Back to Work (and Bears) at Buxton-Simons Forest

One view from Mt. Wallingford (photo: T.Iriwin)

Terry Irwin, land steward for the Buxton-Simons Forest, has been back at it organizing workdays to clear a spectacular view from the top of Mount Wallingford in Weare. He's building a local cadre of helpers now and is quite self-sufficient, stopping in to pick up enough tools for everyone and then dropping them off after his workday is finished. A few days later, land management staff will receive a report and photos of the work completed - voila! On this latest workday there were five participants including abutting landowners Remi Lisee and Charlie Bowen, land stewards Terry Irwin and Len Martin (Bockes-Ingersoll Forest) and the Forest Society's VP of Land Protection, Paul Doscher (who also happens to live nearby in Weare). The views were significantly expanded, but Terry reports that there's still work to be done next spring!

The crew minus Terry (from L to R): Remi Lisee, Len Martin, Paul Doscher, Charlie Bowen (photo: T.Iriwin)

It seems humans are not the only residents of Weare that appreciate all the work on Buxton-Simons Forest. Charlie Bowen, an abutting landowner, sent this photo in of a mother black bear and her three cubs just after the workday. (photo: C.Bowen)

Morse Preserve Dedication

Morse Preserve in Alton Bay is looking more spectacular than ever lately. Though the Forest Society has owned the property for a few years now, we held a formal dedication earlier this month to honor the donation of this 431 acre reservation by Alton native Mary Jane Morse Greenwood. The property had been her family's land for generations, and she grew up harvesting and selling blueberries, eggs, and other produce on the slopes of Pine Mountain. To prepare for the dedication, a number of land stewards got together to spruce up the trails and make sure everything was in top condition. The Forest Society has also been doing some heavier duty habitat management on the property lately: mowing and brontosaurus clearing in order to maintain a mosaic of open areas and early successional forest that will favor a great number of wildlife species. The openings will also serve to maintain the blueberry barrens for public picking, as well as preserve the amazing views of Lake Winnipesaukee and the Belknap and Ossipee Mountains.

Our land steward crew preparing for the dedication

Morse Preserve steward Suzanne Marvin points out a landscape feature to steward Jennifer Mayor (Hills Forest) while her granddaughter and pup sit nearby

Also honored at the dedication was David Roberts, who has spent a good deal of his life exploring, mapping, and photographing the Belknaps and Ossipees. On our land steward workday, we erected an interpretive display showing the different peaks that are visible from Morse Preserve, which is in honor of Dave's work and generosity. If you want to check out some of Dave's photographs of mountains in this area, click here. The mountain profile sign we installed had to be affixed to bare granite bedrock, so it was quite the challenge to get in the ground. Thanks to a rock drill obtained by Jason for the day, we were able to get it done in time!

Drilling into granite to get the interpretive display sign up (photo: W.Weisiger)

Dave Roberts (left) with his friend Glenn Lush, standing in front of the new mountain profile display on the top of Pine Mountain.

SCA Work Crew on SPNHF Lands

The Forest Society was lucky enough to be awarded another Recreational Trails Grant this year, making it the fourth year in a row that we are able to hire a Student Conservation Association (SCA) work crew to tackle trail projects on our lands. The six-person crews do all sorts of work across the state in their year-long commitment to SCA New Hampshire, from conservation projects to outreach to environmental education in local schools. On the 20 day Forest Society hitch, this particular crew started at Cooper Cedar Woods in New Durham, completing a trail relocation and over 200 feet of bog bridging. Cooper Cedar Woods is such an interesting place to take a walk, as the trail skirts a state-threatened (and very prehistoric looking) Atlantic White Cedar swamp, but for years the trail has been a bit confusing to follow and very wet in stretches. Not anymore thanks to the recent efforts of the SCA crew and our land stewards for the property, Dan and Dianne Monahan. The trail is now well-marked and much more accessible, so we hope it will see lots of local use in the future.

Dan & Dianne Monahan @ Cooper Cedar Woods, checking in on the crew

The crew's next stop was Gap Mountain in Troy and Jaffrey. Here they worked on a very steep degraded section of trail that at some time in the past had been fortified by huge creosoted railroad ties. These were all undercut, eroding, or washed out entirely, so the crew had a busy time pulling them out and re-setting them, as well as cutting and peeling new logs to increase the number of steps and reduce the erosion problem here.

Newly reset steps at Gap Mountain (photo: H.Lindquist)

Finally, the crew moved over to Gap Mountain's bigger sister, Mount Monadnock. They worked about half way up the mountain (a good 45 minute hike in with tools) on the Marlboro Trail, creating new stone staircases and creating an elevated walking surface (rustic bog bridges and step stones) on an especially soggy stretch of trail. This was the most challenging project, especially the rock stair work, as there is not much soil to work with and the terrain is extremely steep here. But, true to form, the crew puzzled out the best ways to tackle each problem area and left the area much more hiker-friendly than it started out. Thanks to our 2011 SCA Crew and to all the stewards who checked in on their progress and worked along side them this year! Wonderful job!

Bog bridges and step stones on the Marlboro Trail