Tony Ryan
Describe your work at the Harwich Conservation Trust (HCT):
My volunteer activities at the Harwich Conservation Trust fit right in with my life’s experience as a Professional Land Surveyor. I work with the “Boundary Quest program” alongside other volunteers who also love the outdoors and being able to spend time in the woods. Our duties are to search out and find the monuments that are shown on plans of land that Harwich Conservation Trust (HCT) has stewardship over. Once we have found the monuments we are then in a position to place small signs along the property lines so as to identify HCT’s land as being Conservation land.
How long have you volunteered?
I started volunteering last spring, found it very enjoyable, and wondered why I hadn’t tried it years ago. I had been looking for something to do since moving here and had given up on the idea of doing survey work part-time as the economy was so bad. It helped that one of the fellows that I ended up working with was also a member of my Lodge. He casually mentioned what he was doing and it perked my interest. Two of my fellow volunteers are in their eighties and I was very impressed with their abilities in traversing the many thickets and briar patches we encountered in the woods. This fall our team included as many as six of us.
What do you like most about it, memorable moments?
I like the fact that we do operate as a team and have accomplished quite a bit with just rudimentary resources. For the most part, none of the fellow volunteers have much of any experience with property lines or survey work, but working together have gotten the job done.
What’s special about Harwich?
My wife and I vacationed in Mashpee every summer for 27 years. We had long ago decided that we would retire to the Cape. When we started looking around the Mashpee area we found that the area was just too congested for what we wanted in our new location. After research we discovered that Harwich was a nice small town that was doing a lot to preserve open space and that their tax rate was quite reasonable. We looked around Harwich for two years before we found the house that we finally purchased. We have never regretted our move to Harwich. It’s a great atmosphere to be in and it has everything that we want.
What do you when not at HCT?
My time away from HCT is pretty much taken up with maintaining our home and interacting with our neighbors. In the summer, we do occasionally spend time exploring on our small boat.