Don’t miss the fun! Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat will be visiting Waterville Valley for the Margret and H.A. Rey Center’s third annual Curious George Cottage Family Festival August 7-9, 2009. Visit the Festival Page to download a detailed Festival Event Guide and to purchase tickets!
Above: Patrick, Sara, Tom and Ali.
The 2009 WVAIA/Rey Center Trail Crew continued to do excellent erosion control work on the Dickey Trail. In the last week among other projects they tackled the tricky problem of the combination of *soil compaction, root exposure, and then multiple trails as people avoid exposed roots. The solution on the upper potion of Dickey: a combination of “rock cribbing” (low rock walls) and bringing in subsoil for a new tread. This avoids having to remove roots and clearly defines the trail.
*One issue that sometimes comes up with hikers and trail work is aesthetics. While many people see trail work that responds to soil compaction and erosion as attractive, others see it as an unattractive altering of the landscape. To read an essay that addresses this issue, see Trail Tending: Tradition, Ethics, and Esthetics.
The Trail Crew is sponsored by the United States Forest Service, the Waterville Valley Athletic and Improvement Association (WVAIA) and the Rey Center. It is partially funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
This week, Rey Center research assistant and Plymouth State University (PSU) graduate student, Kim Votta, received help conducting a natural resource inventory along the Mount Tecumseh Research Transect. Help came in the form of two undergraduate students who are participating in a unique summer research experience at the Hubbard Brook Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The summer program is a collaborative effort of PSU, Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study scientists, and the U.S. Forest Service. Students will spend eight weeks at the Hubbard Brook LTER site to conduct research under the mentorship of scientists and for the chance to collaborate with an external organization on a science outreach project. The Rey Center is just one of the participating organizations working with the students.
Maegan Gagne, a PSU senior, and Brita Stepe, a Dartmouth College senior, seen below in the field counting herbaceous species in plot number three along the Mount Tecumseh trail and then nabbing a seat on a rock for a nice photo op. They will be back next week to help Kim finish up in plots four through six. Take a hike up 4.003 foot Mount Tecumseh. You may see them on the trail!
Maegan and Brita counting and note-taking
Brita (left) and Maegan
An evening of great music and humor (and even a ghost story) was enjoyed by all who attended the Stevie Coyle performance on Friday, June 5. Many thanks to the Golden Eagle Lodge for generously sponsoring this event.
Students from the Waterville Valley Elementary School planted cucumbers, bush beans, sunflowers, cosmos, and zinnias today in the Sprouts Patch youth garden located at the Sandwich Mountain Farm. The children will have the opportunity to tend the Sprouts Patch and harvest the fruits of their labor throughout the summer by participating in Rey Center youth gardening programs, SEEDS Club for Kids (ages 7-9) and Farm Sprouts (ages 4-6), held on Tuesdays starting June 30.
In preparation for planting the Sprouts Patch youth garden located at the Sandwich Mountain Farm, participants in the Curiosity Club for Homeschoolers studied soil. After learning what makes up soil, the children measured the pH of the soil in the garden, meadow and forest and compared the results.
Curiosity Club for Homeschoolers is a monthly program for ages 7-12 held from September-June that explores a different science theme each session through journaling, hands-on activities, outdoor exploration, stories and art.
Water Watchers, a volunteer water quality monitoring program sponsored by the Rey Center in partnership with the PSU Center for the Environment and the NH Department of Environmental Services Volunteer River Assessment Program, has begun water sampling for the 2009 season!
Continue reading to learn how you can become a Water Watchers Volunteer! Continue reading ‘Water Watchers Volunteers Begin ‘09 Water Sampling Season’
The trail crew continues its excellent work in building rock soil retainers (steps) on the Dicky Trail. To see a video detailing just what it takes to do this sort of work, keep reading.
Above: Brian, leader extraordinaire.
To see more photos and a video, keep reading.
Continue reading ‘Franconia Ridge Trail Tending — Trail Crew Training’
Students at the Waterville Valley Elementary School have recently been studying wind power with the Rey Center. With kits on loan from the New England Aquarium Teacher Resource Center, students were able to construct model wind turbines and test the efficiency of their turbines by altering variables such as number of blades and angle of the blades. The students used volt meters to measure the output of their wind turbines. H.A. Rey was a big proponent of wind power and alternative energy, read his essay “Chat With a Fire Tower” here.
Nat Scrimshaw spent the afternoon at the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Portland Maine. Ben, who’s family owns a dairy farm, wanted a tractor, so George appears on a tractor with a dairy cow nearby. Lily was partial mermaids, and so that is what she received. It was nice to also see our friend Jordan from the last visit. We partner with the Starlight New England Foundation partners to provide these chalk-talk opportunities.
