The Rhythm of the Trail

Summers are Short, Life is Sweet: Time to Hike the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway

By Eric Aldrich

Starting our hike on the MS Greenway in Dublin.

Like a shooting star flying through the night sky, summer comes and goes.

It’s the same way with kids. They grow up so fast.

With that in mind, I knew back in May that I needed to plan a summer adventure with my 10 year-old son, Ian. We wanted it to be outdoors, multi-day and challenging. A backpacking trip would be the perfect adventure.

We first considered a hut-to-hut trip in New Hampshire’s Presidentials, and even planned a few options for a two- or three-night journey.

Then we quickly settled on something nearby and familiar like an old friend: the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway Trail. I had hiked the trail many times before -- in sections and through-hikes -- but not for a few years. So, not only would this be a good place for our adventure, it would also be a nice chance to get reacquainted and introduce the Greenway to the next generation.

We started planning. We picked up the new edition of the Greenway Trail Guide and pored over the maps.

The Greenway is a fabulous local treasure, running 50 miles between the summits of Mount Monadnock to Mount Sunapee. Along the way it climbs many hills, passes old stone walls and cellar holes, ponds, streams and one-time pastures, now loaded with blueberry bushes.

It generally follows the high ground between the Connecticut River watershed on the west and the Merrimack River watershed on the east. This divide is pretty well-defined on Mount Sunapee’s long, rocky spine, where you can straddle the two watersheds with both feet.

A Greenway Vision

The trail was first suggested in 1919 by Allen Chamberlain, then president of the Appalachian Mountain Club. By 1921, the trail was laid out by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, which saw it as a way to build public support for conserving not only the two book-end peaks, but also a corridor between them.

Back then, the landscape was full of open meadows and active pastures and farms. While some of the trail followed old roads, other stretches went through these pastures with landowners’ approval.

After World War II, the trail fell into disrepair and its path faded into the woods. By 1974, however, the Forest Society saw the public’s growing interest in backpacking and revived the trail with the help of the AMC. Much of the trail follows this 1974 route, passing through state parks, state forests, lands owned by conservation organizations and many private lands -- some conserved and some not.

The key to keeping the trail on these private lands is ensuring hikers follow a few simple rules, like having no fires, camping in designated sites and being courteous to landowners and other hikers.

Aside from landowners, the trail’s true heroes are the hardworking volunteers of the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway Trail Club. They clear blowdowns, install waterbars and bridges and maintain the trail in many ways. They also produce the handy trail guide.

Four Nights and Five Senses

    While you can through-hike the Greenway in four days or so, my son and I faced the constraints of busy work, school and camp schedules. So we did it in four sections, spending four nights on the trail (shelters and tent platforms) and hiking the Lovewell Mountain stretch in Washington as a day-hike. We started by heading north from Mount Monadnock on Father’s Day weekend and wrapped up the Mount Sunapee end on August 1, hot, sweaty and satisfied.
    It was a journey for the senses. We savored strawberries on our first day and gobbled blueberries near the end on Sunapee’s ridge. We enjoyed chicken terriyaki, scrambled eggs and even ice-cream sandwiches, all thanks to freeze-dried technology and Eastern Mountain Sports!
    We heard vireos, warblers, babbling brooks, crickets and wind whistling through the pines.
    We touched smooth beeches scratched by black bears and splashed our sweaty faces with cool brook water.
    We smelled lichens roasting on the rocks, spruce-fir forests and instant coffee in the morning.
    And we saw old graveyards, beaver dams, distant windmills in Lempster, coyote scat, friends in Nelson and my old school in Washington.

Have an Adventure

    This is just one father/son summer adventure. There’ll be more backpacking trips, more trails and more seasons … but it’s funny how time flies.
    Seems like yesterday my hiking partner was riding on my back in a baby carrier. And there were times when summers seemed to last forever. Kids grow up. Lives get busy. Knees go bad. And summer fades into fall. All of which is fine. It’s the rhythm of life, the rhythm of the trail.
    So pick a trail, any trail -- no matter how old your kids are, no matter the season -- and go out and share it with them. Life is sweet, like a mouthful of blueberries. Have an adventure. Hit the trail and have fun.

