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Field Trips
Attendees who have already registered can still add field trips and workshops. Simply complete a printable registration form and submit with the correct payment. Download the Annual Meeting Registration Form»
Daily
Boston and Beyond: A Bird’s Eye View of New England
Daily (Tuesday–Saturday; See schedule below)
Organizers/Leaders: Ronald E. Grim, Curator of Maps, Norman B, Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library
Trip Capacity: 25
Cost/person: $5 (includes tour)
Guided tour of exhibit featuring fifty New England urban bird’s eye views at the Boston Public Library. During the late 19th century, Boston artists excelled at portraying local communities responding to urbanization with specialty maps imaginatively depicting each town as if viewed obliquely from an elevation of 2,000 to 3,000 feet. These fascinating pieces show unusual, non-north perspectives and political or promotional distortions, while creating the illusion of three-dimensionality. Recently named an official project of Save America’s Treasures, this pre-eminent collection of bird’s eye views is a key resource for comprehending and interpreting North American urbanization and industrialization during the last half of the 19th century. Meet at tour start time (see below) in the ground floor lobby, McKim Building (Dartmouth Street entrance), Boston Public Library, opposite Copley Square.
Tuesday, April 15, 10:00am – 11:00am
Wednesday, April 16, 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Thursday, April 17, 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Friday, April 18, 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Saturday, April 19, 1:00pm – 2:00pm
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Monday, April 14
Cape Cod National Seashore: Ecology and Management
Monday, April 14, 7:00am – 7:00pm
Organizers/Leaders: Dr. Al Rydant, Geography Department, Keene State College; Dr. John P. Smith, Associate, University of Wolverhampton; Matthew Bates, University of Wolverhampton; Dr. Brian Shiplee, University of Wolverhampton
Trip Capacity: 36
Cost/person: $70 (includes transportation, entrance fees, lunch/snacks/drinks, handouts)
Cape Cod National Seashore was establishing in 1961; its remit was to preserve traditional and cultural uses of the land. The National Seashore is now a top tourist destination, both national and international. The Management has to delicately balance the expectations and needs of the local and tourist populations. This field trip offers an insight to how the park manages an array of human made issues, while protecting flora and fauna. Topics covered include legislation, habitat restoration, survey methods, and hydrology. Specific sites visited include Salt Ponds Visitor Center, Hatches Harbor, Coast Guard Beach, Provincetown, and Race Point.
Weweantic River Area, Southern Massachusetts - CANCELLED
Monday, April 14, 8:00am – 5:00pm
Organizers/Leaders: Lawrence R. Handley, USGS National Wetlands Research Center; Catherine M. Lockwood, Chadron State College
Trip Capacity: 25
Cost/person: $55 (includes transportation)
This travelling workshop will focus on conversion of wetlands for commercial use, in particular, cranberry production along the Weweantic River. We will use maps, aerial photography, and a satellite image to examine land cover change over time. Participants should being money for lunch and drinks.
Walking Tour of Central Boston
Monday, April 14, 9:00am – 12:00pm
Organizers/Leaders: Bill Anderson, Department of Geography & Environment, Boston University
Trip Capacity: 20
Cost/person: $5 (includes walking tour)
The walking field trip begins with a ride on public transportation from Copley Square to Long Wharf, the historical center of Boston’s maritime economy. It passes through new parks developed on the site of the dismantled Central Artery; Quincy Market; Boston City Hall and Government Center; Boston Common; Beacon Hill and the Back Bay. Themes include historical changes in the shoreline and terrain; the contrast between historic preservation and bulldozer redevelopment; development and uses of public space and the diverse architectural styles of Boston. The two-hour walking field trip ends back at Copley Square, near the site of the AAG Meetings. Participants should being money for the subway.
