After the blizzard of campaign lit that we’ve seen in our mailboxes for the past week or so, it was refreshing to get the fall newsletter from the Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust (LP&CT), one of the powerhouses in the nonprofit community. The last time I heard a figure for the Trust’s membership, it was about 1000, which is superior for a local group. Through all the electoral sunshine and storms, organizations like the Trust keep “moving the chains” toward their goals in ways that would make Tom Terrific and the Pats proud.

The list of the Trust’s accomplishments is long, most recently the massive undertaking that is the Concord River Greenway in which City Hall was a strong partner. In the President’s Letter, Mark Romanowsky quotes Aldo Leopold on conservation: “A state of harmony between men and land.” We would say “men and women” today.

The Trust has after-school programs for youth, fish monitoring to keep tabs on wildlife, a film series, white water rafting of course, and public walks like the upcoming Hike on the Great Wall of the Northern Canal on Sat. Nov. 18 at 10 AM (start at Boott Mills Museum for this NPS Ranger-led walk. The cumulative effect of good work by the Trust and dozens of other nonprofit organizations in the city give us a higher quality of life—and we should not take any of their efforts for granted.

To participate in programs and support the Trust, please visit the website.