? Sledding isn't cool unless you dig a 100ft trench while going
couldnt they just put down
couldnt they just put down some plywood over the tulip beds to protect it and call it a day? Cheaper and easier solution than electric fences.
Horticultural types are upscale, with carnations on the piano
and tulips on the organ.
You can lead a whore to culture
but you can't make her think.
Part and parcel of their m.o.
Given that the first thing MassHort did when they got the lease to Elm Bank in the 90s was try to get rid of the soccer fields used since time immemorial by Wellesley, Dover, and Natick kids' and teens' teams, I am not surprised by this development. Maybe they could get around to renovating that mansion one of these decades? Given the potential revenue it could bring in as a high-end wedding / event host, it is bewildering that MassHort apparently has no plans to do it. Heck, they could probably make it a boutique hotel or B&B, or grand museum for the world of horticulture. Instead, they chase away local sledders. Sigh. Such a remarkable gem of public-ish land for sport, recreation, access to the Charles River, hiking through the woods, and such unimaginative oversight.
Planted On Purpose?
I think it a reasonable assumption, and a fair one, that the history of sledding at this location is public knowledge. So why plant tulips there in the first place let alone a fence.
They knew what they were doing when they did that, and the fence. Maybe they thought they could get away with it.
And to be fair here, both the older and younger generations are doing things like this so it is not all boomers.
Take for example the people who encourage one to not rake leaves in the yard because of all of the little creatures that live there, bugs, snakes, rabbits. OK, I can wait... right? But the person on the other side complains that your grass is not cut and leaves not raked, and sends the town out to ring your bell to clean up now or get a fine. You can't win.
At this rate, none of us have a chance to get along with anyone. Too many agendas all being imposed, and if you fail to comply with one of them the hate posts start in social media.
MassHort only has a 99 year leasehold
on 36 acres out of a 175 acre state-owned park. That's fairly close to ownership in one sense, at least in the early years of the term, but is the level of restrictions they are imposing really in the public interest? They are the same bunch of the smartest people in the room who mismanaged their way into losing Horticultural Hall, across Mass Ave from Symphony Hall.