Andrew Brook Trail Project

We have been busy this fall with planning and implementing a project on the Forest Society's Andrew Brook Forest in Newbury.  This forest will eventually be the site of a new trailhead and parking area for the Andrew Brook Trail which climbs up the southern slope of Mount Sunapee to a high elevation tarn, Lake Solitude.  From Lake Solitude, hikers can and often do continue on to the summit of Mt. Sunapee to enjoy the panoramic views.  Currently, parking for the poplular Andrew Brook Trail is a small pullout on the side of Mountain Road, which is often overcrowded on beautiful summer days.  We hope that the new trailhead parking area, which is slated to be constructed next spring, will provide a safer and more practical area for hikers to park.  

Volunteer Jim Harnett surveys Wendy's handiwork notching a log

Jim Harnett, Bob Lyon, and Todd Wagner steady a hemlock log while Wendy notches it

The other great thing about the new traihead is that once the lower section of trail is re-routed, the Andrew Brook Trail will be entirely on conservation land, effectively guaranteeing that this amazing hiking opportunity will remain available to the public for generations to come.  The Forest Society has secured a grant from the Recreational Trails Program (RTP) administered by the NH Trails Bureau to fund this work.  Although the parking area has not yet been constructed, SPNHF staff and stewards had several workdays on the property this Fall to construct three bridges that will be needed on what will be the new section of trail connecting the trailhead to the existing Andrew Brook Trail.  Two of the bridges were built using felled hemlock timbers, so construction of these bridges involved a lot of time peeling logs and slowly moving them into place using a griphoist.  All of the hard work eventually paid off, though, and I think we all had a little fun in the process too!

Ray Jackson doesn't know his own strength with a pick mattock!

Wendy's dog Bella was convinced there was a chimpumk in the muddy stream

Dave Anderson rips a saw down a hemlock log, while Bob Lyon (R) drills holes for rebar

The crew on Day 3 - bridge completion!

Finished Staircase!

I thought you might all like to see the finished staircase completed during the Moose Mountains Reservation rock work training workshops held in September and October.  Thanks to all of you who participated in the workshops and to Nate Preisendorfer of Northstar Trails, who provided the instruction.  AND a huge thanks to the Fields Pond Foundation for funding the project!

Last workshop day's crew, on the finished staircase (photo: J. Morris)

photo: J. Morris

Gap Mountain Work Day

Today was a major trail work day on the North Trail on Gap Mountain.  While the SCA Trail Crew was on the mountain earlier this spring and completed some significant rock work, much work remains on this heavily utilized trail.  Today we continued the improvement effort by knocking off more of the areas that really needed some tender loving care.

This is a picture taken during the spring.
It shows a typical section of trail needing attention.

Our group of volunteers arrived and by 9 AM we were ready to get to work.  Many thanks to Bob Curly and his crew from Massachusetts and to Frank Bequaert for organizing this event !

Work crew ready for action!

Today was a super October day for some heavy lifting with fair and cool weather.  And NO BUGS.  When the SCA crew was here this spring there were swarms of black flies.  Today the flies and their mosquito friends were long gone and no one missed them a bit.

After a short 1/2 mile hike to the work sites we were ready to go at it.  Now that most of the leaves have fallen, a distant view of Mount Monadnock was our constant companion.

  

Most of the day was spent on new water bars and rock steps.  The work sites had been mapped out in advance, all 25 of them!  No, we did not expect to finish all the work today, just continue to pick away at the list. 

Frank Bequaert and Bob Curly planning the construction
of steps on a steep section. 

With the large crew of enthusiastic volunteers, a lot was accomplished.  Here is a small sample of today's activities.

Upgraded water bars

New Rock Stairs

More new stairs.  Frank Bequaert and Walter Weeks adding a bit
more brush to direct hikers on the trail.

Basic maintenance to many water bars.

At the end of the day we declared our work a success and headed home to watch the game.  Go Red Sox !!!

Thanks again to everyone that participated today.

Rock Work Training Days at Moose Mountains

"Griphoist UP!"  The Forest Society has been hosting a series of trailwork training days at our Moose Mountains Reservation in Brookfield and Middleton, to give volunteer land stewards a background in how to safely participate in projects involving construction with large rocks.  The trainings are funded via a generous grant secured by the Forest Society from the Fields Pond Foundation, an organization whose mission is to "provide financial assistance to nature and land conservation organizations that are community-based and that serve to increase environmental awareness by involving local residents in conservation issues."  With this funding, we're accomplishing two goals at once:  the first is to build a new, sustainable hiking trail to the summit of Phoebe's Nable (a local mountain); the second is to provide land stewards an opportunity to learn about rock trail construction in a relaxed and accessible learning environment.

