A Chippers land enhancement woodlands project. Chippers is proud to sponsor this page and believes in encouraging and promoting environmental stewardship and protecting our green spaces above all else. Kudos to these Dartmouth students and Vital Communities for collaborating and taking steps to create real-world solutions to climate change issues.

Every year, Dartmouth College offers a two-term capstone class called the Senior Design Challenge, that combines interdisciplinary education with human-centered design to solve challenges identified by partner organizations in the Upper Valley. This year, a trio of students is working with the Upper Valley Adaptation Workgroup (UVAW) to find grassroots solutions addressing the problem of climate change on an individual level. The team hopes to build a technical solution that will have a real impact on the local community and, in some form or another, similarly engaged communities around the world.

Seniors Abby Drach, Gabby Hunter, and Jade Bravo wanted to do something about climate change. Jade is an environmental studies major; Abby and Gabby, who are majoring in psychology and cultural anthropology respectively, are passionate about sustainability and interested in finding creative, bottom-to-top solutions to the problems people face daily. Despite their disparate majors, the human-centered approach the class inspires drew them together, and their interests fit with the challenge proposed by UVAW, a group of individuals and organizations that meets under the Vital Communities umbrella and seeks to build climate-resilient communities in the Upper Valley. The challenge, as given to the students, was to answer the question: “what else can I [as an individual in the Upper Valley] do to combat climate change, and where do I start?”

The challenge, “to catalyze community-wide activity to mitigate and adapt to climate change” as stated in UVAW’s proposal, inspired the trio, and they set about interviewing residents of the local community, with support from Earth Sciences Professor Erich Osterberg and Vital Communities Climate Projects Coordinator Ana Meija. Starting from various climate-conscious sources including UVAW’s Climate Change Leadership Academy and a Building A Local Economy meeting, the team interviewed twenty-eight residents of Norwich, Hanover, and Lebanon. The questions were fairly broad, says Abby: in terms of pro-environment actions, they asked people “what behaviors they do daily, what they wish they were doing, and what’s preventing them from doing that,” among other topics.

The students’ results may not sound surprising, but they are certainly informative and highly useful. Analyzing the results of their interviews, they distilled their findings into four insights: first, that people often rely on community-based actions and resource-sharing mechanisms for change; second, that the decisions people make are based on individual motivations and priorities; third, that though money can be a barrier, people with resources intentionally invest in and explore tools ranging from electric vehicles to solar panels and weatherization; and fourth and perhaps most importantly, that individuals want to be more resilient than they are, but they often lack sufficient information and can be overwhelmed by the information that is available. That may sound confusing, but in short, it means that people want to find more ways to address climate change locally, and they do when they have the opportunity and support, but they may not know what to do.

Dartmouth students Abby Drach, Gabrielle Hunter, and Jade Bravo

This is where their work will continue in the second term of their project, which Abby is excited to begin. Their task, she says, will be to build “a decision-making tool to help people to choose and undertake the actions that make most sense for them.” Though this is a project focused on the Upper Valley and different populations may require different solutions, the team is hopeful this is a project that can ultimately be applied to numerous communities in Vermont and beyond. They are grateful to the friendly and helpful community members they interviewed – “you definitely can’t find that everywhere,” Abby notes enthusiastically – and expect that, with slight modifications, this sort of activity could be applied in communities elsewhere and the results could have broad and meaningful impacts on our world.

Still, Abby knows there are challenges. In analyzing their data, the team developed personae to broadly define their target audience: a retired person with free time and a desire, perhaps partially realized, to get involved in her community; a young professional doing what he can with limited impact and time; parents with young children who are conscious of the climate crisis but lacking the discretionary income to be able to do much more than make it through the day; and of course the environmental experts who understand the issues but may not always know the best solutions for the wider community. “We may need to choose one persona to focus on, or we may need different solutions for each of them,” Abby says, but they still hope to find effective solutions for as many people as they can, and use the community, or other people, as bases of knowledge or resources for building those solutions. As someone with a keen passion for sustainability (she is particularly interested in clothing sustainability) Abby hopes her experience will be applicable to her future endeavors; in any case, her work in collaboration with the Upper Valley community has already made steps towards meaningful change.

Norwich has many fantastic trails around town, where people can enjoy exercising, botanizing, wildlife watching, or simply walking in the woods. The Trails Committee does an excellent job of monitoring and maintaining all the public trails, and many land owners are very generous in allowing trails across their properties. Fellow trail users, trail workers, and land owners are greatly deserving of courtesies and respectful treatment from all of us. What follows is a list of reminders about important components of trail etiquette. If you do not agree with what we lay out as appropriate trail etiquette, please do not hesitate to come and share your ideas and concerns with us.

In a previous article, we mentioned the importance of controlling dogs on the trails. It is worth repeating how off-leash dogs can upset fellow trail users and wildlife. There are many people who are not comfortable being approached by dogs they do not know. There are also many people who would rather see un-spooked wildlife in the forest beside the trail instead of a dog running rampant.

Recent work on Green Up Day reminds many of us that not all our fellow citizens adhere to the adage ‘leave no trace.’ People especially do not want to see refuse, including dog droppings, during their walk in the woods. Please ‘leave only footprints.’