Tour of USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Woods Hole Field Center, Woods Hole, MA
Monday, April 14, 8:30am – 6:00pm
Organizers/Leaders: Brian Andrews and Christopher Polloni, USGS, Woods Hole Science Center
Trip Capacity: 24
Cost/person: $70 (includes bus transportation and lunch)
This field trip to scenic Woods Hole, home to several world-renowned marine scientific research institutions, will be hosted by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Woods Hole Science Center. The USGS conducts studies in sediment transport, habitat geoscience, sea-level rise, submarine ground water, coastal erosion and shoreline change, marine gas hydrate, tsunami and earthquake hazards and sea floor mapping activities. Visitors will have the opportunity to visit our sea-going instrumentation laboratories, be introduced to data collection equipment, and data visualization and interpretation techniques.
Geography in Conservation – Mapping to Protect Whales in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary - CANCELLED
Monday, April 14, 8:00am – 5:00pm (meet in the Grand Ballroom Salons AB in the Marriott)
Organizers/Leaders: Jennifer Bender Ferré, Ph.D., Executive Director of Stellwagen Alive! Friends of Our National Marine Sanctuary; and, Regina Asmutis-Silvia, Ph.D., Senior Biologist with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
Trip Capacity: 90
Room: Marriott – Grand Ballroom Salons AB (meet here at 8:00am)
Cost/person: $95 (includes symposium/workshop in the morning; transportation, entrance fees, whale watching boat tour, and lunch in the afternoon)
Join Stellwagen Alive! Friends of Our National Marine Sanctuary for a Symposium/Workshop and Whale Watching Field Trip. A morning symposium/workshop at the Boston Marriott Copley Place (meet in the Grand Ballroom Salons AB at 8:00am) will highlight the significant role of Geography in Conservation including: 1) Mapping the Underwater Behavior of Endangered Whales; 2) Using geography to reduce the risk of collisions between ships and endangered whales 3) Noise Field Mapping of Ships in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary; and 4) The user geography of the Stellwagen sanctuary and its implications for conservation. An afternoon whale watching boat trip will allow participants to visit the Sanctuary and experience the majesty of the animals it is charged with protecting.
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Tuesday, April 15
Standing on Water: Boston, Groundwater, and the Built Environment
Tuesday, April 15, 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Organizers/Leaders: Sharon Moran, SUNY – Environmental Science and Forestry
Trip Capacity: 25
Cost/person: $5 (includes walking tour)
A new problem with old foundations lies beneath the 2008 AAG Meeting. As Boston’s water table drops, old buildings built on deep wooden piles become threatened: when the soil surrounding the piles dries out, decay undermines the foundations. Because of this, property values have dropped by as much as 20 percent in some areas. Coping strategies range from highly sophisticated (injection wells) to elegantly simple (re-routing drain pipes). This predicament involves people, water, and buildings and is also a complex governance problem, with a novel groundwater trust established specifically to address it. Join us as we take a look at how Bostonians have coped with this problem, and explore its manifestation and consequences through brief site visits to at-risk buildings, injection wells, and relevant offices. Whether your interests are collapsed binaries or collapsed buildings, our exploration of Boston’s shaky foundations will leave you more situated and liminal than before. Participants should being money for the subway.
Walking Tour of Boston’s South End
Tuesday, April 15, 9:30am – 11:00am
Organizers/Leaders: Nancy S. Seasholes, Historian
Trip Capacity: 30
Cost/person: $12 (includes walking tour and handouts)
Right around the corner from the conference hotel is Boston’s South End, a neighborhood of brick Victorian row houses listed on the National Register as the “largest remaining Victorian urban residential neighborhood in the United States.” This walking tour will explore why the neighborhood was developed and why the land on which it is located, much of which is man-made, was created.
