By Mariel Hohmann, TerraCorps Land Stewardship Coordinator
Hilltown Land Trust took home the Best Natural World Entry at the 2024 Ashfield FilmFest for our short film about wildlife who use conserved land – and beaver architecture – for travel through the Hilltowns.
If you’ve dropped by HLT’s social media pages, you’ve probably seen videos of all sorts of animals walking across your screen. For the last few years, we’ve been hiding wildlife cameras all over the Hilltown landscape, trying to catch glimpses of the critters that call these lands home.
Mariel installing a trail cam.
Wildlife cameras give us a window into the world that emerges when we are not there to watch. Every time we see footage of a beaver placing a branch just-so in its dam, a porcupine waddling back into its rocky den, or a moose snacking on the tender leaves abundant through an early-successional forest, we are reminded of why we must preserve corridors of travel and nurture varied habitats. The findings we gather also directly inform our management plans for our stewardship sites, motivating us to expand our camera fleet and engage volunteers in the coming months, as we strive to leverage increased capacity to care for our lands better.
Wildlife cameras give us a window into the world that emerges when we are not there to watch – like these porcupines play fighting.
HLT’s Smith College summer intern Maggie Brisbois, who Mariel trained in camera maintenance.
As the Land Stewardship Coordinator for HLT, I had the opportunity to mentor Maggie Brisbois, who served as our Smith College Praxis intern this past summer. A major part of this experience was training her in camera maintenance. This provided an excellent opportunity to share more about the habits of the animals in the region and to connect in person with these spaces during our regular trips to collect footage.
Perhaps the most rewarding part of this exercise is sharing wildlife footage with our community. The last two years we’ve had the honor of taking part in the Ashfield FilmFest. This year, we won the Best Natural World Entry for our short film A Year on the Dam. The film showcases a beaver dam, which serves as a dry passageway through wetlands for many animals and is one of a precious number of linkages between blocks of conserved lands in the Hilltowns. We’ve loved being at the festival in person to hear the reactions of the crowd as they watch each animal trot by. It’s a reminder of why we do this.
It was an honor to receive this gorgeous, locally crafted award at the Ashfield FilmFest! We love connecting with our neighbors (and the amazing movies they make) at the festival, which has become an annual tradition for Hilltown Land Trust.