Nate Preisendorfer and Jim Harnett position a rock that has just come down the highline

So far, we have held two training days in September, where small groups of stewards helped construct part of what will be a rock staircase on the new Phoebe's Nable trail.  Large rocks had to be excavated from the nearby surroundings, and were moved to the staircase site along a "highline" cable strung between two trees, pulled by a trail winch/pulley system called a "griphoist."  Participants learned about basic operation of the griphoist, safety aspects such as where not to stand in relation to components of the griphoist/highline system, and the steps involved in building a staircase from scratch.  One of the most common mistakes that beginners make when they try to build a rock trail structure, such as a waterbar or staircase, is using rocks that are too small for the task, according to instructor Nate Preisendorfer of North Star Trails.  "For this project, we're looking for rocks that are at least three feet wide and a foot deep,"  he said, "three to four-hundred pounds minimum."  Those are very big rocks, so mechanical assistance to move them is a necessity.  The best news?  When a rock staircase of this caliber is completed, you can expect it to last hundreds of years.

Volunteers excavating rocks from where the staircase will go

Land Steward Jason Morris scales a tree to set one of the ends of the highline

Instructor Nate Preisendorfer (far right) gives a safety briefing before using the griphoist

Jim Harnett and Scott Lavoice operate the griphoist

Stewards who have participated in the first round of training days were very enthusiastic about what they learned and the great sense of accomplishment they got from moving and setting rocks that big and heavy into place.  We'll be holding four more rock work training days at Moose Mountains this Fall- October 11, 12, 18 and 19 - if you're interested in trying this type of work, be sure to contact me to save your spot on one of these crews, as spots are limited each day.

Searching for rocks of the appropriate size and shape to excavate

Lunch is pretty amazing with the views from the top of Phoebe's Nable

Nate hooks up part of the highline

Yatsevitch Forest Invasive Plant Workday

Gale Tobbe plucks up tiny buckthorn plants, roots and all (photo: B. Charpentier)

A group of volunteers met recently at the Michael & Claudia Yatsevitch Forest in Cornish and Plainfield to work on removing an exotic invasive plants from the forest understory.  The offending plants are common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) and glossy buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula), two invasive shrubs from Europe and Asia that are threatening the native plant community at the Yatsevitch Forest.  The workday was a continuation of work that has happened previously here- last year many larger buckthorns were girdled (the bark was cut through all the way around the trunk) in effort to kill them and reduce the great number of seeds that were being produced from these mature trees.  This year we concentrated on the smaller seedlings coming up on the forest floor, hand pulling them one by one and getting up the roots as well.

Left: girdled buckthorn stem from last year's workday; Right: Fred Tobbe with a handful of buckthorn (photos: B.Charpentier)

Control of invasive plants is a never-ending battle, and one that the Forest Society can afford to undertake only in areas where exotic invasives pose a direct threat to rare or uncommon native species.  This is the case at the Yatsevitch Forest, where the rich mesic soils and geology provide the perfect habitat for certain native plants that are rarely found elsewhere in the state.   As we headed out of the forest on our recent Yatsevitch workday, many volunteers noticed that there were thousands of buckthorn plants on abutting properties here too- unless everyone else also controls the invasives on their land, we'll never be able to rest on our laurels (or loppers) and claim victory over the invasive plants.  It's not a simple problem, and solutions will likewise be complicated and require lots of trial and error.  I'm happy that we have a great army of volunteer stewards to call upon for projects like these when we need them!

The crew at Yatsevitch Forest (photo: B.Charpentier)

Wilkins-Campbell Workday

Sometimes we have some non-standard workdays here in the Reservation Stewardship department of the Forest Society.  Mostly our land stewards expect that we may call on them for help with trail maintenance, view clearing, or even the occasional trash clean up.  This summer we've had an on-going project at the Wilkins-Campbell Forest in Deering to restore the site of a former summer camp to natural conditions.  That means buildings, electric, docks, foundations, everything must go... it's quite a process, and we've had incredible help from our land steward at Wilkins-Campbell, Bob Macentee, in facilitating the whole ordeal.  We also had a land steward workday, probably the first of several  before we're through, to help sort through all of the items on site and "deconstruct" things like the latrines and bunk beds and cabinets.

Wendy and Alex going through a storage shed

 Everything that can possibly be re-used or recycled is being sent to those higher purposes- we've made several runs to goodwill, metal recycling, and found homes for a lot of usable items.  When all is said and done, hopefully all that will be left are a couple of picnic tables by the side of Deering Reservoir.  It's a beautiful spot to walk in and have lunch by the water, and we hope it will get a lot of appropriate use from people in surrounding communities.  But we've still got a lot of work to do to get to that point...

