Guides Gone Wild

Don't Despair (Too Much), Lock In Locally!: Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills

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Last Sunday, I stopped doomscrolling long enough to make it down to the Boston Outdoor Expo, and I can't overstate how great it was to spend a few hours fan girling with many a pod guest, including today’s repeat interviewee, Jen Klein!

I first spoke with Jen back during the early months of COVID, when she was with the Trustees of Reservations in Massachusetts as the Director of Outdoor Experience. I realized I had to have her back on about six months ago, when I happened to see on LinkedIn that she had made a job transition, and was now Executive Director for the Friends of the Blue Hills. I have the utmost respect for smaller, member-funded non-profits that are enhancing conservation and stewardship efforts in public spaces - in this case for the Blue Hills Reservation, which is one of the largest parcels of undeveloped conservation land in the Greater Boston area.

So of course we are chatting all about the Blue Hills and the countless events and activities Jen and her team have been hosting there, as well as the super exciting new development that’s hopefully right around the corner. But we’re also digging deeper into the challenges of outdoor program administration and community engagement, the differences between statewide and local roles, and along the way, Jen drops a few kernels of hope and strategies for making an impact, even in the midst of the dumpster fire raging around us.

Regardless of where you live, I hope you’ll consider supporting the Friends of the Blue Hills with a donation or membership, or if you're local, please make sure to sign up for some programs or volunteer events over at friendsofthebluehills.org, or @friendsofthebluehills on Instagram and Facebook.

And don't forget to lock in to some of this local goodness!:

Plus, more Outdoor Expo-related rock stars for your listening pleasure!:

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Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

What do people want, like what's their vision? I know I have my vision for the park and for the organization, but you know I feel like there's enough authoritarianism in the world right now that I don't need to be like that. And it's their park, right? It is the public's park. So what does our community want to see out of it?

Jen:

Welcome to the Guides Gone Wild podcast. What is Guides Gone Wild, you ask? This is where you'll fill your ears and minds with the stories of everyday, extraordinary women who will inspire you to take your outdoor adventure game to the next level. Whether you're starting your journey from the couch or the trailhead, this is the place for you. So let's get a little wild.

Jen:

Welcome to Guides Gone Wild. This is Jen hanging on by a thread over here. How about you? I did manage to have an afternoon of delights on Sunday, though, when I made it down to the Boston Outdoor Expo for a few hours and got to fangirl with many a pod guest, including today's repeat interviewee, jen Klein. I first spoke with Jen back during the first months of COVID, when she was with the trustees of reservations here in Mass as the director of outdoor experience. I realized I had to have her back on about six months ago, when I happened to see on LinkedIn that she had made a job transition and was now executive director for the Friends of the Blue Hills.

Jen:

I have the utmost respect for smaller member-funded nonprofits that are enhancing conservation and stewardship efforts in public spaces, in this case, for the Blue Hills Reservation, which is one of, if not the largest, parcels of undeveloped conservation land in the greater Boston area.

Jen:

So, of course, we are chatting all about the Blue Hills and the countless events and activities Jen and her team have been hosting there and the super exciting new development that's hopefully right around the corner, but we're also digging deeper into the challenges of outdoor program administration and community engagement the differences between statewide and local roles, and Jen drops a few kernels of hope and strategies for making an impact, even in the midst of the dumpster fire raging around us, for which I am all ears. So let's put off the doom scrolling a little bit longer, take a few deep breaths and get right into being friends with Jen Klein. So Jen Klein, formerly of the trustees of reservations the last time we spoke and currently the executive director of the Friends of the Blue Hills in here in lovely Massachusetts that is snow covered and getting more snow covered by the day at this point. Happy winter and welcome back.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Awesome. Thanks for having me back, Jen.

Jen:

Yeah, it's been a couple of years and yeah great, great to be here again. A lot of changes, even before the chaos of the last month and a half or month or so.

Jen:

Totally, which I'm sure we'll cover a little bit. So but first I want to dial back, because the last time we spoke you were let me remember exactly you were the Director of Outdoor Experience for Trustees Reservations and we were talking a lot about, you know, integrating and creating new programs and there's been, I know, a lot of change at the trustees even since we talked. I'm interested in kind of you know what the end of that looked like and then kind of what was the impetus behind your move to Blue Hills? And actually give us a little quick and dirty on the Blue Hills Reservation for anyone who's not familiar.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yeah, great, I think I'll start there, because if you're not local to Boston, you may have no idea what the Blue Hills is or what Friends of the Blue Hills is. So the Blue Hills Reservation, it's a state park here in Massachusetts. It's 7,000 acres acres of open space, so it is the largest urban open space in the Commonwealth, which is pretty awesome.

