The hottest times of the year are truly upon us, and the mosquitos are out in full force.
The amount of water I’ve had to bring for a workday has slowly increased from 1L to 3L, and I
can’t start a day without basically taking a shower in DEET spray. Still, nothing feels better than
walking along a trail for an hour and stumbling on a massive patch of blueberries, so the whole
experience is worth it in the end. The Lakes Region Conservation Corps program has helped us develop a myriad of
skills, but I feel the most important of these is being able to identify edible berries; wildberries,
blueberries, bunchberries, strawberries, bearberries, and raspberries are a few of the fruits that
are in season this time of the year, and provide ample reason to stop and take a prolonged water
break.
I’ve never been a huge fan of plant identification, mostly because talking about
invertebrates is way more fun. Yet as I spend more time out in the New Hampshire wilderness,
I’ve taken the responsibility on myself to actually learn to identify different species of trees.
After reading a few books and field reports, I can officially say that there are more habitat types
than I would have ever thought out here – the varied topography can make an entirely different
type of forest appear on different sides of a mountain, simply because the sun shines harder on
the south side than the north side. It’s still an upward battle for me to differentiate between
species though, but I can officially say with confidence that I know the difference between a red
oak and a white oak. That is all for now.
What I am truly an expert at is identifying invasive plants, especially because they are
usually the types found in gardens or city parks. On the 24th of July the Lakes Region
Conservation Trust was joined by several volunteers, and even a few Squam Lakes Association
members at our East and West Field Preserve in Moultonborough for some Japanese barberry
removal. As we walked through a lovely field of waist-high grass (surprisingly no ticks), we got
to enjoy all of the lovely wildflowers and pollinators. It was only once we crossed into a small
forest where we were beset by a sea of barberry, to the point where the entire understory of the
forest was invasive plants. Being able to differentiate between species was not important at all
that day. After hours of working, we were able to clear at least an acre of forest out, hopefully
making prime space for native plants to flourish. Although we couldn’t clear the entire area out,
we at least made decent progress, and can make future work out there slightly less daunting.
Even if we can’t clear out every invasive plant, it’s still encouraging to have so much
help from our volunteers and coworkers. Ultimately we will keep going to preserve and
hopefully improve the forests that we have under our protection, so that we can continue to have
wild berry patches to make those sweltering summer hikes all the more worth it.
Nick is a recent graduate of Otterbein University in Westerville. You can read more about Nick here.