Mass Audubon Partnership with State Department of Conservation and Recreation's Urban-Centered Summer Nights Program Series Expands to Eight Sites

LINCOLN, MA -- Mass Audubon is partnering for the third straight year with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR)’s Summer Nights initiative in providing teens and young adults from urban areas with recreational and educational activities. 

This year, Mass Audubon is expanding its participation in the program to eight sites, stretching from Boston and suburbs to Springfield. 

Programs will be happening at: Magazine Beach Park in Cambridge and Milton’s Blue Hills Trailside Museum; in Boston at Carson Beach in Dorchester and Mattapan’s Ryan Playground; Stoughton Recreation Department; Watershops Pond in Springfield; Mass Audubon’s Broad Meadow Brook and Wachusett Meadow wildlife sanctuaries in Worcester and Princeton, respectively; and several other sites in central Massachusetts. 

Mass Audubon, the state’s largest nature conservation organization, joined the Summer Nights program in 2021, offering nature-based programs at three locations, including Boston Nature Center, Trailside Museum, and at Magazine Beach Park on the Charles River. Last year, our participation grew to six locations in metropolitan Boston. 

Collectively, Mass Audubon’s Summer Nights programs will offer the opportunity to explore and engage with nature, create with natural materials, and connect with other young people and adult mentors in their community through a variety of experiences and outdoor recreational activities to more than 2,000 participants. 

“Summer Nights is a terrific way to engage young people who historically have not been able to regularly experience the outdoors and the natural world. We are happy to partner with the Department of Conservation and Recreation in providing much-needed opportunities,” Vice President for Wildlife Sanctuaries and Programs Gail Yeo said. 

“A key priority of Mass Audubon’s Action Agenda is inclusive and equitable access to nature,” Yeo noted, “and this important DCR community-centered initiative goes a long way toward advancing that goal.” 

Most of the Mass Audubon Summer Nights events do not require registration.