For more information about the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway Trail, visit www.msgtc.org.

Eric Aldrich writes from his home in Hancock.

Celebrating a 50-Year Milestone for Conservation

Nubanusit Lake’s “island” was a nest egg for future success

By Eric Aldrich

Fifty years ago, a group of far-sighted Hancock and Nelson folks got together and did something truly remarkable for the times: They protected an important piece of land.

Nowadays, stories about protecting a tract here or there are pretty common. The region’s land trusts successfully raise money and protect a few tracts every year in a variety of ways.

But in 1961 it was rare. And thanks to the hard work of residents, the then-nascent Nature Conservancy and many others, they not only protected an amazing place, they started a land ethic for the region that continues today.

The place they protected is well-known and much-loved to many in the Monadnock Region: the so-called “island” in Nubanusit Lake.

Nubanusit State Park?

Louis Cabot Preserve, between Nubanusit Lake and

Spoonwood Pond.

This 400-acre tract jutting into the heart of Nuby’s crystal-clear waters isn’t technically an island. It connects to Nelson’s “mainland” by two thin strands of land, between which lies Spoonwood Pond, the undeveloped pond at the foot of Osgood Hill. Sweet, beautiful places, for sure.

And that’s what Richard Bennink thought more than 50 years ago when the future of this place was uncertain. While some stories can fade from memory, the 94-year-old Bennink remembers it like it was yesterday. At the time, Bennink was a banker working in Boston, enjoying summer weekends on Nubanusit Lake just like he did in his youth on his aunt’s farm.

In 1957, the island’s owner, Dr. L. Cabot Briggs, had grown tired of paying the taxes and wanted to sell. At the time, the N.H. Legislature was considering purchasing the island as a new state park. The notion of snack bars and a campground on the island divided lake residents. But by 1959, the Legislature spiked the idea, turning its attention instead to what would become Greenfield State Park.

The day after the Legislature’s decision, Bennink and his friend and fellow lakefront camp-owner George Ripley convinced Briggs to hold off on selling the land to developers while they tried another way to protect the land. They called top officials at The Nature Conservancy, which at the time was a tiny 9-year-old land trust.

After a visit by the Conservancy’s unpaid president, Dr. Richard Goodwin, the organization approved the project and the fundraising effort kicked into high gear. They produced a pamphlet, describing the unique opportunity to protect this land. Bennink bought a 9 hp motor for his boat and took potential supporters on tours of the place.

The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire

Word about the campaign to save the Nubanusit island even reached the Boston Sunday Herald: “Nature Conservancy will keep the island in its unspoiled state. There will never be an automobile road on the 400 acres, never a gasoline station, never a `gift shoppe’ or a messy yard cluttered with alleged antiques. It will be maintained as a woodland sanctuary – inviolate, peaceful.”

As checks came in, Bennink, Ripley and their committee filed paperwork to found “The Nature Conservancy of New Hampshire” and by the spring of 1961 raised enough money to purchase the northern half of the island.

Enjoying the view of Louis Cabot Preserve

from Spoonwood Pond.

After convincing Briggs for another reprieve, the local fundraisers continued their push, appealing to summer residents, year-rounders and many others who enjoyed Nubanusit Lake’s active social scene. In consultation with Briggs, they decided that the island would be called the Louis Cabot Preserve, in honor of Briggs’ grandfather, a Civil War veteran who had originally bought the land from various past-owners. They cleared trails, posted welcome signs and appointed deputy fire wardens in Nelson and Hancock.

In July 1963, The Nature Conservancy conducted a detailed biological survey, documenting plant and wildlife species that occurred on the island. Students from Keene State College also began studying the island’s flora and fauna.

