Aimée Gelinas founded Tamarack Hollow in 2013 with her husband Dan.
“In totality, we have 88 acres that we're managing and conserving, and hopefully, to conserve in perpetuity," she told WAMC. "That's our goal, to work with maybe conservation organizations or land trusts to have this land eventually conserved forever. But in the meantime, we're managing it, making trails. We do educational programs up here in Windsor. So, we do nature programs, plant and tree ID, wild edibles, snowshoeing, tracking, that's kind of my expertise, and then we also offer music and drumming in programs throughout the Berkshires.”
The center is set in the hilly, wooded eastern fringes of Berkshire County.
“When I first moved up to this area, Windsor – we're talking late 90s – I was also simultaneously working for AmeriCorps, and then I also worked for the Appalachian Mountain Club up on the summit of Mount Greylock," said Gelinas. "So, I was trained by naturalists who had a deep understanding of the boreal forest and the subboreal forest and the alpine environments of the Northeast.”
Boreal forests are found at higher elevations, making them a rare occurrence in Massachusetts.
“It's also called a spruce fir forest, where spruce trees and balsam fir trees – red spruce, specifically, and balsam fir – just grow naturally in the woods," Gelinas continued. "And so, we have that here at Tamarack Hollow. So, when I moved up here and started just exploring the woods here, I realized that this was just kind of a miniature version of what you see at the summit of Mount Greylock. Mount Greylock is at 3,491 [feet], so it's a little higher elevation, we're at about 2,000 feet here, but that's when you really start to see that transitional forest from that northern hardwood forest, which we also have a really great examples of here, as you transition into that subboreal, boreal forest, and even getting to that little bit of alpine.”
The unique arboreal environment inspired Gelinas to take action and work to protect the landscape.
“To conserve it is just going to help benefit this type of forest by having larger tracts of land preserved for future generations of wildlife, plants, fauna, flora, and people to enjoy," Gelinas told WAMC. "This type of forest is going to be the first to- It is already being the first to be affected by climate change.”
This summer, Tamarack Hollow is taking a major step forward for its mission to provide a comprehensive education on the forests of Berkshire County by breaking ground on a new nature center.
“We have programs up here, the Youth Center Inc. in Cheshire has been a long-time partner of ours, Child Care of the Berkshires," said Gelinas. "So, a lot of youth programming. We do a lot of programs in the schools. We're backed right up to Notchview here, so we have this wonderful opportunity to bring people out into the woods, specifically, youth, and really, all ages, we work with all ages. But to not have a building has been a challenge. Weather has really impacted our programming. If we have a really cold day, we have snow shooters up here, we want to give them a chance to warm up, and we want to be able to have full day school programs up here, where kids come up and can spend the day.”
Back in 2020, Gelinas applied for funding through the Mass Cultural Council’s facilities grant program.
“We got a $50,000 grant, and then we just, we completed the match last year, and we are still fundraising," she explained. "This is kind of the seed money to get the foundation in, get the structure up, but we're going to need more money to make a proper handicap ramp, have a deck, and make it a very accessible building, because we'd really like to have this be available for every person to be up here and enjoying nature in whatever form they can.”
Tamarack Hollow will launch a GoFundMe campaign to bolster its fundraising efforts in tandem with Wednesday’s private groundbreaking event.
“We will literally be breaking the ground of the nature center site, and our excavator and our foundation specialists are going to be coming up in the next few weeks," said Gelinas. "So, we're going to be starting with the foundation. So, we're having a groundbreaking ceremony next week with some family and board members and some, you know, just to honor that, that next step of our organization, which is very exciting.”
Construction of the center itself is planned to begin next summer, with an anticipated opening within the next two to three years.