Wineries and the Terroir of Coastal New England - CANCELLED
Tuesday, April 15, 8:00pm – 5:00pm
Organizers/Leaders: Percy H. Dougherty, Kutztown University
Trip Capacity: 50
Cost/person: $60 (includes transportation, wine tasting)
Visit an emerging wine district with two AWS Certified Wine Judges. In addition, Al Long is writing the definitive book on coastal New England wineries. New England does not come to mind when you think about wine, but cranberry, blueberry and fruit wines have been produced for years. Today's NEW wine industry based on Chardonnay, delicious whites, and some reds, will be highlighted. This should be no surprise to geographers who understand the coastal climate and the glacial soil drainage. A visit to Sakonnet Vineyards and West Port Winery gives you a chance to taste the New England terroir.
Field Trip to Salem, Massachusetts
Tuesday, April 15, 9:00am – 4:00pm
Organizers/Leaders: Larry Goss, Salem State College, Geography Department; Steve Matchak, Salem State College
Trip Capacity: 50
Cost/person: $35 (includes transportation)
This field trip will visit Salem, Massachusetts. Participants will have a bus and walking tours. Salem is an old colonial city with beautiful architecture and many places to tour. Free time will be provided for visiting local attractions such as the House of Seven Gables, the Peabody Essex Museum, the Witch House, and the National Maritime Historic Site (Customs House). The field trip will last all day. Participants should bring money for lunch/snacks/drinks and souvenirs.
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Wednesday, April 16
Ride the “T” and see TOD in Metropolitan Boston
Wednesday, April 16, 8:30pm – 5:30pm
Organizers/Leaders: Keith A. Ratner, Geography Department, Salem State College; Stephen Hick, Geography Department, University of Denver
Trip Capacity: 36
Cost/person: $22 (includes 7-day Transit pass and walking tour)
This field trip will focus on the Boston transit system (MBTA) and transit oriented development (TOD). Many different rapid transit lines will be ridden including the new bus rapid transit (BRT) Silver Line. MBTA officials will ride along to explain the system and answer questions. Numerous TOD sites will be visited including the proposed Columbian Center project in the Back Bay, a newly permitted project in the Fenway, and existing development in South Boston and Wellington Circle, Malden. Representatives from the developers may give presentations of their individual development projects.
The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative: A Walking Tour of a Roxbury Neighborhood
Wednesday, April 16, 1:00pm – 4:00pm
Organizer: Lydia Savage, University of Southern Maine
Leader: Jason Webb, The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI)
Trip Capacity: 15
Cost/person: $25 (includes walking tour and guide)
The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) is a nonprofit community-based planning and organizing entity rooted in the Roxbury/North Dorchester neighborhoods of Boston. DSNI's approach to neighborhood revitalization is comprehensive including economic, human, physical, and environmental growth. It was formed in 1984 when residents of the Dudley Street area came together out of fear and anger to revive their neighborhood that was devastated by arson, disinvestment, neglect and redlining practices, and protect it from outside speculators. This walking tour will begin with a meeting with DSNI leadership and then a walking tour to see first-hand the changes in the landscape brought about by DSNI. Participants should bring at least $5 for public transportation.
Lowell National Historical Park and the Tsongas Industrial History Center
Wednesday, April 16, 11:00am – 5:00pm
Organizer/Leader: Thomas Estabrook, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Trip Capacity: 24
Cost/person: $40 (includes transportation and admission fees)
This tour explores Lowell’s industrial and social history at Lowell National Historical Park. Beginning with a walk through downtown Lowell, the tour moves to the Boott Mill museum, which includes an early 20th century power loom weaving room. In a “Workers on the Line” workshop, tour participants “work” on assembly lines that simulate 19th-early 20th century production lines, the changes in the nature of work, and attendant labor/management conflict. Finally, we will visit the boardinghouse exhibit, which explores the social and cultural experiences of “mill girls” and immigrants, from Irish laborers to recent Southeast Asian émigrés. Participants should bring at least $10 for lunch from a deli in downtown Lowell.