Celebrating a Double Milestone

By March 1964, they secured a Conservancy loan and raised enough money to purchase the island’s southern half. Finally, the entire island was protected and owned by The Nature Conservancy. In 1967, the Conservancy gave the land to Keene State College with deed restrictions protecting its natural assets. Keene State is still the owner.

Briggs’ daughter, Eleanor Briggs, founded the Harris Center for Conservation Education in 1970, just down the road from Nubanusit Lake. Within years, there, the Harris Center and Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests started a land-protection effort in Hancock, Nelson and surrounding areas that continues today. Their work would soon be joined by the Monadnock Conservancy, town conservation commissions and others. Mount Skatutakee, Thumb Mountain, Robb Reservoir and the Faulkner family’s Andorra Forest in Stoddard are now among the 29,600 acres protected throughout the Monadnock highlands.

It’s been 50 years since the double milestone in 1961: establishment of The Nature Conservancy in New Hampshire and protection of the first Nubanusit tract. Since then, The Nature Conservancy has helped protect more than 270,000 acres across the state and is working to restore critical habitats like the Ossipee Pine Barrens and Great Bay.

And next month the Nubanusit milestone is the subject of a celebration at the Harris Center. The event on August 27 is The Nature Conservancy’s 50th anniversary and annual meeting.

In addition to the meeting, the Conservancy plans a paddle-and-hike field trip to the island, among other field trips.

Eric Aldrich writes from his home in Hancock.

Five Fascinating Facts about Fireflies

While bugs can take the fun out of summer, there’s one insect that everyone loves: the firefly.

The firefly or lightning bug restores the kid in all of us. You just want to get up close to one; maybe capture it for a moment in your cupped hands and peek inside to see the flashing green glow. Then you let it go. You know it won’t sting. It won’t bite. And its light doesn’t burn.

But what is this fascinating little creature?

1)     The firefly is actually not a fly. And it’s not a bug. It’s a beetle. These soft-bodied beetles usually have a head hidden under a shield, called a thoracic shield. They’re in the family of Lampyridae, or “glow worm.” There are about 20 species of fireflies in New Hampshire.

2)      That term, glow worm, really applies to the larvae, which live underground in the winter. While all known firefly larvae glow to one extent or another, not all of the adults glow. For larvae, glowing seems to be a message to would-be predators: “Don’t eat me! I’m toxic!” Chemicals in the larvae are indeed poisonous or distasteful to insects and other predators. Larvae themselves are predators of earthworms and larvae of other insects.

3)      In adults, fireflies’ capacity for “bioluminescence” is a different story. When you see fireflies this time of year, it’s usually in an open area, like a field, marsh, or lawn. And it’s usually a male, like the species Photinus pyralis, making its glowing J-shaped flight pattern. His flashing bursts are messages to the female: “I’m here! Look at me. Where are you?” The female, meanwhile, is usually hunkered down on the ground, with a much more subtle glow: “Psst! I’m over here, silly! Come on over.” 

4)      Some firefly species really put on a show for the ladies. In big groups, they synchronize their flashes, like amorous fireworks displays. On river banks of Malaysian jungles, one species synchronizes its flashes with choreographed precision, by the thousands. Must be quite a sight. Another species performs this synchronized glowing dance in the Great Smoky Mountains in early June. 

5)      Their glow comes from a chemical reaction produced in special organs in the lower abdomen. The process involves magnesium, oxygen and the light-emitting compound luciferin. It’s a cold light, producing no heat at all. A form of luciferin produced in the lab is used in medicine and genetics research for detecting magnesium and other properties. Even the U.S. military is interested in the bioluminescence of fireflies. Among the possible uses are creating landing zones for helicopters and identification markers to distinguish friendly soldiers and weapons from enemy.

You can learn more about the fireflies in your neighborhood by observing them. Follow an individual firefly and keep track of its Morse-code-like flashing pattern. You can also use a flashlight to trick fireflies. Put the flashlight low to the ground and turn it on and off quickly, just a little. Watch the male fireflies approach!

