Lady Slippers, Trillium, and a Dirigible Base

Many of us have surely read the following in our Troop History, and may have wondered what this was all about …

In 1941, the United States Navy proposed to build a Dirigible Base in South Weymouth and the Garden Club asked Troop 2 Weymouth to remove and transplant Lady Slippers and Trillium plants as a conservation measure.

The story is first detailed in a Scout News recap broadside from early July 1941

Under the direction of Miss Brasill, the Troop is transplanting lady’s slippers and other rare plants from the site of the new dirigible base at South Weymouth to the Bradford Torrey Reservation. This will take a number of afternoons. Miss Brasill has asked our Troop to undertake some nature projects in the Torrey Reservation.

The second mention, in a full Scout News from later that month, is as follows:

Some weeks ago, while visiting the site of the proposed dirigible based at South Weymouth, Mr. Knox discovered a large number of lady’s slipper plants. Meeting Miss Brassill shortly after, they developed the suggestion that the scouts, as a conservation measure, should transplant the plants in the Bradford Torrey Reservation before the government engineers moved in and leveled the forest”

Accordingly, some of the Troop 2 Scouts went to the dirigible base and removed a carload of slipper plants. They were accompanied by Miss Brassill and Mr. Bates Torrey, who kindly volunteered to oversee the work.

Lady’s slippers are very delicate plants. They are biennials, so only plants were taken which had not blossomed. A big shovel full of earth was removed with each plant. A spot in the Torrey Reservation, with similar soil and conditions of light and shade, was selected as the new home of the plants and they were carefully transplanted there. Miss Brassill says they should survive.

The government is apparently going to develop the dirigible base in a more leisurely manner than was at first indicated. This may allow the troop to wait until cooler weather to finish this conservation project. There are also a log of trillium plants which should be removed from the dirigible site before operations are set in.

The Weymouth Garden Club asks the Scout troops in town to each take on some development project in the Torrey Reservation.