WEATHERSFIELD — A group of about 20 people trudged through frozen mud and ice along a skid road for a logging operation before they even started an informational hike in the Weathersfield Town Forest on Saturday to learn more about forest land management.

With no public road access to the forest, which borders Interstate 91 and Mount Ascutney State Park, participants came prepared, many carrying ski or trekking poles to assist them in navigating the ice-laden trails.

Jeff Dacey, a local forester, attended the walk because he said he wasn’t too familiar with the Weathersfield Town Forest but also because he was friends with the guides.

“Every time I walk into the woods, I learn something new,” Dacey said.

The event was hosted by the Weathersfield Conservation Commission, which plays a primary role in managing the town’s 305-acre forest that it first acquired in 2010. Southern Windsor County Forester Hannah Dallas led the hike, and conservation commission Chairman Ryan Gumbart attended to provide insight into the town’s plans to expand access to the forest by improving existing trails and developing new trails for hiking, skiing and mountain biking.

Dallas has been assisting the town of Weathersfield on its land-management plan for the forest, a process she said began last spring that involves her taking inventory of the plant life in the area. She discussed how the logging operation in the state park is “resetting the clock” for its pine tree population as the loggers are selectively targeting “junky” pines that aren’t growing vigorously for removal.

The group stopped a few times during the walk so Dallas could answer questions about land management and combating invasive species like the emerald ash borer, a northeast Asian beetle species that feeds on ash trees, killing them in the process.

Dallas explained that the town forest, like much of Vermont’s woodlands, is a “second-growth” forest that mostly consists of pine trees.

“Almost all Vermont forests are second-growth forests because they were cleared for agriculture about 120 years ago,” Dallas told the group. “(What moved in after) was pine because it’s a pioneer species, but a lot of it is not super healthy because it doesn’t really belong there and it isn’t suited to the soil.”

Dallas and Gumbart weren’t the only forest experts on the walk. Along with forester Dacey, Matt Pronovost, a director on the board of the Ascutney Trails Association, which helps maintain the mountain biking trails in the town forest, also came along for the hike “just to be part of the conversation.”

Marianne and Michael Walsh, of Weathersfield, said they came out to the event because they wanted to learn more about their local forest and because they hadn’t been able to find it on their own before.

“We learned so much,” Marianne Walsh said. “It was a really enjoyable experience.”

The walk, which was scheduled for an hour, lasted more than two as group members enthusiastically peppered Dallas with more and more questions. The group made it only about a half-mile into the town forest before needing to turn back.

When the group reentered Mount Ascutney State Park, the smell of fresh-cut pine and a haze of sawdust greeted them as the machine-mouth maw of the skidder turned a slew of pine logs into wood chips as they watched. By then, the early-afternoon sun had turned the skid road into a muddy mess and the walk back was far slower.

Ray Couture can be reached at 1994rbc@gmail.com with questions.

]]>