If you capture fireflies and put them in a jar, be sure to poke some holes in the lid so they can breathe. You can find several different species over the course of the summer. Be sure to let them go!

New Book Shows the Nature of New Hampshire

If you want to make sense of the woods and waters where you roam, it’s nice to have a naturalist right there to explain it.

Well, you can’t always have a naturalist handy, but a new book comes pretty close to filling that role. The Nature of New Hampshire: Natural Communities of the Granite State is like a field guide to the state’s great outdoors, explaining why places look the way they do and what kinds of ecosystems they are.

Handsomely illustrated with drawings and photographs, the book is written by Dan Sperduto and Ben Kimball and produced by the N.H. Natural Heritage Bureau with help from The Nature Conservancy and New Hampshire’s conservation license plate, the moose plate.

It is the job of the N.H. Natural Heritage Bureau to understand the state’s natural communities. Sperduto, Kimball and other skilled botanists at the bureau have toured every corner of the state since the bureau was established in the mid-1980s, gathering data about the state’s rare and common plants and natural communities.

In the process, they have meticulously identified nearly 200 different types of natural communities that occur throughout New Hampshire. These natural communities are well-defined, based on the types of plants found there, the area’s structure (like a marsh or a shrubland), and the combination of conditions found there.

If you’re not used to the names of these natural communities, they may seem a bit wonky at first. But there’s a good reason for the names. For example, the natural community “black gum – red maple basin swamp” is found in a basin swamp with abundant black gum and red maple. This natural community happens to be uncommon and important to conserve. Black gums are among the longest-living hardwood trees in North America.

The black gum – red maple basin swamp is distinctly different than the red maple – sphagnum basin swamp, which is common and is dominated by red maple, with scatterings of hemlock and sometimes red spruce.

The book is organized by major landscape types in New Hampshire: Alpine and subalpine, rocky ground, forests, peatlands, swamps, marshes, river channels and floodplains and the seacoast. Within each landscape type, the authors describe the kinds of natural communities found there.

For instance, New Hampshire’s premier alpine environment is high in the Presidential Range, where you can find 12 square miles of alpine tundra. The book identifies several distinct natural communities found there. You might see the “alpine heath snowbank” community, which is well-drained areas under late-melting snowpacks. It features Labrador tea, crowberries and alpine bearberry, among others.

The authors show examples of the types of plants found in these communities, what the places look like and where you can find them. For example Mount Monadnock is a good place to see the “subalpine rocky bald” or the “red spruce – heath – cinquefoil rocky ridge” communities.

They have checklists of the types of plants found in various natural communities, and very clear line drawings that show cross-sections and overhead. All help to understand how these places work and why certain plants grow there.

This book will make you want to get out and learn more, see some of New Hampshire’s cool places, like the Ossipee pine barrens, the intertidal rocky shores in Rye or the boreal forests in the North Country. The more we understand these special places, the more likely we are to conserve them.

The Nature of New Hampshire is available for $29.95 in bookstores and by the University Press of New England.

Eric Aldrich writes from his home in Hancock.

10 Wild Things about Wild Turkeys

Gobblin’, spittin’ and struttin’ – it’s a spring thing

By Eric Aldrich

Spend a morning in our forests this time of year and you’re bound to hear that crazy sound: a male wild turkey gobbling his head off.

There’s a lot going on with all that gobbling. There’s action. There’s color. There’s drama with other male turkeys. And there’s – dare I say it – sexual tension!

To honor the species that Benjamin Franklin thought would be a respectable emblem of our country, here are a few cool things about the wild turkey.

