| Wednesday,Feb.24,2010 -Notchview Heroes
The snow has been coming down like crazy today and it has been doing so since yesterday afternoon when I barely made it home on an unplowed Route 9 from Amherst to Windsor. Right now the snow is continuous, heavy, and unrelenting. It’s a real old fashioned winter snow storm. In fact, I don’t quite remember a storm that has gone on this long and there is another forecast for tomorrow. I’m sure there have been storms just like this one before but the piles are like walls and the rumble of avalanche style snow coming off the roof are a tad alarming. I wonder where all this snow will go? Mostly I wonder if the power will go out. I am reminded of a storm experience I really hadn’t ever been through before, the ice storm of December 12, 2009. In a matter of hours the electricity was out and trees of great size everywhere around us were knocked down or topped off barber shop style by devastating ice. We were off the grid for 8 days.
Jim Caffrey of Notchview Reservation said he had been sleeping soundly after a long day on a trail crew when a big branch came crashing through his roof and the whole house shook. Then he heard the bang, bang, bang of trees and branches snapping and knew in an instant it was just what had happened in the October ’87 ice storm when he managed the Field Farm in Williamstown. “I had memories of the effort and what it would take. I thought, just give me two more hours of sleep before we have at it.” From that day on for over a year now, the crew at Notchview and many volunteers, carefully supervised by Jim and his expert crew, have worked on clean up at Notchview with astonishing success. Expertise in a variety of disciplines along with a lot of hard work has turned around what were once hip high masses of branches and trees over hundreds of acres into a much more favorable ecological and recreational situation. Pat Toomey, plant and soil science and ski trails, John Dziegiel, urban forestry, Jacob Chase, landscaping, and Jim Caffrey’s forestry expertise have transformed a disaster into a carefully restored arboretum. The ski trails are open and groomed for a fabulous nordic ski season. Today’s snow will only add to the joy.
None of this could have been done without volunteers like Peter Rayton, Bill Arduser singlehandedly taking on devastated Whitman Trail, Bruce Townend, Glenn Roy, Ed Neumuth, Jeanne Mangan, Bill Williams, Dave Dirrell, Vinny Vieneau, Gene Komlosi, and Ed Hamel who rallied Berkshire Trails Nordic Ski Club for some big days. Lorie O’Reilly and Melanie Engalls with the Wachonah, Hoosic, and Lenox high school teams, for a total of about 200 people worked all year to fulfill the mission to preserve as much of the woods as possible.
Walking and skiing the trails, it is startling to notice the forest canopy has been sheared off evenly like a perfect hair cut. The sky shines through with a new openness. Jim says that it will actually be good for certain hard woods that need more light. Nature has altered the woodlands here and intrepid crews have uncomplainingly taken the situation in stride. We all need to recognize these heroes and those like them who do this amazing work, all for nature and the restoration of the beauty and recreational usefulness of an important property.
My good friend and colleague, Phil Crafts, retired last spring. He is a master science teacher, a wise and gracious man, and all the students and staff think he is great. It’s always been hard for me to see great teachers leave when I feel as though I’ve just gotten to know them, even if it has been 10 or 15 years. School years pass so swiftly and the students mature so quickly it’s impossible to keep track of time. This year Phil mentioned how he’d heard the song of the male cardinal in his yard. I remarked that I had heard that recently too, at Notchview. He said this is one of the first moments of early spring when there is all of a sudden just enough sunlight and vitamin D3 to trigger the singing response, a change in plumage, and the instinct to scatter and establish territories in the woods. I too had noticed the sudden change in the quality and timing of the light but also knew that this has been changing two or three minutes a day for weeks now. There is a special moment in the morning or afternoon when I notice there is more light, earlier or later, and my heart races a little. Another winter is coming to a close and there is always the promise of spring.
Colin Harrington
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