The summer season is upon us and my service has begun for the Newfound Lake Region Association as a Watershed Steward. Under these crazy circumstances, it’s certainly a great escape to be able to pursue conservation on the lake in one of the best states in the country.
Alongside my steward partner, Colleen, we have begun training in a variety of different aspects such as trail maintenance, invasive plant removal as well as basic safety procedures. With the current health pandemic, this training has been adapted to create the safest environment possible.
We have been working a great amount at our Grey Rocks site in Hebron. This site was designed around the conservation idea of permaculture, meaning the site was laid out to utilize different aspects of our ecosystem to promote the best amount of plant growth and environmental benefit possible. I focused greatly on this concept through my schooling. If you get a chance you should check out some of the weeding and mulching we’ve done at Grey Rocks Conservation Area, giving the garden beds some new life!
There have been some quite memorable moments in the past few weeks of our journey as we have seen a great amount of wildlife such as deer, turtles, a lone bald eagle and plenty of bullfrogs during our work at Grey Rocks. On top of this, we were able to take a hike around the Sugarloaf/Goose Pond property to become better acclimated with the site and familiarize ourselves with the watershed better. There are still many more places for us to explore around Newfound Lake. – Ryan Hannon
