A stewardship group is seeking volunteers to join the “Before the Snow Flies” clean-up of Ashburnham Memorial Park in Peterborough’s East City being held on Saturday (November 4).
The 15-acre park is best known for Armour Hill which, as the highest point in Peterborough, is a summer destination for its views of the city and sunrises and a winter destination for tobogganing. As a year-round attraction, the park — featuring memorial to locals who died during World War I — is often left victim to large amounts of litter and waste.
That’s why, twice a year, the Ashburnham Memorial Stewardship Group hosts a clean-up in the park to benefit residents, visitors, and wildlife. The group was formed in 2021 to advocate for positive change in the park by increasing stewardship and respect for its historical and environmental significance while decreasing the harm, including speeding and reckless driving, garbage dumping, and illegal firework use.
The bi-annual clean-up is organized each spring at the end of tobogganing season and in early November ahead of Remembrance Day.
Rain or shine, this year’s November 4th clean-up will begin at 10 a.m. with volunteers meeting at Heritage Pavilion at the top of the hill, behind the Peterborough Museum of Archives. The fall clean-ups tend to focus on the upper park around the parking lot, where trash often ends up in the surrounding forests.
The morning will kick off with a land acknowledgement and orientation, with snacks and hot beverages provided for all who volunteer. Garbage bags and supplies will also be provided, though volunteers are encouraged to bring their own mugs, water bottles, and work gloves, and are reminded to wear weather-appropriate attire.
Volunteers who arrive after the orientation are asked to check in with the organizers so the group can accurately record the number of volunteers for funding purposes.
This past April’s clean-up was the most successful to date, with more than 60 participants turning out to volunteer their time to collect 27 bags of garbage and recyclables in addition to other miscellaneous waste products, like several empty paint cans. Over 1.3 lbs of cigarette butts (which equates to more than 500 butts) were collected for Butt 1 Community non-profit organization, to be stored, dried, weighed, packaged, and sent for recycling.
Located on the traditional territory of the Mississauga Anishinaabeg, the hill gets its local name from European settler Reverend Samuel Armour, who purchased the land from the Crown in 1833. When it was being dissolved in the early 1920s, 35 acres on the hill was offered to the City of Peterborough for purchase, but after much debate and a public vote, the city declined.
The following year, a group of 35 local women formed the Women’s Patriotic League of Ashburnham, gave a down payment for the land and, over the course of 14 years, raised the remaining funds through bake sales, bazaars, and teas. Under their possession, the group arranged and paid for the planting of 4,000 Scotch Pine and 2,000 Jack Pine trees and commissioned the roadway and parkway which is now Museum Drive.
In 1937, the group donated the park to the people of the City of Peterborough, and on June 24, 1959, the memorial cairn and plaque was erected in remembrance of the Peterborough men who died during the World War I.
In addition to the bi-annual clean-ups, the Ashburnham Memorial Stewardship Group has encouraged respect for the park by hosting bird walks and tree planting and have started the Ashburnham Memorial Park Project on iNaturalist to record the park’s flora and fauna species.
For more information about the Ashburnham Memorial Stewardship Group, visit ashburnhamstewardship.com.