Lunch for the work crew, beside Deering Reservoir

Silver Mountain Waterbar Workday

Photo by S. Lichty

Earlier this month, a group of land stewards, staff, and other volunteers met at the Ashuelot River Headwaters Forest in Lempster to build some waterbars on the trail up Silver Mountain.  This trail receives a good amount of local use, not surprising given the amazing 360-degree mountain views that are found at the summit! Land Steward Sue Lichty has been concerned about erosion on the steepest sections of trail for quite awhile, so it was time to put together a work crew to do something about it.  

Land Steward Bart Hunter (R) and his daughter Skyler (L) start up a saw (photo by S. Lichty)

Digging a trench for a waterbar (photo: S. Lichty)

Steward Ruth Ward (L) and Jim Beard (R) prepare to make a waterbar (photo: S. Lichty)

Intern Alex Metzger setting rocks (photo: S.Lichty)

The crew built four waterbars on the steepest section of trail, some rock and some timber. Hopefully these will help direct water off of the trail and prevent future erosion.  The group also had time for a hike to the top of Silver Mountain (can't be missed when you're that close!) to enjoy the view.

Silver Mountain work crew (photo: S.Lichty)

At the top (photo: S.Lichty)

Payoff at the summit (photo: S.Lichty)

While this crew was installing waterbars, a separate, smaller crew, consisting of SPNHF staff Wendy Weisiger and Allan Krygeris, and land steward Stefan Pouliot, were on a different mission at Ashuelot River Headwaters Forest. They were wandering around the woods looking for an old cemetery.  Sue had sent a photo back in late winter, showing the cemetery covered in downed trees and debris, so this crew was going to liberate it from this sylvan mess.  The only problem was they didn't exactly know where it was, and there are no roads or trails that go there.  So, after wandering around for a very long time (made longer thanks to erroneous GPS coordinates I found online and sent to Wendy) they finally found the Spaulding Family cemetery and were able to clean up the area.  Before and after pics posted below!  Nice work everyone.

The Spaulding Cemetery before (photo: S.Lichty)

After cleaning out the downed wood (photo: S. Pouliot)

Dragonflies at the Heald Tract

Last August, during a workday at the Heald Tract, we hiked through a beaver-flooded road that was just humming with the frenetic activity of dozens of dragonflies.  I knew then that I would have to return to lead a dragonfly walk at the Heald Tract.  Last week, I got my wish.  The Heald Tract did not disappoint, either.  Twenty two people joined me for a brief talk about dragonfly biology and conservation in NH, and then we headed into the swamp with nets swinging.  Skimmers, a large and varied family of dragonflies, ruled the day- we caught and examined many Spangled Skimmers, Slaty Skimmers, Widow skimmers, and Twelve-Spotted Skimmers.  Also netted were many bluets (damselflies), meadowhawks, and a single Canada Darner.  It was fun to see many of the adults just as enthusiastic as the kids, swinging nets with abandon and overtopping their rubber boots to reach dragons further out over the pond.  Because they rarely pause near enough for us to get a really close look, people are always fascinated to examine dragonflies up close in the hand.  The patterns and colors on their bodies and wings are often stunning, and it's also fun to let them go by setting them down gently on a finger.  Sometimes, they pause awhile on an outstretched finger, which is pretty magical if you're 5 years old....or 75!

A male meadowhawk takes a rest on someone's hand

This is the shed "skin" of a dragonfly nymph as it emerges from the water and morphs into an adult winged dragon!

Guided Hike Workshop

photo: M. Clyde

The Forest Society has been running a "Field Trip 101 - How to Lead a Guided Walk" workshop in conjunction with UNH Cooperative Extension for several years now.  We've trained dozens of people in how to plan, advertise, and implement a successful and safe guided hike or nature walk on conservation land.  And it's definitely starting to pay off- hundreds and hundreds of people have been reached through the many nature walks that participants have led on Forest Society lands and other conservation properties around the state.  We feel this is vitally important work- engaging people in their own communities on conservation land, so that they can understand the direct benefits of conserving land- for their families and their communities.

Dave Anderson leads a small group in the outdoor exercises (photo: M.Clyde)

In late July, we held another Field Trip 101 session on a very hot day at the Conservation Center.  Ten new "trip leaders" participated, and all were very tolerant listening to me, Dave Anderson, Malin Clyde, and Emma Carcagno go through the steps of leading a hike while fans whirred away in the conference room and everyone was sticky with perspiration.  The highlight of the workshop (as it usually is) was the outdoor exercises at the end of the day, where we break into teams and have a little friendly competition.  It's a fun way to spend a day... and one that will keep giving back to conservation in NH for years to come!

Photo: M.Clyde

Photo: M.Clyde