Jen:

And it's that giant patch of trees that you go over when you're landing at Logan that you're like oh, where did that come from, oh, where did it go?

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yes, yes, or if you're stuck in traffic on, you know, on 93 Route 128 and in your ways, or your Google Maps is telling you to get off the highway and save five minutes. It's usually diverting you through this beautiful open space that is the Blue Hills. So 7,000 acres. It encompasses six different towns. We have 125 miles of multi-use recreational trails and it's been around for a long time. So it was founded. There's a ski hill there. Yep, there's a ski hill there. There is the oldest continuously operated weather observatory is in the park, so that's pretty awesome. The park itself was founded as part of Charles you know Charles Elliott, so also famous connection to the trustees. But Blue Hills came about in about 1893 through the Metropolitan Parks Commission, which is now what we know of as DCR, and they purchased the Blue Hills, that land, to be the state's first dedicated area for public recreation. So that's the reservation itself. Its history certainly long predates that. The land was around millions of years. It was an active volcano, which is what created the rugged terrain that is the park today.

Jen:

I do have to say that for people that feel like they need to leave Massachusetts and drive two hours to get a vigorous hike in, that is complete BS, like having done some hiking in the Blue Hills and I've yet to do my. I'd love to do a traverse of all those of the whole park at some point. It's pretty rugged. It's rugged Like there's. You'll think you're in the whites at some points.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Totally, totally. It's a. It's the place where people come to. If you're training for the whites, this is where you go, because it is the only place in southeastern mass where you can. You can get that rugged terrain, you can get that elevation gain to replicate.

Jen:

You can F up your feet, just like you do on the rocks up in the hills, plenty of stones.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Totally, totally right. So yeah, so we can thank the volcanoes for that, you know, 450 million years ago. And then it has a long history of indigenous history as well the Massachusetts tribe. It's their ancestral land. So that's a little bit about the Blue Hills and then friends of the Blue Hills. So our organization is much newer in that history. We've been around since the late 70s. So you know 45, 50 years, depending on who you ask. In our community that number changes a little bit, but I think it's safe to say we've been around at least 45 years.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

And we were founded really in response to the community, recognizing that in the late 70s the state had some disinvestment in the park and just not putting enough or as many resources into the park as it was at one other point in time. So a bunch of volunteers got together in the community and said you know, we're going to steward this park ourselves and maintain our trails, do a lot of invasive species removal and really advocate for the park. And at that time the park was really much more vulnerable than it is today to development, you know, encroaching onto the park itself. So that's why we were founded. And here we are, you know, nearly 50 years later, pretty true to that work, still today, maintaining 125 miles of trails in the park, doing programming, public programming in the park, doing a lot of ecological restoration, work around invasive species removal in the park and really doing all we can to promote this, as to me, the crown jewel of our state park system.

Jen:

Yeah, absolutely yeah, ironically, probably looking ahead at some of the same challenges that caused this to get founded in the first place. So I'm glad, I'm certainly glad that you guys are doing what you're doing and it is is it's a really very cool, very, you know, diverse. There's a lot going on there. There's some beautiful stone towers at the top that you can go by and you know it's it's definitely got a little bit of everything.

Jen:

As far as that whole history, that you know a couple 100 years of what what people were doing in the outdoors around Boston, and it's very cool.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yeah, totally, and it's a place where I mean, I think hikers are probably our bread and butter, but but you can mountain bike in the park, you can snowshoe in the park Like this winter we're actually getting enough snow that that that can happen this year. Cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, there's this, there's a ski hill in the park kayaking, paddleboarding, fishing, equestrian use, so that's a big recreational use in the park as well. And rock climbing, bouldering is another big thing that happens.

Jen:

Yeah, yeah, I can see that Absolutely Plenty of rocks there, so yeah, so. So I guess you know let's let's kind of you know hone in on kind Plenty of rocks there, so yeah, so. So I guess you know let's let's kind of you know hone in on kind of how you wound up there, cause that's the story, I'm sure. Yeah.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yeah, yeah. So so it was a long time Blue Hills Park user. So when when I lived in Boston, moved to Boston well, lived there times on and off over the years, but most recently was around 2013. And my husband and I lived in Dorchester. So we lived about, you know, five minutes from the Blue Hills and, like a lot of people in Dorchester and a lot of people in Boston, we didn't have a yard, we didn't have a patio, we didn't have anything any open space, any green space at all.

Jen:

And for people who can't see Jen like I can she has a very large dog behind her that looks very high energy.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

So having no yard would be a problem. Yes, right, right. So this is part of the story, right? So we're living in Boston in this condo, no green space, and then we decided to get a dog and let's get a puppy. And I'm super active my husband's super active, right? We're avid hikers. I was a big runner at that time, mountain biking the whole nine yards. So we did our research, like you should when you're looking at what kind of dog fits your lifestyle, personality, blah, blah, blah. So we, we landed on getting a.