And leave those footprints only on the trail. The trails are constructed to handle foot traffic, the forest floor is not. If the trail is a single-track, use it as such. Please don’t walk in a group four wide if the trail cannot accommodate that width of humanity.

Further speaking of footprints, it is important that all posted trail instructions be followed, even if the instruction is that the trail is closed. Permitted uses, redirected trails, trail closures (for mud season for example), and other trail instructions are decisions made by people dedicated to the long-term care and maintenance of trails, people who spend time learning about best trail practices. Those instructions about and temporary closures of trails are done to alleviate the damage that too many footprints can have on fragile trailside areas and soft, wet trails.

Regarding trailside areas, remember to also take only photographs.’ The plants within our trail corridors are part of natural communities and they have roles to play in their ecosystem. They are not there for a few of us to take, take, take. Collecting has already made wild ginsing very rare and cucumber root much less common. Let’s not add to the list of the over-harvested; let’s instead have all the plant species remain part of their ecosystem and be there for all to see.

Many of our trails are multi-use and these different ways of using trails can lead to some questions, the proper etiquette of which may be conditional. For example, on flat terrain it may well be appropriate for bikers to yield to walkers, whereas on steep terrain it may well be better for walkers to step aside for bikers; however, a biker should never expect a hiker to yield on a multi-use trail.

There can also be winter multi-use etiquette questions. If someone has gone to the effort of breaking trail and setting a ski track, be courteous by not obliterating their work with your snowshoes. Why not simply snowshoe beside the ski trail? Besides, snowshoes are designed to provide loft in unbroken snow, not tramp around on packed trails and ski tracks.

Well, mud season is a memory. Get out there, be courteous, and enjoy the trails!

~ Norwich Conservation Commission

With spring just around the corner, Norwich residents are looking forward to the return of greenery and spending time outdoors. As the weather warms, the volunteers who keep Norwich green are rolling up their sleeves and ready to get to work maintaining the town’s trails, forests, parks, and conservation easements. These eager volunteers are supported by a large network of organizations both in Norwich and across the Upper Valley.

The new pump track at Huntley Meadow is maintained by a wide range of volunteers, including Emily Biolsi’s class at the Marion Cross School. This fall, the students worked together with community volunteers and Ryan Johnson, a member of the Norwich Recreation Council. Johnson showed the students what work needed to be done and gave them instructions on how to use the tools, which were supplied by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. Jill Kearney, Director of the Norwich Recreation Department, says of the student volunteer day: “Days like that just are a highlight. It’s fabulous to see that the kids have a teacher who is so excited about environmental stewardship. When the kids go back there they don’t want to leave trash on the side of the track because they worked on it. It’s great to see these values being passed on and see the kids caring for the community and being a steward.”

Nick Krembs and Jim Faughnan, Norwich Trails Committee members, with UVTA staff on Gile Mountain

John Girard is a former teacher at the Marion Cross school and another member of the Norwich Recreation Council. When he isn’t coaching basketball and baseball, Girard leads an annual cleanup of the baseball diamonds. He organizes a Saturday morning Green Up Day at the baseball diamond and invites all the parents of the season’s players. The Recreation Department supplies shovels, edgers, and wheelbarrows; the volunteers also care for the base pads and rake the infield. This all-volunteer annual event gets everyone (including the fields) ready for spring baseball.

The Upper Valley Trails Alliance (UVTA) works throughout the Upper Valley, but has a strong focus in Norwich due to its office location in town. UVTA works with the Norwich Trails Committee and the Norwich Fire District to assess trail maintenance needs, such as trail re-routes, bridge planning, and treadway clearing. Volunteers from UVTA recently completed a five-year-long project in Norwich on the beloved Gile Mountain trail, installing stone steps to make the trail more sustainable for the thousands of hikers who come annually. Over 100 volunteers worked with UVTA and the Norwich trails committee at Gile Mountain, averaging one to two volunteer groups working on the project per week during the trail season. UVTA has also worked with volunteers from King Arthur Flour to complete bog-bridge improvements on the “Spirit in Nature” path, as well as clearing portions of the King Arthur Trail. This spring, UVTA will be working on a trail project near the Dresden Athletic Field, connecting to the King Arthur field. They are also planning out a new mountain bike area for kids around the Dresden Athletic Field during the 2017 trail season.

The Upper Valley Land Trust (UVLT) manages several conservation easements in Norwich. They acquired the Norwich Gateway property in 2009, which had been previously abandoned and was overrun with invasive buckthorn and honeysuckle. With the help of over a thousand volunteer hours from Hypertherm and Norwich community members, there’s virtually no buckthorn or honeysuckle left on the property, giving native plants a chance to compete and thrive. Volunteers continue to maintain the habitat and remove the invasives each year, while educating the community about habitat restoration. UVLT also manages the Milton Frye Nature Area, which is connected to the Marion Cross School. The students use it as an outdoor classroom with the help of environmental education coordinator Lindsay Putnam. The students learn about invasive species as part of the curriculum and work alongside UVLT volunteers to keep the invasives at bay.

