News & Events

Annual meeting to be held on April 3rd at 7 PM.
FOW invites you to join us on Wednesday, April 3rd at The Sanctuary at Woodville (formerly the Woodville Baptist Church) 249 Wood Street, Hopkinton at 7 PM for our annual meeting. Our guest speaker for the meeting will be Marc Bellaud from SOLitude Lake Management who will speak about weeds in the lake, lake ecology, and successful treatments of other lakes in the area.  The Annual business meeting will also take place with a review of the year’s accomplishments and future plans for 2024.

Spring lake cleanup to be held on April 20th.
The Friends of Whitehall spring lake and trail clean-up will be held on Sat. April
20th 2024 from 9 a.m. until 12 noon. We will gather at the boat landing parking
lot at Whitehall State Park on Wood St. (rte.135) and be assigned areas of trails
and shoreline around the lake to clean up debris and refuse. We will work on both
the DCR state trails and the Whitehall Conservation Area trails. We will also clean
up some of the roadsides near the lake. Boaters and kayakers are welcome to join
us also to clean up the shoreline of the lake. Gloves, trash bags, tools, bug spray
and water will be provided. We will also have coffee, cocoa and donuts available
for volunteers. We will be working with the approval of the Department of
Conservation and Recreation. This is a wonderful opportunity observe Park Serve
Day and to help your community. We hope you will join us at this worthwhile
event.

Bridge Building on DCR trail near Pond St.
The SCA (Student Conservation Association) recently built a bridge over wet areas on the DCR (Department of Recreation and Conservation) trail off of Pond St. This project was applied for by forest ranger Richard Trubiano of Hopkinton State Park DCR headquarters and was one of six chosen by SCA out of sixty applicants. The Friends of Whitehall provided the funding of $2000 for the materials for the project. The bridge will be approximately 30’ long and help make the trail much more accessible FOW worked with DCR two years ago by providing the funding for a bog bridge on the trail off of Winter St. The current project will take about five days. The five volunteers camped out at DCR headquarters on Cedar St while they worked on the project.
The Student Conservation Association is a national youth organization that is
based in Charlestown NH and does volunteer projects all over the country. It was
founded in 1957. Click on the thumbnails below for a larger image.

2024 Annual Appeal Letter from our president
Click here to read the annual appeal letter from our president.

Friends of Whitehall funds bog footbridge construction project
Two years ago Friends of Whitehall identified an almost impassable portion of the Whitehall perimeter trail along the eastern shoreline. It was a quagmire full of rocks, roots, vines, peat, and deep water for a lengthy stretch of what used to be a trail. We decided to apply by written letter to the Student Conservation Association (SCA) headquartered in Rowe, MA in hopes they would accept the project of building a bog bridge at the site. The SCA is a valuable resource for the hands-on conservation service they provide to state and national parks throughout the United States. SCA accepted our project and scheduled it for the following summer. Then the pandemic hit and we were put on hold. The project came to fruition in September 2021 when a group of 5 SCA volunteers came to Whitehall State Park ready to go to work. Sponsored by DCR and guided by Park and Forest Supervisor Rich Trubiano, the group of young people worked enthusiastically and tirelessly constructing the 60 foot long bog bridge. Friends of Whitehall paid for the materials used for the bridge and it took the volunteers a week to finish the project in less than ideal conditions. They worked in humid, rainy weather with muck up to their knees and even had to make a dash into a local barn to avoid a fast moving thunder storm. FOW, with the support of DCR, will continue to help maintain the trail system in and around the lake and volunteers are always welcome to be a part of our conservation efforts. (Click on thumbnail for a larger image)

Commercial dog walkers now must have a permit to use DCR parks 
Starting in 2019 all commercial dog walkers using any DCR park for their businesses MUST have an annual permit. Please click here to see more information regarding these permits and other requirements that commercial dog walkers must abide by when using Whitehall and other DCR parks.