Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Environmental Leader and Innovator | Page 18

People and Happenings
Sustainable Landscape Workshop
On August 6, 2013, Mount Auburn hoste d 6 0
colleagues for a day-long workshop on sustainable landscape
maintenance practices, co-hosted by the National Park
Service and The Trustees of Reservations (TTOR). Inspired
by a tour of Mount Auburn’s sustainable landscape practices
that she attended during the Council of Visitors meeting the
previous September, TTOR’s Cindy Brockway approached
Dave Barnett about hosting a similar training workshop for
TTOR staff from across the state. Mount Auburn’s hor-
ticulture staff put together a day of field demonstrations,
presentations and discussions highlighting three areas: (1)
equipment for increasing operational efficiency and reducing
use of fossil fuels; (2) organic debris management and
recycling/composting; and (3) reducing turf maintenance
requirements through the use of low-maintenance ground-
covers.
The day was a huge success, thanks to the enthusiasm
and expertise of Mount Auburn’s staff, and networking and
sharing of ideas and information between our organizations
has continued actively since then as we all strive to preserve
our historic landscapes using the most environmentally
sensitive maintenance practices available.
Workshop attendees tour our composting center
“Dave, the atmosphere that you inspire and the work that
your staff accomplish at Mount Auburn is outstanding. It
was so good to hear about the good work that is being done
by the people doing it! Everyone on your staff is so engaged
in working toward common goals of property stewardship
through the use of sustainable practices. What a fantastic
team!”
—Charlie Pepper Senior Project Manager,
Preservation Maintenance & Education
Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation,
National Park Service
Project Update: Civil War Monument Conservation
Conservator Barbara Mangum treated the monument to Henry Todd
(c. 1837 – 1864), a flag bearer who died in action in the Battle of the
Wilderness, as part of a special initiative to preserve Mount Auburn’s most
significant Civil War monuments.
On March 30, 2014, Consulting Objects Conservator Barbara
Mangum and Mount Auburn’s preservation staff led a walking tour
of Civil War- monuments recently conserved under a 2013 match-
ing grant from the Massachusetts Sesquicentennial Commission of
the American Civil War.
The Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery was recently awarded a 2014 matching grant of $7,500 from the Massachusetts
Sesquicentennial Commission of the American Civil War for a $15,000 project to conserve an additional eleven monuments.
To help us raise the required match please visit our website at mountauburn.org/give/ and look for the Civil War
Preservation Grant under Special Projects.
16 | Sweet Auburn