Land Steward Class of 2014!

A hearty welcome to the SPNHF land steward Class of 2014!  Twenty seven new stewards completed the two-day training course last weekend, which was held this year at AMC's Cardigan Lodge in Alexandria.  As usual, the new class is diverse in ages and backgrounds, but everyone seems to come to this volunteer position from a deep-seated love of the outdoors, and New Hampshire's forests in particular.  So it was not long before new stewards were bonding and making connections with others in the group.  The training covers the history and mission of the Forest Society, the basics of being a land steward, map/compass navigation and boundary monitoring, timber/forestry management, and trail maintenance.  We used the grounds around Cardigan Lodge for several of our outdoor sessions, and then traveled to Victor's Woods to look at the results of the recent harvest there.  

George Frame talking about a recent timber harvest at Victor's Woods.

Wendy measuring a pine

The group also had some down time to socialize or pursue their own activities in the late afternoon and evenings.  Some people climbed Mt. Cardigan (even in the early morning rain!) or explored the trails around Cardigan Lodge and Welton Falls State Forest.  On Friday night, the power went out for five hours (just after dinner, which was fortuitous for our bellies) so it was on to headlamps and flashlights for the evening.  The outage didn't deter our group from enjoying a nice campfire and the ambiance of the lodge by lamplight.

At Victors Woods the group learned that this reservation is a prime site for growing softwoods- 6 different species grow concurrently on the property.  Five species are pictured here in this group of seedlings- can you spot them?

Please join me in welcoming the new class of stewards to our community!  The Forest Society is proud to have so many talented, knowledgeable, and engaged volunteers helping us steward our lands!

Joslin Bennett (right) leading the map and compass session

Evening campfire on friday night

A group of new stewards taking a hike at Welton Falls (photo: G.Larson)

Lost River Gorge: still buried in snow!

At our annual spring cleaning workday at Lost River Reservation, we usually look forward to spreading mulch and pruning flower beds, painting signage and posts, sweeping the gorge boardwalk, doing some trail maintenance and pruning the native garden.  The amalanchier trees are usually blooming, and we worry about how bad the black flies will be.  This year spring was so slow in coming that by May there were no flies or flowers of any kind, and the primary task on our workday was snow removal from the gorge boardwalk!  As you can imagine, sending visitors down into a gorge filled with snow on opening day would be problematic, so our volunteers got to work with shovels and rock bars.  Dave Anderson, Rita Carroll, and Frank Allen led a group of about 15 volunteers (mostly land stewards) down into the gorge.  When the day was over and the boardwalk clear, Dave commented, "I was worried that we had too many people heading down for snow removal, but when we got down there and I saw how high the snow still was, I was glad to have all hands on deck!"  

Rita Carroll digs into the snow removal (photo: F. Allen)

A group of volunteer stewards and staff, finishing up a section (photo: D. Anderson)

Since there were more than 23 people at the workday, we still had volunteers to help with the regular pruning, mulching, painting, and trail work.  The folks with White Mountain Attractions (who operate the gorge in the summer) treated us to a delicious lunch inside the visitor center, where we could warm up from all that snow and ice and the bitter wind that was whipping during the workday.  It was a memorable Lost River spring cleaning for many of our volunteers who make this event an annual spring tradition.  Remember that year the snow in the gorge was up to our necks, and we had to shovel it all out?!?!

photo: F. Allen

Frank can't fit into this cave yet!  (photo: D.Anderson)

All clear!  (photo: F. Allen)

Some volunteers still got to shovel mulch this year.  Ken Marvin seems especially excited about that!  (photo: C.Deegan)