1. The Comeback Kid: The wild turkey is the poster child for successful wildlife restoration. Populations of this North American native were nearly wiped out because of habitat destruction and unregulated commercial hunting. They were completely gone from New Hampshire 150 years ago. Things began to turn around in 1937 with the passage of the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act, which enabled state wildlife agencies to use federal funds to restore and manage the game birds. Those funds come from an excise tax hunters’ purchase of firearms and ammunition. After initial fits and starts, the restoration started succeeding in the 1950s, with the advent of the cannon net. The N.H. Fish and Game Department’s first successful restoration project began in 1975 with the introduction of wild turkeys in the Connecticut River valley. Now biologists estimate there are more than 25,000 wild turkeys in New Hampshire and 7 million throughout North America.

2. Subspecies: There are five distinct subspecies of the North American wild turkey:

• The Eastern, that’s what we have and it’s the most widely distributed, found all across the eastern half of the country. It’s also the biggest of the subspecies; it can weigh over 30 pounds, but normally weighs between 16 and 24 pounds.
• Osceola (or Florida) turkey, which is found, oddly enough, in Florida.
• Merriam’s turkey, found in the Rocky Mountains and Western prairie states.
• Gould’s, found throughout the central Mexico and southern New Mexico and Arizona.
• Rio, which ranges through Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Kansas.

3. Cool names: Males are gobblers or toms. Females are hens. Juvenile (year-old) males are called jakes; juvenile females are jennies. The little chicks are called poults. Together, they’re a flock.

4. Limited flight: If you’ve ever surprised a flock or a single bird, you know they can fly, but not very far. They can fly from one end of a field to the other, but are more comfortable flying into the limbs of a nearby pine.  They can run about 20 mph.

5. A Tom’s Harem: While lots of species in the bird world stick with their mate for life, not wild turkeys. They’re polygamous. In winter, wild turkeys tend to stick together in pretty large flocks. By spring mating season, they often divide into groups of hens, jakes and gobblers. One gobbler usually emerges as the dominant male to do most of the breeding with the hens. This alpha turkey, if you will, is often the biggest gobbler.

6. Spittin’ and Struttin’: The mating season inspires all sorts of action for the toms. To get the attention of a hen, that gobbler will strut his stuff by puffing up and spreading out his wings, scraping the tips on the ground. He’ll spit, cluck, hum and gobble. Even their heads will burst with vivid red, white and blue. That’s a determined male!

7. Beards and Spurs: Males also have what other birds don’t: a beard. Four to 10 inches long, these beards emerging from the breast are sort of a modified feather, stiff to the touch. Gobblers also have a spur on the back of their legs, presumably for fighting other males. 

8. Keen eyesight: Not sure if it’s a myth or an exaggeration, but I’ve heard it said that a turkey can see a man blink 100 yards away in the woods. Anyone who’s hunted wild turkeys can attest at least some truth to that. Because of that eyesight, a turkey hunter must wear camouflage and be very still.

9. Omnivorous: Wild turkeys have a varied diet of seeds, grasses, nuts (including acorns), berries, roots and insects. They’ll even eat snakes. To support their need for protein and rapid growth, poults will consume mostly bugs, including moths and larvae.

10. Game Bird: Now that they’re successfully restored, wild turkeys are also a model for sustainable hunting. By the time the spring season arrives (May 3 to 31 in New Hampshire), toms have mated with many hens, who have laid ground clutches of 8 to 15 eggs each. New Hampshire allows a licensed hunter to take one male in the spring (if the hunter’s skilled and lucky). With those limitations, turkey numbers remain sustainable with ongoing management by the Fish and Game Department. The hunt itself is fun and challenging, coming at a great time to be outside.

To learn more about wild turkeys, visit the National Wild Turkey Federation.

Eric Aldrich writes from his home in Hancock.

Conservation at Risk!

Programs to protect our water, air, wildlife and other natural
resources are at risk of major cuts or elimination.

State and Federal Conservation Programs Face Enormous Cutbacks

            The Republican president Theodore Roosevelt had it right in 1907 when he told a crowd in Memphis, Tenn., how important it is to protect America’s environment.