Jen:

Vizsla, which is a super high. That was going to be my guess, but yes, very that's why, even though she's sleeping right now, I'm like that is a high energy dog. Yes, don't let her pull, you Don't let her pull you and you know so.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

So high energy there. You know Hungarian pointers, you know bred to be out in the field hunting all day and I thought this would be great for us. Right, we're hiking, whatever. Great when we were hiking, not so great when we were not. Right In a condo in Boston, no yard. So the Blue Hills, I was taking that dog there every single day. One to drain the dog's energy. Two because I was getting stir crazy, feeling like I was living in a cave, not having that green space, you know, immediately accessible to me. So I've been a longtime user of the Blue Hills. It's really the closest spot in Boston that you can go and get that much, that many miles in a short amount of time. So longtime park user, big fan of the park, and you know so fast forward.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

I was working at the trustees, you know, for four, about four years and was really proud of the work that we were doing there, really loved the organization but really was feeling, you know, a couple things were pulling at me. One is I had a statewide role at the trustees. So my role as director of outdoor experience was setting the statewide strategy for outdoor recreation across the whole org and that had me driving all over the Commonwealth, which was great in so many ways. I got to experience and be in communities and places that I otherwise probably would have never have been. But, man, there were a lot of long days in the car so that was starting to wear on me a little bit.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

And then the challenge. You know as great as the trustees are I describe it as to compare it to Friends of the Blue Hills. It's like Procter and Gamble versus. You know your mom and pop neighborhood pharmacy or you know hardware store, and when you work for a big organization, whether that's the trustees or a nature conservancy and Audubon, you know whatever things move really slowly and it's really to to see the, to see your vision, to see your impact in a timely manner um, yeah, you were working there.

Jen:

You started there, I think, during covid, right in the pandemic. Yep, I started like right, right in 2020 so that overlay too makes it, probably it just makes all of that stuff so much more enhanced. I would imagine you know, because everybody was afraid of doing anything substantial for a long time.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Totally right. You're like remote and you're not. I mean you're co. I mean I had coworkers there that I hadn't met in person in like the four years that I worked there. It was a bizarre time for sure, and so what I found there, when you work at these a big organization, is things that I worked on in my first year there didn't come to become a reality until my fourth year there. It just takes there's just so many layers of here's the strategy. What are the properties getting you know, not just organizational buy-in but all those different properties and individual communities and teams to sort of buy in to say, yeah, jen, your strategy is great, we want to do it. And in almost all instances they were like, yeah, we want to do it, but it takes a long time to make those things actually happen. So what I'm seeing now with the trustees, which is amazing, is the things that I was working on my last year.

Jen:

there are just sort of I'm seeing like yay, I did that four years ago.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

They're living on, and that's that's incredibly exciting, and I truly, truly enjoyed my time at the trustees. I learned so much, but between the travel and just wanting something more nimble is what I was craving, and this opportunity at Friends of the Blue Hills presented itself to me. And it's very close to home it's a half hour from my house.

Jen:

And I was going to ask if you got kind of approached about this, because people saw the work that you were doing and were like, hey, you live right around the corner and yes, yes, that's yeah, exactly so, um, friends of blue Hills had a recruiter right, as these things often go, and and was like, hey, can, you should come over here. Yeah, and you're coming up on a year, right, coming up on a year.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yep In like two weeks, it'll be a year and I saw even just recently, you had your winter fast.

Jen:

You had the very first Blue Hills Solstice hike. There's been lots of fun stuff going on. So tell us a little bit about, like, what has your first year been besides? Probably a whirlwind, and then yeah.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yeah, the first year has been amazing it's. It's hard to believe that a year has passed already. Um, it feels like I've been here longer in some ways, and some other other ways it feels like I've only been here a month, but yeah, so so we had our first, our my second winter fest. I should say so. My first week on the job last year was Winterfest and it was not very wintry last year. No not at all. It was like 55 degrees and sunny and people were wearing t shirts and shorts and not skiing.