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Above: flipping a granite slab to be placed as a soil retaining step. Below: How many Trail Crew dose it take to place a rock step?
A good days work: 4 rock steps and 2 rock waterbars.
To see a video of the trail work, keep reading.
The 2009 Trail Crew gets to work on Dickey Mountain. Above, from Left to right: Tom, Brian, Sarah, Patrick, and Ali. Today the trail crew begain their training period by working on the Dickey Trail. It was a day of learning how to use pry bars and pick-mattocks, find appropriate rock for soil retainers and waterbars, and most importantly, practicing the technique of moving heavy granite. Nat Scrimshaw, who has worked on WVAIA trails since 1969, and led WVIAIA crews in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, is training the crew. Below: Patrick and Nat.
To see how to flip a granite slab and other trail crew moments, keep reading and scan the photo gallery.
Above: Allison on the Dickey ledges. Lower Right: Nat hunting for granite.
The 2009 trail crew arrived on Saturday, coming from various parts of the United States. The crew! — Allison Thurnherr, a student at SUNY-College of Environmental Science & Forestry majoring in Landscape Architecture; Patrick Green, a recent College Graduate from Texas State University-San Marcos in Environmental Studies; Tom Fowke a student at the University of Maine-Farmington, 1st Major Geology, 2nd Major Geography; Sara Kinsey, a student at the University of California-Berkeley, 1st Major Biology, 2nd Major Theater, Dance & Performance Studies. The crew is led by Brian Gagnon, who is just finishing up his masters at PSU in the Center for the Environment program. The Crew will be living at Mead Base Conservation Center in Sandwich, and starting work on Dickey Mountain tomorrow.
Today Nat Scrimshaw and Allison scouted the Dickey work site, identifying problem areas and looking for material to work with (native granite).
Below: an eroded section of the Dickey Trail.
The article below appeared in a 1973 issue of “Forest notes,” as well as the Waterville Valley “Wig Wag.” While a quarter century has passed, Hans’ story is as relevant ever. Why didn’t we listen then?…
CHAT WITH A FIRE TOWER by H.A. Rey
Some people are given to day-dreaming. I am one of them. My latest daydream had to do with the fire tower on top of Mt. Osceola and a chat I had with that old lady (like ships and railroad engines, a fire tower is a “she”).
You look unhappy, I said to her.
I am, said she. People think I am useless. They don’t need me anymore. And yet I could be useful. Not by watching out for forest fires — airplanes do a better job of that nowadays. They have wings. Now, if I had wings…
Good heavens, I said, you don’t want wings to fly away with?
O no! not that kind of wings, but wings such as windmills have. I could be a WINDMILL.
Above: Smiles after a chalk-talk at the Brayton Library at the Massachusetts Hospital School in Canton, MA.
The mission of The Massachusetts Hospital School (MHS) is to provide medical, habilitative, rehabilitative, recreational, educational and vocational services to children and young adults with multiple disabilities, assisting them to achieve their maximum level of independence in all aspects of life.
The Rey Center partners with Starlight Children’s Foundation New England to bring chalk-talks to hospitals throughout region.
A walk in the woods in Tamworth, NH reveals spring treasures. Above: Wild Oats (Uvularia sessilifolia L.). Below: Dwarf Ginseng (Panax trifolius)
Hans and Margret Rey were strong advocates of alternative energy and were concerned with the U.S. dependency on oil. This is one reason the Rey Center is committed to using green building methods in its facilities projects. We are not alone in New England, and recently I had the chance to visit the Putney School in Vermont and see under construction what will be the first LEED Platinum building in Vermont.
The above illustration was a collaborative effort between Chucky and Anthony (patients at the hospital), Jessi (a vounteer with the Starlight New England Foundation), and Nat. The drawing honors the Boston Red Sox and its world championship seasons in 2007, 2004, 1918, 1916, 1915, 1912, and 1903. Chucky also drew the dragon below right (click to enlarge).
The Rey Center’s Nat Scrimshaw and Susan Schofield joined Jessi and Kelly Duda from Starlight New England for another hospital chalk-talk at the the Floating Hospital for Children at the Tufts Medical Center. Floating Hospital for Children is the full-service children’s hospital of Tufts Medical Center and the principal teaching hospital of Tufts University School of Medicine. Floating Hospital offers a comprehensive range of services from prevention and primary care to the most sophisticated treatment of rare and unusual conditions.
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