            “The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem,” Roosevelt said in his usual thundering, forceful voice. “Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others.”

            If TR was alive today, he might have a thing or two to say about our collective responsibilities toward protecting our environment.

Right now, the situation for conservation programs is bleak, at both the state and federal levels. Decades of carefully and deliberately built programs are now poised for elimination or draconian cutbacks. And while lawmakers are looking at ways to cut programs across the board -- including services for the poor, sick and elderly -- the cuts to environmental programs are disproportionately deep.

           

Federal Programs at Risk

Here’s a look at some of the federal programs that are on the chopping block. Some of these numbers are moving targets and will likely change up or down in the coming weeks.

●     Land and Water Conservation Fund: After the House’s initial 90 percent beheading, it has proposed a 16 percent cut to this program that offers matching funds to protect lands and create parks (including this region). Established with bipartisan support in 1965, the Land and Water Conservation Fund is funded primarily by royalties paid to the government by oil companies that drill in offshore waters.

●     Forest Legacy: The House initially proposed cutting this program by 88.5 percent. Now wrapped into the Land and Water Conservation Fund, Forest Legacy will likely face additional cuts. The program has been critical to public/private partnerships in New Hampshire to protect ecologically important and publicly accessible places like Robb Reservoir in Stoddard and the Connecticut Lakes headwaters in Pittsburg. Future projects in New Hampshire are now at risk.

●     Cooperative Endangered Species Fund: The House’s initial plan virtually eliminated this federal program to help states conduct conservation measures to restore endangered species. While cuts are certain, the extent is not yet known.

●     State Wildlife Grants: This federal program helps states keep common species common and prevent them from becoming rare and more expensive to restore. The House initially proposed eliminating all funding. If enacted, that would have spelled the end of New Hampshire Fish and Game’s Nongame and Endangered Species Program and its work of restoring bats, the Karner blue butterfly and enacting the State Wildlife Action Plan.

●     EPA Funding and Regulatory Authority: The House aims to slash EPA’s overall funding by one-third and cease its authority to regulate mountaintop removal for coal mining, mercury and arsenic pollution and greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

Dark Clouds Over N.H. Statehouse

            The same trends continue at the state level.

●     Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP): After many years of minimal funding, the N.H. Legislature in 2007 established a dedicated funding source for the state’s program for protecting important lands and historical sites. The source has been a modest fee on documents recorded at county registries of deeds. In 2009 and again last year, the state raided that funding source and reallocated the money to the state’s general fund. Now the N.H. House of Representatives proposes raiding nearly the rest of it, leaving only a skeleton of $120,000. With existing funds from the state’s Moose Plate, the LCHIP program would have enough money to keep the lights on and office running, but barely enough to run a functional grants program -- nothing resembling the robust program created with strong bipartisan support to invest in New Hampshire’s natural infrastructure.

●     New Hampshire Rail Authority: The N.H. House has passed a bill to abolish the small office created in 2007 that’s been working to restore passenger rail travel from Concord, Manchester and Nashua to Lowell, Mass., and beyond. Republicans leading the anti-rail charge contend that passenger rail needs to be subsidized and is a waste of taxpayer dollars. Rail supporters point out that passenger rail investment is a major boon to economic development that comes back as tax revenue, not to mention many environmental benefits for cleaner air, water and smarter land-use.

●     N.H. Shoreland Protection Act: Also from the N.H. House, a bill to repeal the comprehensive act designed to protect New Hampshire’s lakes, ponds, rivers and streams from pollution and sediment. While it’s unclear whether the measure will pass, the program is likely to be scaled back.

●     N.H. Department of Environmental Services: As with other state departments, the House plans significant cuts to N.H. DES. An Initial proposal was to cut half of the agency’s 150 positions. The House leadership has recently recommended cutting $3.3 million, or 20 positions. Among the programs slated for elimination are those that oversee pollution-prone shellfish harvest, manage clean water for rivers and lakes and prevent pollution.