Jen:

That might have been what. Yeah, I was gonna say I think I feel like that was my the time that I came across. I mean, I knew that there was a ski hill in the Blue Hills, but my husband and I were hiking there in a winter month that was not at all wintery, like in our sweatshirts or something, and all of a sudden we pop out of the woods and we were like on the side of the ski trail that had been made. We're like oh, OK this is where it is. Yes.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yes, so, so, yeah, we just had our Winterfest, like two weeks ago this year, and it was cold, lots of snow, and we had like 400 people come out for that event, which was amazing. We had our first solstice hike this past December. Really learning the difference and the nuances between you know, big giant nonprofits in statewide roles which is what I had done at the trustees and what I've been at it is and what I'm learning is everything is local, right, everything is local, and I've learned so much from our members, I've learned so much from our volunteers and I've spent so much time this first year listening to you know, what do people want, like, what's their vision? I know I have my vision for the park and for the organization, but you know, I feel like there's enough authoritarianism in the world right now that I don't need to be like that. And it's their park, right, it is, it is the public's park.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

So what do what does our community want to see out of it? Everything from trail work to volunteer program, to what kinds of programs do they want to see? How do they want to see us work with the state? Right, because this is an interesting relationship. We're very different from the trustees where the trustees every property that I was doing work on and with. We owned that land here, friends of the blue hills, we don't own the land. The state owns the land and and DCR, right, so? Yeah, so it's really important for me to have a strong, well-respected relationship with the state. Yeah, so we understand. What does the state want to see out of the park too?

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

So, it's really triangulating between you know what's my vision, what's the community's vision and what's the state's vision, and then moving that work forward and trying to find money to to get all these things done work forward and trying to find money to to get all these things done.

Jen:

Yeah, so what was, was that? It sounds like when you were hired the I assume there's a board of directors that was kind of doing that and that's who you're accountable to Did they have any kind of? Were you given any kind of signaling as to what they were hoping that you were going to accomplish as the new leader, or you like? What was that all about?

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yeah, I, their vision and and mine really align really well so.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

I think at the time they didn't realize the world was going to be a dumpster fire in a year, so they might have different priorities now but right totally, and it was hard, like the, the previous executive director that that I replaced was here for 20 years, so that's always hard, I think, to come in to be that next person after someone you know has made such an impact on the organization.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

But my board, you know, their vision for the organization moving forward was, you know, one to grow it, to take it from being a little less grassroots to a little bit more professional and really looking to build our brand and our identity and our engagement within the community. So what we have, the problem that we have, is a problem a lot of conservation nonprofits have is where our membership and we have about 1,400 members that support us does not reflect the users of the park and the communities that surround the park in terms of diversity. So that was a big area that my board identified and felt pretty strongly about. How do we change that in, not just through our membership but through our volunteerism, through our program participation, because they just weren't lining up and I can't tell you that after a year now, yeah, we've solved that problem? We have not, but we're doing some great work to try to inch us towards, you know, having one park, one organization that represents all the communities surrounding the park.

Jen:

Yeah, which I think, yeah, which I think is a great. I think that that is a universal, probably amongst all the DCR properties. Unfortunately, now, everybody who's even remotely brown is in hiding for the indefinite future. But you know, let's cook some back outside. It's safe here. Right, right, exactly.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

These were problems we were struggling with at the trustees to. I mean, it's not you here, but it's definitely an area that my board identified in the hiring process that they really wanted their next leader to help them tackle that. And if you recall from the previous time we spoke, it's my background is in urban outreach. You know urban conservation, urban ecology and how we're engaging all people. You know urban conservation, urban ecology and how we're engaging all people, you know, in these wonderful urban open spaces, so I'm incredibly passionate about it.

Jen:

So yeah, yeah, I'm just curious, because I haven't looked it up yet is does the board itself reflect maybe the the kind of trending or the demographics of the communities that encompass the park?

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

No, kind of trending or the demographics of the communities that encompass the park. No, we don't Nope, and we're, we're it's, we're grappling with it right now. So we're about to start our strategic planning process, and that's like number number one on the list is is how do we? You know, our, our leadership needs to also reflect the communities that we serve?

Jen:

Yeah, yeah, leadership needs to also reflect the communities that we serve. Yeah, yeah, yep, oh, so much work to do, okay. So I'll leave that apart for a minute. So like kind of on that note, as with a year of this under your belt, give us some ideas of what individuals can do. I mean, we've kind of talked a little bit about this, but, you know, if we have an outdoor organization that we cherish or an activity or a place, I think it's going to become more and more important to really get pretty surgical, strike-ish with your ability to put resources where you want them to go now, um, and not necessarily rely on large bureaucratic governmental organizations to underwrite the type of things that you want to do.

