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)