Geocaching Event
Wednesday, April 16, 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Organizer/Leader: Ken Gerson and Steve Reiter, USGS Infoservices
Trip Capacity: 40 individuals or teams (only one person per “team” should register)
Cost/person: $5 (includes walking “tour”)
The US Geological Survey is hosting a Geocaching event at 2:00 o’clock on Wednesday and Thursday in the lobby of the Boston Marriott Copley Place. Participants will be given a GPS receiver, a brief illustrated guide on using the receiver, and a set of questions which can only be answered by successful navigation to waypoints stored in the receiver. The event offers participants a chance to see some interesting sites around Boston, mingle with other AAG attendees, and learn a little about GPS navigation. The outdoor course covers about 2 miles and should take around 90 minutes to walk. Forty (40) receivers are available for loan (USGS will hold your driver’s license until you return) and participants are encouraged to team up with other AAG attendees.
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Thursday, April 17
Water Resource Planning for Metropolitan Boston
Thursday, April 17, 1:00pm – 5:00pm
Organizer: Dr. Rutherford H. Platt, Ecological Cities Project
Leader: Stephen Estes-Smargiassi, Director of Planning at Massachusetts Water Resources Authority
Trip Capacity: 34
Cost/person: $30 (includes bus transportation)
This half-day field trip will visit the headquarters of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) located within the historic Boston Navy Yard which is now a National Park Service site. The group will have a couple of hours of discussions with senior MWRA staff on a series of timely topics including the history and operation of the new treatment facility at Deer Island, MWRA's renowned water conservation program, its source watershed management program, and ongoing policy debates regarding the metropolitan sewer and water systems. Time will also be available to wander around the Navy Yard and visit the U.S.S. Constitution which is permanently docked there as well as other vessels and exhibits maintained by the National Park Service.
Tour of the Harvard Map Library & CGA Reception - SOLD OUT
Thursday, April 17, 3:30pm – 5:30pm
Organizers/Leaders: Wendy Guan, Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard University; Bonnie Burns, Harvard College Library Map Collection
Trip Capacity: 50
Cost/person: $5 (includes admission fee and reception)
This 2-hour event is hosted by the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University (http://cga.harvard.edu) together with Harvard College Library Map Collection (http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/#hmc). The small-group tour of the Map Collection will provide a behind the scenes look at America's oldest map collection. In addition, attendees will be able to view the exhibit "Visualizing Ukraine: A Western Cartographic Perspective," a selection from the Bohdan and Neonila Krawciw Ucrainica Map Collection, donated to Harvard University and the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute in 2005, which now constitutes the largest single collection of Ukrainian maps in America. When not touring the Map Collection, visitors will be able to browse posters showcasing Harvard students and researchers work in geographic analysis, and hear about the CGA and the Harvard Geospatial Library, all during a reception service. The event is limited to 50 people on a first-come-first-served base. Attendees are expected to arrive at the Harvard Map Collection, Pusey Library in Harvard Yard (http://map.harvard.edu/level2.cfm?mapname=camb_allston&tile=F7) at 3:30pm on Thursday, April 17th, 2008. Pusey Library is only a few minutes walk from the Subway (T) Red Line Harvard station (http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway). If you prefer to drive, we recommend that you arrange for a university parking permit in advance (http://www.uos.harvard.edu/transportation/par_vis.shtml).
Walking Tour of Downtown Boston Courtesy of the Regional Development and Planning Specialty Group - SOLD OUT
Thursday, April 17, 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Organizers/Leaders: Yehua Dennis Wei, University of Utah; George Pomeroy, Shippenburg University of Pennsylvania; Kairos Shen, Director of Planning, City of Boston; Robert Kroin, Chief Architect, City of Boston
Trip Capacity: 40
Cost/person: $5 (includes walking tour)
The downtown walking tour is a signature annual event of the Regional Development and Planning Specialty Group. As in previous years, this tour will explore and profile notable civic landmarks, downtown planning issues, and significant planning initiatives and projects – all within walking distance of conference venue. This year’s guide will be Robert Kroin. Mr. Kroin serves as the Chief Architect at the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Boston’s planning and development agency, where he has worked on more than 600 projects in urban design, planning and design review. Mr. Kroin is the recipient of the 1999 Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture, awarded biannually by the American Institute of Architects as the profession’s highest honor in civic design.