Jen:

Um, give us some tips like what? What's your thinking around, like where can people be helpful, whether it's with money or with time or with you know anything else, I guess.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yeah, it's, it's, it's both right for a small nonprofit, it's money and time for sure. And and what I'm trying to, you know, convey to our community right now is, as people are feeling a little, a little like the environment and conservation is, you know, it's on the chopping block right Like nationally, and they're saying what can I do? And certainly the stuff nationally it's out of my hands right it's out of your hands.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

I'm having the same struggle that our members and our communities are having. But my advice to them is really now is the time to get hyper local. Advice to them is is really now is the time to get hyper local right, like, what can you control and what can't you control? And and I can guarantee you, and I can guarantee our members and our volunteers, that any money that comes into this organization it goes directly into the park, like we're so committed to that, my board is so committed to that. It's not going to get eaten up in some black hole, you know overhead and whatnot. But and you will see your impact right, if you want to volunteer, get out.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

You know Friends of Blue Hills there are many I'm speaking from the lens I have but there are hundreds of small land trusts and organizations that are like us, that have very small staffs and rely so much on volunteers. So volunteer right, like now's the time to do it. If you've been, you know hemming and hawing about it and not sure, just do it. There's something, there's a volunteer opportunity for everybody out there. I can tell you that. So if you are into building bridges on trails, awesome, we'll take you If you just want to pick up trash in the parking lots, which is still a problem with which you know, I feel like not enough attention gets, gets called to, that People still litter, and then then it just frustrates me because we have this climate crisis and we have all these other big existential ecological problems, and then that then it just frustrates me because we have this climate crisis and we have all these other big existential ecological problems and, my God, people still can't throw away their trash, no, or?

Jen:

their poop bags, which is my thing that I cannot understand. If you took the time to pick it up and put it in a bag, why do you leave it tied up at the trailhead?

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

I don't get it. I don't get it Right and as a dog owner, and it gives us all a bad name, right? Because then people like hate dog walkers, they hate dog on the trails, and it's because of those 10 or 12, whatever bad eggs that spoil the whole bunch. Yeah, just pack it yourself, pack out the poop comes with, you Like, yeah, just how it works.

Jen:

I also think it's important right now if you have a place you love, bring a friend. Like you know people, we like so many people and I think we even talked about this the last time. I mean, you don't care about something that you don't have any familiarity with, and so like you know, and so bring some people. Like, if you love a spot, bring people there and tell them why you love it and show them why you love it and maybe they'll love it too, and then they'll maybe get into funding or volunteering or just will know enough to pick up their own damn poop bags, Right.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Right, it's, it's so, it's so true. Yes, I think, like at a, at a bare minimum, yes, people should get out to the, their local parks, right, and and I think we talked about this before for sure, like you know, the outdoors and it's no substitute for therapy. Like you know, if you need therapy, you need therapy, and if you need medication, you need medication. But with what's going on in the world right now, for a lot of people, I think just getting outside can, can actually do a lot for you.

Jen:

Yes, a 45 minute walk in the sun is going to make you feel so much better than looking at the New York times headlines for the 15th time today. Yeah, so much better. Right, I have to.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

I have to, I have to meter it for myself right Like I'm trying to balance that in my own life right now, about not wanting to be the ostrich with my head in the sand and pretend like nothing's going on, but also being so informed that I feel like just anxiety throughout my body.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

And so get outside, right, just get outside, get a friend, get outside and build those connections to that place. Get out and volunteer. Like I said, you feel so much better about yourself when you give back. Just a simple act of volunteering and, like I said, it can be as simple as picking up trash. It can be if you have, you know, mobility challenges. Come, come, sit in our office with us. We got you know envelopes to stuff and files to arrange. You know the, the, the volunteer opportunities are are endless, but but just having that connection is is like the baseline for for it all Right, and then and then certainly the funding, right, I mean the. The funding is the elephant in the room right now, I feel like, because organizations like ours you know we were, you know I was working with my director of advancement two weeks ago on a federal grant and that was, you know the RFP was released when Biden was still still president and it was due, you know whatever February 8th or something like that.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

It was due, you know, whatever February 8th or something like that, and so we were working on it, working on it, working on it. And then you know all that, it all blew up right Like there's a pause on federal funding, blah, blah, blah, and even though the pause was lifted, like I had to sit with my team and say, like is it worth our effort?

Jen:

Yeah, is this the best place to be spending our time right now?

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yeah, and for us, the answer was no. I'm not convinced that, even though they lifted that the ban temporarily, I'm not convinced that money's going to be there, you know. So there went, however many hours of work that we had done leading up to last week, and then, yeah, we scrapped it and basically, as an organization, we decided for now we're not looking at federal funding, which means that we will have, you know, a gap to fill. We still have a budget to meet, and so that's where, like, individual giving really matters.

Jen:

Your grant writer is probably like working 24-7.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yes, right, like we really look to those smaller, like foundations, and that's what happened the last time you know that Trump was in office and funding was cut then, too, is what we did find is private foundations really did step up and individual giving stepped up, which was great to see.

Jen:

Yeah, yes, let yes, let's hope so many places that need so much Right. Oh God, I know, I know that's becoming our problem? Do we want to, you know, resume life-giving health care in a million places? Do we want to protect our open spaces? Do we want to do all the other good things?

