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VPT's Outdoor
Journal #406
 Nordic
SkatingSkating ain't what it used to be. If your memories of ice-skating are filled with ill-fitting, cold skates that rumble over bumps and catch in cracks, then it might be time for you to take look at Nordic Skating. For speed and comfort on the ice, you can't beat it. Nordic skates are aluminum platforms with skate blades attached, that lock into cross-country ski boots. The blades are longer than conventional ice skate blades — up to 21 inches. The longer the blades, the more stable the skate and the faster you go. You can get up to 25 mph on the ice with a stiff tailwind. They're also curved in front to help glide over rough bumps without getting stuck. And because you're wearing cross-country ski boots, your feet are comfortable and warm. Add some poles for stability and you can even head out on snow-covered ice for a day of skating. Nordic skating is popular in Europe and Canada, though it is still relatively unknown here in the United States. But there are small groups of people working to change that. One of them is the Norwich-based Montshire Skating Club. The one hundred members of the club maintain a 2-½-mile stretch of ice on Lake Morey in Fairlee, Vermont, for skating — the longest groomed track in the country. They hold an annual winter skate-athon in January where people of all ages can try the equipment and get a feel for Nordic skating. Jamie Hess is one of the co-founders of the club. He says the skate-athon is for people who want to see how far they can skate in a day at any speed they want to. Host Marianne Eaton joins Jamie Hess of the Montshire Skating Club for an introductory Nordic skating lesson.
RETURN TO TOP  Snow
Goose HuntIn the early 1900s only a few thousand snow geese migrated along the Atlantic flyway from their nesting grounds in the eastern Arctic through Northern Quebec and the eastern U.S. By 1970 the population had grown to 100,000. Today, it's more than 900,000. A blizzard of snow geese is an amazing sight when viewed from a designated sanctuary such as the Dead Creek Wildlife Management area in Addison, Vermont. But these numbers also mean a devastating effect on habitat. A large concentration of geese can turn a salt marsh into a mud flat as they grub, ripping up large grasses by the roots and destroying habitat for other birds. And as the population grows, it has a particularly negative impact on the birds' nesting habitat — the habitat they need for the young to survive. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has now come to depend on hunters to help bring the snow goose population under control and reduce it to the carrying capacity of the habitat. Surprisingly, although the concentration of snow geese that are migrating is huge, the odds are in the favor of the birds to make it past hunters. Hunting snow geese requires dedication, teamwork and ideal weather conditions to even get the birds to look your way. And it means decoys — lots of them. And they have to be in place early. To get the 500 to 1,000 decoys in place by the time the sun comes up, the wake-up call is two o'clock in the morning for one group of dedicated hunters. It means a frantic criss-crossing in the dark, wearing headlamps to get the decoys and coffin blinds positioned in a farm field. And even with a mixture of full-body decoys, silhouettes, shells and kites, there is no guarantee the birds will come in. A sunny day can mean a long wait as light reflects off the shiny fake birds, warning the real ones to stay away. What you're looking for is high wind and dark days. But for those with the patience, good calling skills and the luck of the weather, the sight of forty or fifty birds "whiffling" in on the wind and into range is worth every minute of preparation. In this segment, Lawrence Pyne joins a group of hunters in the pre-dawn hours as they prepare for a snow goose hunt.
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Grassland
BirdsGrassland birds and dairy farmers in Vermont have a unique historical relationship. By clearing forests to create pasture for cows, farmers also have provided ideal habitat for birds such as Bobolinks and Savannah Sparrows. Fifty or one hundred years ago, the birds thrived. But as dairy farms and their fields have disappeared, so has the habitat. These birds rely on open grasslands to feed. And instead of building nests in trees, they construct them in the grass on the ground. This practice can leave them open to predators as well as farm machinery. When a field is hayed, essentially all the nests fail. They're either destroyed by equipment, or crows and gulls follow the farmer to clean up. Farmers must hay. And they have to get the cut in while the hay still has some value. The ideal solution would be to delay cuts to give the birds time to hatch and raise their young. But that's a tricky timing issue for a farmer who needs quality hay. On the other hand, there are farmers who have wet fields and fields that are not productive. If these fields were properly managed, it would be helpful for the birds. And it might end up being financially beneficial for the farmers. Programs such as the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) could help. It's run by the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and provides landowners with financial help for managing their property using wildlife management strategies. In this segment we join field researchers at the University of Vermont who are part of a study to determine the long-term effects of agricultural management on populations of grassland birds through banding operations.
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