The Blue Hills Reservation gets by with a little help from its ‘Friends’

About 10 miles south of downtown Boston lays a lush and rocky landscape filled with over 100 miles of hiking trails that lead you through marshes, meadows and a lot of natural beauty. 

The Blue Hills Reservation contains thousands of acres of undeveloped land that are packed with with rich history and diverse ecology from all kinds of flora and fauna to endangered species. Plus, it holds a special place in our hearts here at “GBH.” We take our call letters from the 635-foot-tall Great Blue Hill, the original location for our station’s transmitters.

Nature reserves are more than good for the planet. We now have a ton of research showing how immersing ourselves in nature can be beneficial for our physical, mental and emotional well-being. 

That’s why on this week’s edition of the Joy Beat, we’re celebrating the nonprofit Friends of the Blue Hills, a group of people dedicated to preserving the Blue Hills Reservation’s natural beauty and bringing joy to so many of us who love exploring the outdoors. 

Jen Klein, executive director of Friends of the Blue Hills, joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to discuss the work they do to preserve the storied reservation’s beauty. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.

Arun Rath: Before we get into the organization, I would love a quick history lesson for those who aren’t familiar with the history of the reservation. Blue Hills, I think, probably comes from the hue of the mountains, but tell us — it was known well before it was established as a state park.

Jen Klein: Yes. The history of the Blue Hills goes back millions of years to a time when the area that’s now known as the Blue Hills Reservation was an active volcano — that was about 600 million years ago. It’s the ancestral land of the Massachusett tribe, which is named for the Great Blue Hill, the name of the reservation. So its history certainly predates colonial settlement.

Its history as a reservation and a public park dates back to 1893, when landscape architect Charles Eliot founded the Metropolitan Parks Commission with the state. The Blue Hills reservation was the first area dedicated in the state for public recreation, which was an incredible thing at that point in time in history because, prior to that, people didn’t think about the need for people to have open space for human enjoyment, mental health, recreation and wellness.

Rath: I was just going to say that that timeline you were talking about: that was right when parks, as a concept, were really coming into their own in America, right?

Klein: Exactly.

Rath: Tell us about the Friends of the Blue Hills. How did that organization start?

Klein: So, Friends of the Blue Hills has been around for about 45 years. We were founded in 1979, so much more recent than the history of the land itself or the whole reservation. We were founded in 1979, really, by a group of community members — particularly in Milton — who were really concerned about some disinvestment that was happening in the park and some encroaching development around the park. They really wanted to be a voice to protect this gem of an open space from further development and ensure that this 7,000 acres of open space would be there for generations to come.

One of the big pillars of our mission today — and we’re still very true to that — is: how do we encourage our communities that surround the park, the people that engage with the park, to be civically engaged themselves?

We, as an organization, do a lot for the park. We maintain the 125 miles of trails within the park. We provide public programming for visitors within the park, and that could be everything from guided bird walks to trail runs, hiking programs, mountain biking and everything in between.

But really, a big part of our work is encouraging our communities to be advocates and civically engaged themselves.

Rath: Tell us a bit more about the civic engagement part and how that’s grown. How do you put that into action and engage with the community?

Klein: Yeah. We do a lot of volunteer work in the park. In any given year, we have anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 volunteers who dedicate their time and energy — and that could be everything from helping to build bridges on the trails, to removing invasive species in the park, to helping us lead hikes and guided experiences.

Then, when we do run into situations where there is development on the boundaries of the park that could potentially impact the ecosystems within the park, we mobilize those volunteers and our membership to reach out to their local representative, to participate in their town council, be a voice, be an extension of our organization for this park and its amazing natural resources.

Rath: Jen, tell me a little bit about your relationship, your history with the Blue Hills. How did you first get engaged to the point where you are now: the executive director of Friends of the Blue Hills?

Klein: Yeah, that’s a great question. I first got engaged with the park when I moved to Boston in, what was that, 2013? 2014? I was living in Dorchester, and like a lot of Bostonians, I lived in a home, in a condo, that did not have any open space — didn’t have a yard, didn’t have a patio, didn’t have anything like that.

I was just craving — it’s human nature, right, to want to be in close proximity to nature. It’s just in our DNA, and you can’t separate it. So when I found myself living somewhere that was very densely populated and had no green space, I discovered the Blue Hills was just about a five-minute car drive from where I was living in Dorchester. My husband and I got a puppy, and it was where I went every day to walk my dog and by my own respite from day-to-day life.

Ever since then, I have been an active user of the park — hiking, mountain biking, snowshoeing when we get enough snow to actually do that. So I’ve been a user of the park now for over a decade. I feel very fortunate now that I’m in a role where I’m able to actually run this amazing organization and give back to this park that gave so much to me.

Rath: What are some of your favorite memories along the way, as you’ve been working with the Friends?

Klein: I think my favorite memories are always being in the community with our members, just doing trail work. My day-to-day work with the organization, as fun as it sounds, I don’t get to be out in the park. My team gets to be out in the park a lot every day.

But, like many executive directors, I spend a lot of time in meetings and raising money for the park, so the occasions where I get to be out in the community and in the park with our members, volunteers and park visitors — trimming branches, picking up litter — those are my favorite days to be out in the park.

It reminds me why I do what I do and why this work is so important, and why this park is so critical for the city of Boston and Greater Boston at large. It’s just an incredible resource. It’s 7,000 acres — over eight times the size of New York City’s Central Park — and we have it right in our backyards.