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yeah, right. No, I'm in that same boat where, you know, we had sort of like our dozen or so things that we gave to, but now I feel like that the circle's gotten bigger.

Jen:

Yeah.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

I want to add like 10 more. Yes, but I'm not making any more money my husband's not making any more money.

Jen:

I wonder if the lottery ticket sales in mass have gone up Like we're all like, oh my God, we need to win the lottery, right. Oh yeah, yeah, all right, anyway, tell, let's talk about happy, happy things. What kind of fun stuff do you have on the docket for the rest of the winter, spring, going into summer? What are you most excited about at?

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

uh, the blue hills coming up, so we have all sorts of things going on um. What we're working on planning right now is we are going to be at the outdoor expo.

Jen:

Oh nice that's the first weekend of march, right, is that?

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

we get in march um, so we will be there to help promote the org and promote the park.

Jen:

The Boston Expo.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Convention Center in South.

Jen:

Boston, not the World Trade Center. I made that mistake when I went to the Snowbound Expo. I'm like, oh, look at that, that's under construction and the entrances are all closed. I guess it's not there. So we turned around and found it.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yes. So we'll be there that whole weekend Super excited to get our trade show game on, which is exciting. And next week we kick off our trail work. We'll kick off next week. So, even though there's snow on the ground, we will kick off with our training, our new core of volunteer trail leaders that kicks off next week. You know that when I say we maintain 125 miles of trails, it's not me who's out there doing that, although occasionally you can see. You can see me out there, you know, building water bars and raking ditches, but we do have a program manager who does a lot of that work, but really it's our volunteer corps that does that. So they'll kick off next week. That's super exciting.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

And then we have, you know, our goal is to have some program every week all year round. So whether that's a guided hike, whether that's a mountain bike ride, whether that's a fishing program. So we're planning our fishing programs for the year. We do that in partnership with Elevate Youth, which is a great nonprofit in Boston. Last year we partnered with them on our fishing programs and it was amazing. We had I don't know 700 kids over the course of two different fishing events come out, which was amazing. Kids just don't fish anymore. It's like not part of you know, something that families really do, and it was just great to bring that to our community. So, planning our fishing programs, our hikes oh my gosh, what else do we have coming up? We have our green up event coming. We're doing planning for that. That is an invasive species poll on steroids is how I would describe it when we get, you know, well over 100 people out in the park pulling massive amounts of invasives.

Jen:

So that's super interesting actually, because you know, it is like I have learned a little bit more about some of them over time and like when you start to realize like and look around, holy cow, you know between like the knotweed and the, you know a lot of the stuff that people like to cut because it's pretty and then they like all over the place You're like.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

No, don't do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah for sure, and it makes an impact. So people sometimes think invasive species removal doesn't actually do a whole lot, but it does and we have some nice data over the last decade to show that our efforts are making an impact, which is great. So green up, that's coming up. Fishing program's coming up. Fishing programs coming up. We have guided hikes every week. April will kick off mountain biking Uh, we work a lot with NEMBA on that. So you know, really, nemba sponsored rides Uh, we partner with them on that. And then looking at kicking off some trail work itself. So we're working with NEMBA and DCR on building an adaptive mountain bike trail loop in the park.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

So that's a pretty exciting project for us.

Jen:

That is exciting. I went to a NEMBA trail building school last year and one whole segment of it was about adaptive trail building and just in general, I mean, it's just such a great idea to have a trail like that, whether it's used by adaptive bikes or you know anything else, you know, it really opens up a lot of opportunities for folks who aren't on two feet all the time, so, yeah, right, totally, totally.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

It's great. I mean for the bikes, but also, you know, the adaptive wheelchairs can can go on them and and they're even great for young kids that are just getting started with mountain biking and want something a little wider, a little less scary. They're great. So we'll be working with NEMBA on that, which is super exciting. Yeah, so lots of, lots of stuff going on.

Jen:

Yeah, yeah, I that's. That's just super exciting. And to just think about, like what you said before, of the fact that you know you do have your fingers so deeply embedded in all these different things and they're actually going to happen and you know you can, really I just would think that that's so energizing to be able to see things that you're like we're doing this, we're doing that, we're doing this, we're doing that, and they actually happen and you have a tiny staff and just a lot of energy and you can see the fruits of your labor so much faster.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

So yes, it's, it's. It gives me a little bit of a high. It really does Like like the nimbleness. I mean I don't want to undercut, undersell, like there are challenges. You know, with a small nonprofit we have a staff of four, right that's that's it, yeah, you have to all be MacGyvers.

