Barbara Howell, a longtime member of the Wayland Conservation Commission, has lived an extraordinary life. She continues to dedicate her time to the town and the natural world.
Soon after a stint volunteering at the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, she began to attend Wayland Conservation Commission meetings. She was appointed to the commission, which began her 40-year ongoing work to protect local wetlands.
During this time, Howell took it upon herself to walk every single conservation trail in Wayland once a year and write a report. Among her favorites are Pod Meadow and the Dudley Woods trail.
Howell is passionate about wetlands and the importance of protecting each part of it in order to keep the fragile balance of the ecosystem. She is fascinated with the idea that the minerals, plants, fungi, and oxygen are all related.
Howell continues to fight for clean water, regulated building and wetland protection. She has a deep appreciation for nature and that esteem is clear in her actions.
“Everything is connected,” Howell said. “I wish people would realize how important the natural world is.”
Born during the Great Depression, Howell grew up in Weston with her six siblings. Even as a child, she was fascinated with nature, taking advantage of the beautiful walking opportunities in her hometown. When she missed the school bus, she would walk the trails by Regis College to get to school. She even participated in a study on ovenbirds there when she first retired.
“I would have to listen to where the oven birds were and try to figure out how many there were,” Howell said. “That was an interesting project.”
Howell is a longtime birder and takes great interest in observing birds in the wild. She was the first female president of the Brookline Bird Club, which, as she puts it, is her “claim to fame.” However, local birding wasn’t enough — Howell’s passion left her wanting to see more.
“Being interested in the outdoors from birth means you want to travel,” Howell said. “And fortunately I was able to travel.”
Howell has globe-trotted all over Africa, visiting Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya as well as other continents, all to birdwatch and enjoy the outdoors.
“I’ve had a fortunate life, I think,” she said.
Even with all her travel experience, Howell ended up moving to Wayland, mere miles away from her hometown. “I’m a New Englander and I love New England,” she said. “We’ve always been here.”
During her young adulthood, Howell grappled with the fact that women were discouraged from pursuing careers outside of teaching, secretarial work, and nursing because her real passion was for nature. She decided to take the nursing path and began her education at Lasell University. She then went on to the New England Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing before attaining her bachelor of science degree at Boston College.
“If I was starting all over again, I’d probably go into that natural field,” Howell said.
For her entire career, Howell worked in the field of end-stage renal disease and dialysis. After 30 years, Howell retired, opening up her time to focus on the natural world.
Through her time at the Wildlife Refuge, Howell found joy in urban education. Children from Worcester, Boston and Lawrence would come to the refuge and she’d show them around, immersing them in a vast and lush outdoor experience.
“They were city kids,” she said. “Some of them would see a butterfly and say, ‘Oh!’ [because] they just didn’t know.”
