jult winter 2010 newsletter

8/14/2019 JULT Winter 2010 Newsletter

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Page 2 LAND TRUST NEWS

Save the Date. You Are Invited!JULT members, family and friends are cordially in-

vited to our annual meeting on May 3, 2010 at Underhill

Town Hall. Help us celebrate a great year of local landconservation. Refreshments will begin at 6:30 pm witha short business meeting at 7. We are very pleased tohave conservation planning biologist Jens Hawkins-Hilkefrom the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department as our guest speaker. He will be speaking about the Chang-ing Scales in Conservation Planning. Jens will describeshifting perspectives in how we plan for our naturalresources. For example, one could look at a single Ver-mont town in the context of all of northern New England,showing the landforms, land use, hydrology and geology,across the region. This perspective suggests a certainset of ecological priorities for representativeness anduniqueness across a large landscape. One could alsolook at just one parcel in town and map the same fea-tures as above. More localized knowledge of biologicaldiversity in ora and fauna might lead to a different set of priorities on the map referencing whats locally abundantor rare. As we learn more about our land, were able togain depth in our perspective of both scales of under-standing the landscape and both sets of priorities. Thishas implications for the way we do land use planning for local communities

JULT Appliesfor SHAPE Grant

On January 11, 2010, JULT formally applied tothe Mount Mans eld Union High Schools SHAPE

grant program, Students Helping Achieve Philan-thropic Excellence. From the invitational letter, Thisprogram strives to engage and empower studentsthrough philanthropic activities, leadership opportu-nities, civic engagement and career development tohelp them achieve personal and professional suc-cess. The students form a student foundation withthe ability to distribute grants to local non-pro t or ganizations in the amount of $1000 to $2000. JULTapplied for grant funding to assist with the conserva-tion of Barber Farm.

JULT is now on Facebook. Visit us anbecome a fan! Get access to our news-letters, including this one. Up to date in-

formation and photos of JULT activities.Give us your comments, be in touchthrough the causes feature of Face-book. Search on Facebook for JerichoUnderhill Land Trust.


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Fall 2009

Page 3

JULT Receives aGrant from

SignARama.Every dollar counts when it comesto running a stream-lined, all volunteer organization. JULT applied to SignARa-mas Grants for Success sign awardprogram to help offset the cost of a newbanner. We are pleased to announcethat JULT was one of twenty non-pro torganizations that was successful. Welook forward to increasing our visibilitywithin our community at local events with

a new banner.

Exploring Vermont History on the Gateway LandOn Saturday, November 14th, sixteen orange clad hikers set out to explore the Gateway land. These

123 beautiful wooded acres are located in the Town of Bolton and were recently purchased by JULT toaugment the Wolfrun Natural Area. Hiking both on existing trails and off trail with a GPS, we discovered awealth of intriguing features, both natural and man made.

The Beers Atlas of Vermont from 1869 shows a town road (now a VAST trail maintained by the Rich-mond Rough Riders) running through Gateway from Old Stage Road and ending at Snipe Ireland Road. Webelieve this was called the East Indies Road. Along this route itwas very exciting to discover some distinctive features. Theseinclude extensive eldstone walls, a rock lined natural spring, aperfect circle rock lined well and a stone house foundation. Onthe other side of this road stands an enormous barn founda-tion banked on one side. Further explorations in other sectionsof Gateway led to nding at least one more house foundationas well as several eldstone structures that we call pillars but

whose function we have not been able to determine. However,research by JULT member Joanna Carpenter reveals thatarchaeologists have documented similar structures in other places in Vermont and New England. They refer to them ascairns, which are intentionally constructed piles of stones builtone stone at a time for a speci c purpose. They have beenbuilt by both Native Americans for ceremonial purposes, and byColonials for utilitarian purposes.

The three hour hike also turned up a large porcupine den(see photo) and a run in with a scent bomb hung in a tree. Itwas after all, the rst day of deer ri e season and we were not the only ones interested in being in the woods. We concluded

our amazing walk with apple cider and donuts and pleasantconversation and a strong desire to learn more about theseintriguing cultural artifacts.

JULT plans to offer more walks into the Gateway land thisyear. Check your newsletter, our website and Facebook for thedates. More information about the pillars can be found at http://www.neara.org/Muller/platformcairns.htm#07

Cairn photo credit Joanna Carpenter

Porcupine den photo John Schroeder

Winter 2010


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jult winter 2010 newsletter

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