Jen:

Nobody can really be a specialist in anything. You can't be above anything.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Right, because I went from a role right the trustees, where I was like the specialist on outdoor recreation, and now it's like, yeah, I still have that lens. But you know what I spent yesterday doing? I spent yesterday with with our accounting firm right Like going through payroll and new ways to set up our payment system for vendors. And another day I'm doing like HR stuff right, so you're kind of all over the place, but at the same time I'm learning so much, right, like I'm as frustrating as it is. I'm like, okay, now I know. Now I know how to do payroll right.

Jen:

Like I didn't know how to do that a year ago, I still want to blow my brains out when I'm doing it, but I know how to do it.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Like the upside of it, right, I'm building professional muscles that I did not have before, which is exciting. But the nimbleness of this small nonprofit, that's the sweet spot to me. It really is that something like the Outdoor Expo comes up and I'm like, yeah, let's do it. And so what do we do? We sign the contract and we do it, we're going to do it, whereas if that was at the trustees or Mass Audubon or a bigger org, well, we got to talk about that for about six months before we could say yes or no or whatever. The adaptive trail loop, right, like, okay, yeah, let's walk it with NEMBA. We got out there with NEMBA, we got out there with DCR, we walked the loop. We're like, yep, this makes sense. Now it's about working with ecology to make sure, like what permits we might need or don't need, and then working out the details and it's gonna happen.

Jen:

It's pretty great, yeah, it is great and like DCR is probably gonna, no-transcript yeah it's so exciting and and we also have this, so we've been working hard.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

So my predecessor started this work. I've sort of carried it on around getting public access, public transportation, access to the Blue Hills, and so that's a big initiative of ours. And as great as the Blue Hills are so close to Boston, 10 miles from downtown Boston, again like four miles from Mattapan, dorchester, if you don't have a car you really can't get't, get there.

Jen:

Yeah, I remember that because when we were looking we were going to try to figure out how to do a traverse, but we're like, how do we get back to our vehicle? At the start, and it was like, well, there must be a bus or something.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

It's like, no, no there isn't no, no, so, yeah, so if you do like skyline, which is like the big trail, whatever, yes, you, you need two cars. You need to leave one, know, or you're going to do an out and back and it's a much longer, even longer hike, that's already a long and challenging hike, yeah, um, so we've. We've been carrying that work forward the last year and and we're so close to it being a reality, so that's pretty exciting. To have a bus line um into the park, that is very exciting. That will be huge, cause I I always think about that time, like when I lived in Dorchester and I went to the park every day.

Jen:

I could do that because I had a car, but so many of my neighbors did not have a car Right, which which, again, just like it, feeds right into the whole demographics of the users. And just like you know why, why are these places for people that only have a certain levels of privilege, Like the whole point of them being there is to make them open to everybody. So you shouldn't, you know, you shouldn't have to be jumping on going through all these hoops to get get there.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

So yeah, agreed, yeah, so that'll be exciting when that happens. The, the, the commissioner, dcr's commissioner is on board and, uh, mbta is on board, and so now it's just a matter of like, how do we make this actually happen?

Jen:

Yeah, yeah, that's exciting. That's exciting, jen, I'm feeding off this energy. I just love the fact that, like you know, even just in our whole like oh, let's chat. And this time, you know, before it was kind of like okay, let's chat, and then you know, but you got to be kind of careful about what you say and whatever. And now you're just like yeah, let's do it, let's just talk about whatever. Yeah.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Right, you're the boss, right, it's so, um, yeah, it's, it's exciting, it's, it's liberating in so many ways.

Jen:

Yes, Um, so where can people get more information about the park, about the friends? It's the websites, right? What do we got here?

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yep, so um. So our website's nice and long.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Uh, it's friends but easy to remember, right, right, so, so certainly we would love folks to be, uh, to join as a member. It's only 30 bucks to to be a member, um, which is which is great. Um, I should note that programs for us are free. That's really important for us. We don't charge for any of our programs. We don't want, you know, cost to be a barrier for anybody. So if you come out on any hike program, experience Winterfest, our big events all of that is free and we're able to do that through the support of having our membership and in our donors, which is which is pretty exciting because, you know, again, a big difference, I think, with coming from the trustees, where, you know, we had revenue targets, right, I had to make money to to offset a lot of those things, and so we charged for all of our programs. You know this as a trustees member.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

So we're we're extremely committed to that, but that makes membership really important for us so that we can keep doing that. So memberships 30 bucks it's super cheap.

Jen:

Friends of the blue hillsorg. Friends of the blue hillsorg Right.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yeah, so yeah, friends of the blue hillsorg, that's where you can find out all about you know membership, you can make a donation. But's where you can find out all about you know membership, you can make a donation. But if you want to come out for one of our programs again, we have something going on every week, at least once a week.

