Latest Breaking News On - Randolph community forest - Page 1 : comparemela.com

Randolph voters to decide whether to add land to town forest

RANDOLPH — Voters will be asked under Article 20 at the 2021 annual town meeting to approve designating a donated 102.2-acre parcel as Town Forest. The town meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 1, in the municipal building/town garage/fire house. The meeting is being held in an unheated town building on the Pinkham B (Dolly Copp) Road at this unprecedented late date to minimize the transmission risk of COVID-19. The conservation commission accepted the donation of the 102.2 acres of undeveloped land on the north side of Durand Road from John and Mary Berry at its March 11 meeting, following a public hearing.

A Nonprofit Push for Outdoor Access in the Northeast

On a weekday morning in January in New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest, the base of the gladed Maple Villa backcountry ski zone could have been mistaken for a Walmart parking lot on Black Friday. Some skiers sat anxiously in their cars, waiting for a spot to open up, while others parked at the nearby Ledge Brewing Company and walked the mile up the road with their skis slung over their shoulders. After a slow start to the season in New England, there was finally enough snowpack to abandon the groomers for backcountry terrain.  It wasn’t always like this. Unlike the West, backcountry skiing on the East Coast has distinct challenges. The amount of private property in the region is staggering only 4 percent of land east of Mississippi is public, compared with 47 percent in the West and access to it is hindered by a complex web of private landowners, trusts, and federal and public managers, not to mention dense new-growth forests. “Historically, because

Paleoindian site listed on National Register

RANDOLPH — The Potter Paleoindian Site on the east end of town in the Moose River Valley was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Thursday, April 28, state archaeologist Mark Doperalski confirmed. “This site is an undisturbed, highly intact habitation that dates to approximately 12,500 to 12,000 years ago,” explains retired state archaeologist Richard “Dick” Boisvert of Deerfield, who led a number of “digs” there. “The Potter Site contains a series of intensively used workshop areas as well as household encampments,” he says. “The site was located on the landscape (by early nomadic peoples) so as to take advantage of plant and animal resources close by the areas of occupation and also strategically positioned so as to be able to see herds of caribou as they made their seasonal migrations. Caribou were hunted for their meat, hides and antlers, all essential to the Paleoindians’ survival.”

Paleoindian site listed on National Register

Looking for wild snow? Here are 6 backcountry skiing tours to explore

Skiing powder on the popular Sherburne Trail on Mount Washington.Cait Bourgault A revival is underway in the mountains of the Northeast as skiers flock to the backcountry in unprecedented numbers. Trailhead parking lots fill early and ski shops are doing swift business: Outdoor Gear Exchange in Burlington, Vt., has seen its sales of backcountry ski equipment triple since last season. “It’s the perfect storm,” says Tyler Ray, founder of New Hampshire’s Granite Backcountry Alliance, which is drawing hundreds of skiers to cut new glade zones each fall, and thousands to ski them. “You have a confluence of high resort lift-ticket prices being a barrier to entry for skiing, you have the technical advancement in equipment making backcountry gear better, faster, and lighter, and you have a desire to return to nature.” Add to this the COVID-19 pandemic, which has driven skiers to shun crowded lifts and strike out for wild snow.