Rebecca Nurse Homestead
Thursday, April 17, 1:00pm – 5:00pm
Organizers: Nathan Hamilton, University of Southern Maine; Lydia Savage, University of Southern Maine
Leaders: Nathan Hamilton, University of Southern Maine; Glen Mairo, Danvers Alarm Lift Company; Melinda Blustain, Director, Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology
Trip Capacity: 34
Cost/person: $30 (includes transportation)
In 1692, 71-year old Rebecca Nurse was accused of being a witch and hanged in Salem Village (Danvers), ground zero of the witchcraft events of 1692, with virtually the entire 500-person population involved. The Rebecca Nurse Homestead includes Nurse’s house, a reproduction of the 1672 Salem Village Meeting House, other buildings, a graveyard, and 25 acres of fields, pasture, and woods. This homestead is today a visible link to many of the famous and infamous events of Salem Village and Danvers, and visitors to the property will acquire a good representation of New England life during the colonial period through a walking tour and a discussion of the site's archaeology.
Geocaching Event
Thursday, April 17, 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Organizer/Leader: Ken Gerson and Steve Reiter, USGS Infoservices
Trip Capacity: 40 individuals or teams (only one person per “team” should register)
Cost/person: $5 (includes walking “tour”)
The US Geological Survey is hosting a Geocaching event at 2:00 o’clock on Wednesday and Thursday in the lobby of the Boston Marriott Copley Place. Participants will be given a GPS receiver, a brief illustrated guide on using the receiver, and a set of questions which can only be answered by successful navigation to waypoints stored in the receiver. The event offers participants a chance to see some interesting sites around Boston, mingle with other AAG attendees, and learn a little about GPS navigation. The outdoor course covers about 2 miles and should take around 90 minutes to walk. Forty (40) receivers are available for loan (USGS will hold your driver’s license until you return) and participants are encouraged to team up with other AAG attendees.
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Friday, April 18
An Interdisciplinary Fieldtrip to Thoreau’s Concord, Past and Present - SOLD OUT
Friday, April 18, 9:00am – 2:00pm
Organizers: Sarah Luria, Holy Cross College
Leaders: Brian Donahue, Environmental Studies, Brandeis University; Lawrence Buell, English Department, Harvard University; Richard Primack, Biology Department, Boston University
Trip Capacity: 20
Cost/person: $58 (includes transportation, guest speakers and deli lunch)
This walking tour through the woods around Concord, Massachusetts will let scholars from the humanities and the sciences reflect together on this historic landscape. Richard Primack (Biology Dept. Boston University) will discuss the area’s flora from the 19th century to the present and what it says about climate change. Brian Donahue (Environmental Studies Program, Brandeis) will discuss land use and disputes from Native American settlement to the present; Lawrence Buell (English Dept., Harvard) will discuss Thoreau’s writings and perspective on Concord’s landscape. With the added input of the tour participants we will achieve a rich understanding of this many-layered landscape. Dress for outdoor walking over muddy ground.
Land use and Land use tensions in the Boston Rural-Urban Relationship
Friday, April 18, 1:00pm – 6:00pm
Organizers: William J. Gribb, University of Wyoming, Geography Department; K. Valentine Cadieux, Yale University, Yale Program in Agrarian Studies
Leaders: Brian Donahue, Brandeis University; Jen James, Associate Director of The Food Project; Guest Speaker – Lincoln Land Conservation Organization
Trip Capacity: 32
Cost/person: $58 (includes transportation, handouts, guest speakers and refreshments)
Explore the urban-rural relationship within Metropolitan Boston, where cities and suburbs have been built over village settlement forms, and where traditionally rural land uses have been maintained (and transformed) in the form of conservation forests and community farms. The historic landscapes stretching west of Boston display classic tensions of the urban fringe: many generations of urban sprawl, traces of different eras of farming and forestry, and continued struggles to conserve, preserve, and maintain landscapes valued for being rural. Wear sturdy shoes and warm clothes for this half day trip, which will traverse the urban-rural continuum between an urban and suburban farm and visit Walden Pond and other iconic rural landscapes within Metropolitan Boston.