Jen:

Great guides and maps. You can look at the maps, you can figure out, plot your plot, your place to park place, place to ride, place to hike, place to bring your horse, whatever.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yep, exactly. So all of that is is is right there and my contact information is there too. So you know I'm always into, you know, hanging out with our members and our community, so if people want to grab a coffee or go for a hike, give me a shout.

Jen:

Absolutely. That's awesome. Um, what have we missed? Have we not talked about anything? You wanted to make sure we covered?

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

you tell me, what else do you? Do you want to get out of that? I did no, this was.

Jen:

This was exactly what I wanted to talk about, and so, but that's the thing, there's something for everybody in the blue hills.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

It's beautiful yeah totally, you know. To me, I think about it is is like our central park, uh-huh yes and and and some people like what are you talking about, jen?

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

And I'm like, yeah, it's not like straight in the middle of the city like Central Park is, but it is a huge urban green space and eight times bigger than Central Park. Yeah, and you can do eight times as many cool things in the Blue Hills than you can do in Central Park. You know, it's just my job at Friends of the Blue Hills to convince everyone else around me that it is that cool. And if Greater Boston, all the communities of Greater Boston, thought of it as our Central Park, I think that the Blue Hills would be just loaded with with resources. It would be the crown jewel of our park system.

Jen:

Yeah, not yet. But it could be, but it could be and I think you're the person to get it there Because you've got it.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

You got the fire firing your belly for it. So which is awesome?

Jen:

Yeah, it's pretty cool, and, and, if you can, and and and if you're accomplishing that in the next you know four to eight years to, there's really nothing you can't do.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Right, right, I think we can do it. I mean, I've only been here a year and I mean our fundraising has doubled in the last year. So you know not to toot my own horn, but I had a great first year here, yeah, and I think the sky's the limit for this, this organization in this park.

Jen:

That's good. This is exactly the conversation I needed at this exact moment to make me, like go into the weekend not depressed as much.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

So thank you, yeah, no, thank you you need. I mean you and me both, I, I I go to that New York times and I then I just feel this instant like it's not good, um, and, and I'm I'm really trying to find that balance between like I need to be informed, but um, I also don't want to constantly want to throw my phone on the ground and jump on top of it 500 times, so right, right, I just want to break things, yeah, right.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Right, because sometimes I'm like I think like, okay, we're basically putting immigrants in concentration camps. People like this is kind of what we're doing here, like they're talking about Guantanamo and like whatever. And then I'm like, well, why does my work matter? Right, I am on the right figuring out our payroll and I'm like, in the scheme of things, people are like getting shipped. This is what our, our community can control, my neighbors can control. You know, we live in a state where, like, I can call my senators, I can call my reps, and I meet with them all regularly anyway, in my capacity at at Friends of the Blue Hills.

Jen:

They already get it right there on our side. So what else can I do? And it's getting involved locally, like that's, that's the thing, yeah. And it's protecting these spaces and continuing the good work so that, when you know, when people who don't feel safe coming outside feel safe again, it's their forum and we can just continue to encourage people to really really make good use of all, the, all the amazing resources that we still have in this country, even if we are the most isolationist, like clueless bunch of assholes on the planet.

Jen:

But I'll take that part out.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yeah. All right Jen Well thank you so much for your time this morning.

Jen:

It was nice to catch up with you and I got to get down there and do a little hike with you before the winter's over.

Jen Klein, Friends of the Blue Hills:

Yes, likewise, all right, bye, jen Bye.

Jen:

Huge thanks to my guest, jen Klein. I hope you'll support the Friends of the Blue Hills with a donation, membership or just signing up for some programs or volunteer events over at friendsofthebluehillsorg or at Friends of the Blueills on Instagram or Facebook. Also, I would be remiss if I didn't drop an extremely last-minute reminder about the upcoming International Women's Day celebratory dip hosted by longtime friends of the pod, two Maine Mermaids. It's being held this Saturday, march 8th, at 10 am at willard beach in south portland, maine. Unless the weather takes a dramatically horrible turn and it gets moved to sunday, the 9th, same time, same place, it's not too late to sign up. Hit the link in the show notes or go to twomainmermaidscom.

Jen:

Slash women's wave. I highly encourage trish and I went last year. It was so invigorating, life-affirming, inspiring, all the things we need right. This second, grab your warmest robe and a thermos of hot tea, and maybe a girlfriend or two, and get yourself signed up and with that, until I'm back in your earbuds, I hope you'll be making every minute matter, focusing on the local and the positive, what you know you can control, and that you'll keep moving forward. We've got this. There will come a day hopefully soon, when we'll be back out in the wilderness, where the parking lots and pit toilets and visitor kiosks will be open, getting wild once again.