By Kyler Moran, Preserve Stewardship Manager
Since 2023, Legacy has partnered with Stockbridge Community Schools’ Future Farmers of America (FFA) program at Beckwith Preserve. Located next to the school and connected by trail, the preserve gives students direct access to hands-on outdoor learning opportunities just steps from their classrooms.
Stockbridge’s FFA program, led by advisor Robert Richards, is known for creating meaningful real-world experiences for students–from growing food for the school cafeteria to conducting research in the Dominican Republic. What initially started as a one-time tree planting event at Beckwith Preserve, has blossomed into a multi-year collaboration giving students the opportunity to connect with conservation and stewardship work. Students now regularly join our team on the preserve every spring and fall to help remove invasive species, get their hands dirty engaging in ecosystem restoration, and learn about Legacy’s mission.
For Earth Day this spring, we welcomed around 30 students for a high-intensity morning of garlic mustard removal. Garlic mustard is an invasive plant species, commonly found in woodlands and disturbed areas. It creates dense areas of vegetation that exclude native species, and releases chemicals from its roots that make it difficult for other plants to thrive nearby.
Garlic mustard pulling is normally a pretty slow-moving process. You grab the plants from the base and carefully remove them from the ground, making sure to get as much of the root as possible so they can’t resprout.
But as our staff observed this spring, when middle school students are involved, slow movement is out of the question. Students sped off in small teams the second their gloves were on, eager to fill their bags with more garlic mustard than their peers for “bragging rights” over the biggest bag of garlic mustard of the day.
In just a few hours their garlic mustard bags were brimming with plants, so full that students were working in pairs just to carry the bags through the preserve and to the trash.
During their pulling frenzy workday, students collected over 200 pounds of garlic mustard from the preserve, effectively clearing over a quarter of an acre of the invasive vegetation.
The students’ hard work made a significant impact at Beckwith Preserve, clearing invasive species and creating more space for native plants to thrive. But the partnership is about more than ecosystem restoration. It’s also about giving students meaningful hands-on experiences in conservation and helping them build lasting connections with the natural world right in their own community.
What began as a one-time tree planting event has grown into an ongoing partnership rooted in stewardship, learning, and community and we’re excited to see it continue growing in the years ahead.
Thank you to all our Stockbridge FFA student Earth Day 2026 volunteers!
