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)