Ten years ago the Hogback Mountain Conservation Association started a multi-year Early Successional Habitat (ESH) program in their conservation area in Marlboro. This was done to try to generate a variety of wildlife niches on the mountain. We picked several of the overgrown ski slopes and cut back the trees and shrubs, hoping to stimulate growth of ESH, also known as "young forest," which can be very attractive to certain birds, mammals, amphibians, and insects. We cut a different slope every two years. Let's go take a look at how things are regrowing. Was the effort by nearly a hundred volunteers worth it? Can we find signs of use by wildlife? Let's try to count how many bird nests there are in the ESH patches, and get photos of any animal tracks we find.
To do so, we will meet at 10:00 AM on Saturday, Feb 11 in the parking lot on Route 9 in between the distillery and the gift shop. (Note: There's plenty of additional parking available in the big lot on the north side of Route 9 across from the distillery.) Bring snowshoes or cleats as appropriate for the snow conditions. Skis will not be appropriate for this hike. We may end up bushwhacking through some dense growth. (Go-around routes that stay on the trails will be available if you don't want to bushwhack, but you might miss seeing some interesting things.) We'll try to visit the Meadow (cut 2013-14), the Great White Way (cut 2015-2016), and the Practice Slope (cut 2017-2018). We'll aim to return to the parking lot by noon. Led by Diana Todd.
Questions? Contact hmca@hogbackvt.org.