●     Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI): The N.H. House has passed a bill to repeal the cap-and-trade program that joins New Hampshire with nine other Northeast states. The program is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and encouraging conservation through strategic grants throughout the region. Among the beneficiaries in this region are the towns of Hancock, Jaffrey and Temple, and Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center in Greenfield for energy audits and efficiency efforts. While repealing RGGI would save the state little or nothing from its budget, New Hampshire communities would no longer receive grants from the multi-state program. Republicans clamoring for repeal oppose the concept of cap-and-trade programs and doubt the science of climate change.

Push Back and Adapt?

            There’s not enough room in this newspaper for the blizzard of ways that state and federal conservation programs are now under assault. These are programs large and small, some created during the New Deal to prevent future Dust Bowls. Some created during the 1970s, under President Nixon, to safeguard our nation’s air and water. Some (like RGGI) that cost no tax money or, if eliminated, save little at the outset and cost plenty more in the long run.

            In this year that New Hampshire is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Weeks Act -- the landmark federal act that created the White Mountain National Forest -- there are so many moves to undue generations of wise conservation. What can be done?

            There is talk among New Hampshire’s philanthropic circles about “a new reality” of limited government spending. The thinking goes something like this: State and federal budgets are contracting, forced to do so by shrinking revenues. The money simply isn’t there. Conservation programs -- like all programs: social service, arts, education, you name it -- have to wake up to this new reality by doing two things: one, push back. Defend the need for public funding of these programs. And two: adapt. Find new, innovative ways to achieve the programs’ results, either through private partnerships, philanthropy or other creative measures.

            The question is, how much to push back and how much to adapt?

            “It’s a good question,” said Jim O’Brien, executive director of the organization Conservation New Hampshire. “These (state) programs are fundamental things that people expect from government.” Enacting all of the cuts proposed “would mean a real change to our expectations.”

            How should voters react to these proposals? “People should ask the question: ‘Is this what we really want for the state?’” O’Brien said.

           

We’re Not Broke

            There’s another reality lurking in the background, and it’s seldom mentioned. We’re not broke. Sure, state and federal budgets face major fiscal problems.  But, as Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne and others point out, there are “wiser and more sustainable solutions.” Fiscal issues, Dionne writes, “are just an excuse for ideologically driven policies to levy lower taxes on well-off people and businesses while reducing government programs.”

            It boils down to this: The enormous disparity of wealth in America. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont put it this way in his now-famous speech on the Senate floor: “In the year 2007, the top 1 percent of all income earners in the United States made 23.5 percent of all income.” That amount, Sanders pointed out, is more than what was earned by the entire bottom 50 percent.

            Put another way, in the past 20 years, 56 percent of all income growth went to 1 percent of top-earning households. What’s worse is that one-third of all income growth went to just the top one-tenth of 1 percent. Think about that.

            And meanwhile, government spending is getting slashed for society’s most vulnerable populations … not to mention the environment.

            The 2010 election, however, was not won by those advocating to fix this vulgar disparity in wealth. It was won by those who say government is too big and taxes are too high. And thus victors claim the agenda.

            In 1904, when Teddy Roosevelt was elected in a landslide, he claimed the agenda. He set out swinging against the excesses of corporate greed and argued successfully for long-lasting conservation programs, legacies that last to this day.

            While it’s easy to sink back and ask, “Teddy, where are you now?” There is a moral of this story, and Teddy, I’m sure, would approve: Learn. Ask questions. Speak out. Vote.

Eric Aldrich writes from his home in Hancock.

This Thursday, from noon to 1 p.m. at the Statehouse in Concord, there will be a rally to show support for the many programs slated for budget cuts.

For more information about programs safeguarding New Hampshire’s environment, visit conservationnh.org.

Seven Sure Signs of Spring

Seen or unseen, the precursors abound

            Well, winter officially started December 21 and ends March 20, a mere 27 days from today.

