The last week has brought cooler temperatures to us here at Squam Lake. The kind of temperatures where you might put a sweatshirt on in the morning, take it off midday, and then put it back on in the evening. Some of these days I have switched from shorts to pants. As I get ready to head to SLA in the mornings, I’m greeted with crisp cool air with a slight breeze and it wakes me up. It reminds me of my favorite time of the year: Fall.
This season brings along so many of the things I love. I can wear my flannel shirts with jeans and my boots, or a nice sweater. It’s the perfect season where I don’t need to layer a lot of clothes but I can wear long-sleeves and pants without sweating buckets. Apple cider (preferably cold) starts showing up in stores and farm stands along with apple cider donuts! Fall vegetables are in season like butternut squash, parsnips, and pumpkin, and along with that, pumpkin pie. Leaves on the trees start turning to red, orange, and yellow, so leaf peeping is quite popular here in New Hampshire. Apple and pumpkin picking is one of my favorite activities. And the best part of the fall season is Halloween.
Being from Salem, Massachusetts, Halloween is the biggest part of the year. There are month-long celebrations kicked off by a big parade in the beginning of October. Carnival rides and food trucks are parked in the city common, streets are blocked off for local vendors and tourists fill the streets. Walking ghost/history tours of the city are common and all month long it’s rare to see anyone NOT in costume. I always make sure to paint a pumpkin for my porch every year. Last year’s theme was Peanuts with Snoopy as the Red Baron on his doghouse airplane. And the best part of Halloween is handing out candy and seeing all the kids trick-or-treating.
I start planning far in advance about my Halloween costume. This year I think I will be a moth. Specifically the INVASIVE Gypsy Moth, ooooOOOOOOooooo. You’ll recognize their silk nets on many trees around this area. They create these silk nets around the eggs they lay and will persist over the winter until the eggs hatch in the spring. Even just driving around, you can see what looks like large spider webs engulfing the branches on trees. It chokes out the leaves on that branch and kills them. In some tree species that the moths prefer, the whole tree may be filled with these nets and all its leaves dried up. What makes them so scary is their invasive nature. They can defoliate large swaths of forests. Between the years 1970 and 2010, gypsy moths have defoliated an estimated total of 80.4 million acres of forest. This defoliation negatively affects many forest-dwelling bird species. Birds that make nests in forests that have been highly defoliated are more likely to be predated on than non-defoliated forests. Additionally, the gypsy moth is hard to get rid of. Warm temperatures (anything above 32 degrees C/ 89 degrees F) are ideal for development and growth. Long periods of rain are known to drown out the caterpillars, but this summer has been particularly dry. They were accidentally introduced in 1869 to the northeast U.S. and they spread about 13 miles per year. Larvae are carried by wind to new areas, but firewood has also been a common transport of the species because the moths also lay their eggs on dead wood. They’re negative effects on our native species and their resilience is what makes them so scary!
Salem’s Halloween activities have been cancelled this year unfortunately. But I’ll just have to channel my Halloween and fall spirit to my service here at SLA this year instead. Of course, Fall doesn’t start until September 22nd. I’m already getting too far ahead of myself, but I’m just so excited! In the meantime, I get to watch the leaves change colors and see lots of bird species start their migrations south for the winter. And hopefully I’ll get to stop by some farm stands for some apple cider and donuts in the next few weeks.
Rachel is a half time member serving with the Squam Lakes Association. Her sense of balance, keen eyesight, and amateur bowmanship make her a valuable member of the LRCC party. You can learn more about Rachel here!