Kay Lazar | The Boston Globe | June 7, 2021
The pandemic drove people outside. They really liked it.
Cornhole games on Bedford’s town common. Busy walking trails along New Bedford’s waterfront. Long-promised bike lanes added in Boston. And an explosion of newcomers to parks and campgrounds across Massachusetts.
Countless people cooped up by restrictions during the pandemic discovered the outdoors, where they could have fun with little risk of contracting the virus. But perhaps more surprising, as restrictions have eased and most indoor places fully reopened, there are signs that this new-found love affair with nature seems to be enduring.
Nature preserves are reporting big jumps in membership while cities and towns across Massachusetts are moving to make temporary outdoor spaces permanent.
“That’s the great silver lining of the pandemic,” said Sarah Stanton, Bedford’s town manager. “We are seeing everybody come out and try new things, go for hikes. People I would normally not see in town, you see out on a bike.”
Like many other communities, Bedford tried creative ways to lure people outside last spring, as scientists realized the virus that causes COVID-19 can be spread by respiratory aerosols, and that well-ventilated places, — and what’s better ventilated than the outdoors? — were safer for people to socialize. The town added cornhole games and picnic tables to its common. That proved so popular, Bedford is now planning to add lawn games, picnic tables and Adirondack chairs to other open spaces in town.
Additionally, Bedford, Arlington and Lexington are moving to capitalize on an increased interest in cycling by boosting small businesses located neartheir shared bike path, the Minuteman Bikeway, that connects the communities.
“It’s how do we tap into this interest level?” Stanton said. “Maybe it’s families going to get an ice cream cone, hop on their bikes, then play lawn games on the common.”
Pandemic era exuberance for the outdoors has fueled eye-popping new membership data from the Trustees of Reservations, a conservation nonprofit that manages more than 100 properties, encompassing 40,000 acres and 350 miles of trails across Massachusetts.
Between last March and this one, the Trustees’ membership soared 37 percent.
“The year before, it only increased 6 percent and that was a good year,” said Matt Montgomery, the Trustees’ chief of marketing. Membership includes free or reduced admission to the organization’s cornucopia of preservations, trails, and camp sites.
A recent survey conducted by the Trustees suggests many of its new members intend to stick with the outdoors. A majority indicated they expected their use of Trustees properties will be the same this year as last.
“We have seven summer camps and six are sold out. That’s not normal,” Montgomery said.
By late May, reservations for the organization’s campgrounds in Royalston, in North Central Massachusetts, and in Provincetown were so robust, the Trustees are planning to increase camping opportunities.
“We are building more high end sites, not like glamping, but better than a tent to attract beginner campers,” Montgomery said. “People have fallen in love with nature and the outdoors.”
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