Students from Ms. Biolsi’s 6th-grade class working on the Pump Track with UVTA and Norwich Rec

At the Brook Mead Conservation Area, UVLT owns the land at Norwich Farms, which is used by Vermont Technical College as a teaching farm, as well as having forest areas and trails on the land. Every Earth Day, UVLT trains community volunteers to help with easement monitoring. There are 15 vernal pools on the property, and UVLT volunteers help collect natural resource data from the pools and submit the data to the state. UVLT is also partnering with a researcher at Dartmouth College who is conducting research on wood frogs and a reptile survey on the property. “The land is here to serve lots of values. The citizen science part is very important to us,” says Jason Berard, the Stewardship Director at UVLT. In coordination with Norwich Trails Committee, UVLT is also working to link the Brook Mead trails to neighboring trails on Parcel 5 and the Blue Ribbon Trail on Gile Mountain.

Berard encourages community members to reach out to UVLT with ideas and suggestions for ways to better serve Norwich residents. “We’re always interested in hearing how we can be of use to the community.” he says. “Our portfolio is here to serve the whole community. We want to hear needs the community has for land we own.”

For me, the Green is just irreplaceable,” says longtime Norwich Recreation director Jill Kearney Niles. There is heartfelt emphasis in her voice as she lists a few of the activities she organizes on the Green: practice for multiple sports, including soccer, cross-country running, biking basics, and lacrosse (starting in kindergarten). “After-school programs are so popular because they’re so convenient, like parent-pitch softball,” she continues. Organized sports programs are just a fraction of what happens on the Green, Norwich’s inviting, open center, artfully framed by civic, educational, and spiritual focal points.

The Rec. department also sponsors Touch-A-Truck day, producing deliriously happy kids of many ages by offering work vehicles like the Town’s dump truck, loader, backhoe, police cruiser, and fire truck for examination and tactile exploration.

The school owns most – the fraction varies with who’s talking – of the Green; the corner with the water fountain (donated by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union) and the bandstand belongs to the town. One group that focuses on water, though not from the fountain, is the Hosers, the dedicated volunteers who struggle to keep the ice rink in good shape. Weather may not cooperate, but the Hosers don’t give up. When there is ice, it gets used long past dark. Seize the moment!

One of the biggest events on the Green, of course, is the Norwich Fair, now organized by the Lions Club. For many years the Fair was a project of the churches of the town, but when Marion Cross School expanded, the construction spread out on the Green. The Fair moved to land on Route 5 which eventually became Dresden school playing fields. At that point, roughly 10 years ago, the Fair returned to the Green. Ed and Joyce Childs, hardworking Lions, have been stalwart Fair organizers for years. “I like having it back on the Green,” says Ed. “The event became more family-focused when it moved back to the Green.”

Evolution has happened. In the old days on the Green the major rides were a Ferris wheel and the swings. A parade was a big feature of Saturday morning, with floats, decorated bicycles, and yokes of oxen (ready for the ox-pull later in the day). In the Rt. 5 years, there was no parade, and energy for parade participation has generally not resurfaced. Faster rides such as the Tilt-a-Whirl took over from the Ferris wheel. The popular Dunk Tank appeared, where generous-hearted town celebrities offer their dignity for the Lions fundraiser.

The Fair is about 65 years old. “I don’t think we’ve had any disasters,” says Ed, aside from rain. “But people who live in Norwich – if they can’t go today because of rain, they’ll go tomorrow.” Joyce recalls working in the bank Friday afternoon as final setup proceeded, and having people come in saying “You’ve got to do something!” This was back when the churches still ran the Fair, and the name had gone up on the funhouse: Satan’s Curse. “I couldn’t leave because we were really busy,” she remembers, but the sign was removed. Still, when Saturday brought torrents of rain, people wondered…

The Norwich Women’s Club sponsors summer concerts in the bandstand. People bring blankets or folding chairs, and maybe picnics, as they gather to hear local and regional musicians. The style of the music varies, but the entertainment from people-watching and catching up with neighbors are reliable constants.

A subtle feature of the Green is the collection of trees that surround it. Ever notice? They’re all different. In the late ’60s conservationist “Bill Ballard wanted to create an arboretum of trees that would survive this kind of weather,” says Bill Hammond. There were plaques on the fence identifying the varieties, but then the fence was replaced. Now the third grade is working to identify the trees. They have a list of what was originally planted, some of which have been cut down. A real world challenge.

Spring events on the Green include MCS’s Mayfest, in which all the students participate in traditional songs and dances. The whole community is welcome, says Hammond. A more elaborate seasonal festival is the summer solstice celebration put on by Revels North in June. Retiring Production Manager Bonna Wieler lists just a few of the features of the event: Morris dancing, singing of multiple sorts, mummers, crafts, and food. “It’s grown out of community celebration,” she says. After all the hard work to produce the event, “the rewards are everything from the look on a kid’s face, and the joy you see on the Green when people celebrate together. Community is built among people who sing together, and there’s the joy of carrying forward beautiful traditions honoring the earth. The community strengthens when it celebrates together.”