By Adam R. Moore

Oh, the fragrance!

Painting by Penny Weinstein

How well I remember my first visit to Sheriff’s Meadow Sanctuary. It was a bright spring day, at the very end of April, a day before I was to begin my new job as the Executive Director of Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation. I wanted to begin my new position with a pilgrimage to our namesake property. We parked our minivan alongside Plantingfield Way, and all six members of the Moore family spilled out of the car, crossed the street, and assembled beside the kiosk and the boulder honoring all the donors of the land.

Forth we went, the children dashing along. I would like to think I led the way, but most likely I followed some distance behind, as I was just seven weeks past a double knee replacement and walking along with a cane. It was a joyful walk, and though I cannot remember who went first or what we said, I distinctly remember the redolence of the Sanctuary. Around each aromatic twist in the Ruth and Ed Brooks Trail, a new fragrance would waft past, the scent of one flower or another. When we rounded the bend by the mudhole, zephyrs blowing across Eel Pond would carry upon them the scent of the salt marsh and the stirring smell of the sea. The short loop walk was a Flying Horses of fragrance.

I walked the Sanctuary trail purposely, to begin my new job at the Sheriff’s Meadow, and to walk for a moment in the footsteps of Henry Beetle Hough. With this newsletter, Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation begins something new, too.

This newsletter is the first in a series of special issues that we plan to publish. Each newsletter in this special series will explore the theme of trails. Certain issues will explore particular sanctuaries through the lens of trails, while others will explore long-distance trails that traverse lands of many different conservation organizations. For this first special issue, we have chosen to begin where the Foundation began, at Sheriff’s Meadow Sanctuary, and along the Ruth and Ed Brooks Trail that loops around the pond. We invite you to walk with us, to learn of the history and flora and fauna of this sanctuary, and to join with us as we set forth upon a literary ramble over the trails of Martha’s Vineyard.