            But already, signs of spring are all around. The roads are starting to feel like we’re on a cheap carnival ride. We’re getting hit up for Girl Scout cookies. We’re arguing over warrant articles and town budgets.

            And signs of spring abound in nature, too. Some signs we can see, and others we can’t. While here’s a few (in no particular order), feel free to add your own favorite signs of spring below.

1.       The days are getting longer! The sun rises in these parts at around 6:30 a.m. and sets at around 5:30 p.m.  Between dawn and dusk, we’re gaining about 3 or 4 minutes of daylight each day. Yep, things are changing!

2.       Sap is running. While we can’t actually see sap running inside the many tree species, the forest, we know it is moving. And the surest sign of sap running are the buckets hanging off sugar maples. According to Steve Roberge, UNH Cooperative Extension forest educator for Cheshire County, sugar maple sap generally starts running between mid-February and mid-April. It runs best when daytime temperatures reach around 38 degrees F. and nighttime bottoms out around 25 to 20 degrees. What you can see on many species are the growing buds, especially when you look out at a large stand of trees, in their upper branches, which take on a reddish-maroon tint in late-winter. Sugary sap is rushing up those branches, nourishing the buds that will, by May, burst into green leaves.

3.       Nesting eagles. Bald eagles once again are building a nest at Nubanusit Lake. This has become one of our region’s premier signs of spring. A mature pair has worked on a nest here (or nearby) every spring since 1998 – successfully breeding chicks since 2004. This year’s nest, according to Nubanusit eagle-watchers Dave and Nellie Robinson, is considerably higher than last year’s. After a month or so away, the pair has been seen around Nuby since Feb. 4.

4.       It’s getting warmer. Winter’s low temperatures tend to tank around the last week of January with average daily lows of 8 degrees and highs (a week or so earlier) of 29 degrees. After that, the mercury goes up … so cheer up!

5.       Red-winged blackbirds return. Here’s one of the sweetest sounds of the year: “Konk la ree, konk la ree,” the call of the red-winged blackbird near a marsh. Around here, they usually return by the last week of February or the first week of March, according to Hancock birder Eric Masterson. They usually start returning in the valleys, then move into the hillier areas as weeks and days progress. Aside from their song of spring, we’ll be treated to the male blackbird’s bright red flash (along with a little strip of yellow) on the wing. Their displays, songs, flight and body language are a dance with other blackbirds as they establish territories.

6.       Hatching brook trout. This is in the category of signs of spring you can’t see, at least not easily. Our streams are mostly covered with snow and ice now, leaving only a few holes here and there where you could peek in … and likely see nothing but water. David Carroll, the Warner naturalist and writer describes this view in his book Trout Reflections. “Yet there dwells in the brook, along its banks, within its bed, an abundance of life too hidden or too minute to be detected by a walker of its shores. Among this secret life are the tiny trout, the emerging fry who will be next autumn’s bright, darting fingerlings.”  These young trout begin emerging from their eggs by late February or early March and face a myriad of threats right away: starvation, predation, suffocation from silt, anchor ice and much more. I’ll cheer for the fry.

7.       Spring constellations. This is a great time to go outside at night and look for spring constellations. Look for Leo the Lion, the celebrity of the early spring night. Look for the Big Dipper toward the north. Follow an imaginary line from its bowl, near the handle, and look down. They’ll point to the star Regulus, which is the heart of the lion. Leo’s head is formed by a curve of stars like an overturned question mark. Just behind Leo’s tail is Virgo, the largest spring constellation.

            Speaking of celestial events, spring officially arrives March 20, 7:21 p.m. This moment when the sun crosses directly over the earth’s equator is the vernal equinox (autumnal equinox in the southern hemisphere).

            There are plenty more signs of early spring: hooting owls, howling coyotes, the woodcock’s sky dance, spring peepers, migrating salamanders … the list goes on. What are your favorite signs of spring?

Eric Aldrich writes from his home in Hancock.