Urban Ecology Restoration
Friday, April 18, 1:00pm – 5:00pm
Organizer: Dr. Rutherford H. Platt, Ecological Cities Project
Leader: Eric Strauss, Urban Ecology Institute, Boston College
Trip Capacity: 34
Cost/person: $35 (includes bus transportation)
This half-day field trip will visit sites of ecological restoration in the highly urbanized Mystic River Watershed in East Boston. One will be the Condor Street Urban Wild on Chelse Creek, a former industrial site and brownfield, which has been redeveloped into an “urban wild” with salt marshes, meadow grasses, and other coastal habitat elements as well as walking paths, a boardwalk, sculptures, and viewing platform. Other sites to be determined. Dr. Eric Strauss, conservation biologist and environmental educator at the Boston College Urban Ecology Institute will accompany us to serve as guide and resource expert.
Boston’s South End: A Walking Tour - SOLD OUT
Friday, April 18, 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Organizer: Lydia Savage, University of Southern Maine
Leader: Jim Meehan, Curry College
Trip Capacity: 12
Cost/person: $5 (includes walking tour)
The South End is a former working class area that has experienced extensive gentrification since the 1980’s. The area’s physical environment has been shaped historically by classic process of American urban development, including social conflict, ethnic succession; gentrification; and community development. The result is a diversity of environments: a gentrified area that is a center of art and theater life in Boston (as well as one of Boston's gay communities); a former industrial area in the process of conversion to expensive housing; a public housing project that is being upgraded; and a Puerto Rican enclave surrounded by gentrification for example. The South End walking tour will explore the relationship of social processes and the shaping of physical space.
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Saturday, April 19
Back Bay Walking Tour
Saturday, April 19, 10:00am – 1:00pm
Organizers/Leaders: Arthur Krim, Boston Architectural College
Trip Capacity: 20
Cost/person: $15 (includes walking tour and subway fare)
The Back Bay of Boston was developed on land fill as an elite residential district between 1860-1890 with a wide variety of impressive architectural buildings from town houses to landmark churches. The tour will follow development from Arlington Street along the axis of Commonwealth Avenue to Massachusetts Avenue with a focus at Copley Square.
Maps and Trails of African Heritage
Saturday, April 19, 1:00pm – 4:00pm
Organizers/Leaders: Gerald J. Rizzo and Lucia Lovison-Golob, Afriterra Foundation; Robert Dugan, Suffolk University Library
Trip Capacity: 45
Cost/person: $25 (includes transportation and entrance fees)
This field trip focuses on resources of African Heritage located among the historic architecture of Beacon-Hill. The first stop is the Afriterra Cartographic Library at Suffolk University. Two rare map exhibits, “Tracing The Nile” and “Defining Darfur”, allow a first look at this cartographic history spanning more than 500 years. A demonstration includes the latest technology in high-resolution digital zooming for more than 2000 rare maps of Africa. The second stop is the Museum of African American History’s Black Heritage Trail® which begins at the famous Shaw memorial sculpture of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, the first all black regiment to fight in the Civil War. The Trail is maintained and operated through a 25 year old partnership with the National Park Service, and visits several sites of the Underground Railroad. Here, The African Meeting House, built in 1806, is the oldest black church edifice still standing in the United States, built by and for the free black community on Beacon Hill. It was the Center of the Abolitionist movement and where William Lloyd Garrison founded the New England Anti-Slavery Society. Related sites: www.afriterra.org, catalog.afriterra.org
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