Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Mount Auburn as a Natural Habitat | Page 3

Young screech owl, Goldenrod
Path, June 2004
Mount Auburn
as a Natural Habitat and Wildlife Refuge
SCREECH OWL PHOTO BY JANET HEYWOOD, STAFF
RED FOX PHOTO BY JOHN HARRISON, 2004
by J i l l G rabo sk i , f o r m e r V i s i t o r S e r v i c e s C o o rd i n a t o r, a n d
D e nn i s C ol l i n s, C u ra t o r o f P l a n t C o l l e c t i o n s
O
n any given day at Mount Auburn Cem-
etery a visitor may have the opportunity
to spy a red-tailed hawk flying overhead,
a coyote dashing across a sloping path or a squir-
rel hopping between tree branches. While these
sightings are always a thrill, they are by no means
uncommon. Mount Auburn Cemetery is an impor-
tant wildlife refuge — ecologically rich, botanically
diverse and increasingly vital as a large, undisturbed
open space in a highly developed urban area. A
wide variety of wildlife visits or lives within Mount
Auburn’s 175 acres and has been doing so since
before the Cemetery was founded in 1831.
In the early 19th century, George W. Brimmer
purchased a sizeable wooded property, located on
the border of Cambridge and Watertown. His land
was a popular destination for Harvard students as
well as Bostonians seeking refuge in its rural quali-
ties. It was affectionately called “Sweet Auburn” after
Oliver Goldsmith’s 1770 poem “The Deserted Vil-
lage.” In 1830 Brimmer agreed to sell his property
to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for the
creation of America’s first garden cemetery. Start-
ing with a site already rich in flora and fauna, the
founders believed the grounds could provide com-
fort and inspiration to the living. And while modi-
fications were made to the vegetation over time, the
Cemetery’s quiet green landscape continued to serve
as oasis for many species of wildlife.
Mount Auburn can be seen today as a tremendous
natural resource: providing a diversity of plant and
animal habitats with adequate food, water, shel-
ter and living space. The landscape includes open
park-like areas with large swaths of grass, woodland
settings with significant understory vegetation and
wetland zones with opportunities for aquatic spe-
cies. Many birds, like robins and catbirds, collect
supplies in the woodland understory to build their
nests in the protective branches of the trees. Eastern
screech owls seek refuge inside sun-warmed holes
in the trunks of aged trees. Mount Auburn’s three
major water bodies— Halcyon Lake, Auburn Lake
and Willow Pond— attract a wide array of wildlife
including birds and amphibians. Birds in particular
benefit from the mix of open and sheltered areas
provided by the vegetation along the banks. Today,
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