It's a lovely day and we're outside, and Tucker Mountain is in the offing.

What's not to like?

Heh ha.

[strummed music] Welcome to "Windows to the Wild."

I'm Willem Lange.

Well, as you can see, spring has finally returned to the beautiful state of Vermont.

The trees are budding.

The birds are coming back.

And I'm here in Newbury, Vermont, today with a very dear old friend, Gary Moore.

Gary, a pleasure.

How you been?

I've been fine.

Able to take nourishment, so I'm happy to be out here today.

Yeah, isn't it nice, after a winter with COVID-19 knocking on the door, to be able to get out with friends?

It sure is.

Now, where are we?

We're on the west side of Newbury.

We're going to be heading up to Tucker Mountain, which has beautiful views of not only the great state of Vermont, but the great state of New Hampshire.

[music playing] Now, along the way, we're going to meet some of our old friends, right?

That is correct.

They're going to be up near the top.

They're coming up from the other side.

Ah, OK, let's go.

[strummed music] Tucker Mountain sits in the middle of the Tucker Mountain Town Forest, in eastern Vermont.

If you can get to Newbury, you'll find it.

It's just shy of 1,700 feet in elevation.

[strummed music] Gary is a friend from way back.

Like me, he loves being outdoors.

These days, we get together only every now and then.

So it's nice to hike with him today.

Kiki and Oak seem happy too.

Oak, don't shake.

[laughter] Meet my very well-trained dog.

He can't help it.

You say this was cleared as early as the early 1800s?

Yes, yes.

Wow.

Yes.

And they came here because the bottomland was all taken, right?

Right.

The original settlers to Newbury, like so many of the towns in the valley, obviously they wanted to be near the river where the good soil was.

But as those places got taken up, you know, the land-- they had to move to higher elevations.

And that's how they got up here to West Newbury and all the way up here to Tucker Mountain.

It took a long time.

Jason and Trish Vaudrey are with us.

Last spring, they were the high bidders on NHPBS's auction, so they get to spend the day with the film crew.

It's great to meet new faces, even at a socially safe distance.

Jason.

Yes.

Vaudry.

You're a nurse.

I am.

So you're what we call a frontline worker, right?

Yes, I am.

And your specialty is-- Well, my specialty is geriatrics and behavioral health.

So I-- Right up my alley.

That's great.

I spend a lot of time working with the elderly that have dementia and other diseases like that.

Oh yeah, an awful thing.

Ah, dear.

Now, has the pandemic made a difference in your life?

It's made a difference in my life, personally and professionally.

Personally, of course, we can't go as many places as we're used to going.

Professionally, part of my job, I also-- I assess the residents quarterly.

And part of that assessment is checking their depression.

And over the past year, the amount of depression that we've seen in the nursing home has skyrocketed, simply because family members can't come in to visit.

And they, you know, they even-- it's been where they can't even sit at a table and have lunch together because they have to be distanced.

And everyone for a while actually had to remain in their own rooms.

Yeah.

[music playing] The other hikers we'll meet are on their way up the other side of the mountain.

We'll pick them up along the trail.

The three of them are known as the caretakers of the Town Forest.

Tom Kidder, John and Caroline Ninninger, and a couple others of the-- they were appointed by the select board to be in charge.

Although they were very active even before the town took it over, in trying to preserve it.

So yes, much of what we've seen today is because of them and the volunteers they've organized.

[inaudible] You should have hooked the sled up to Oak.

Yeah.

He could have pulled your-- Kiki and Oak check out our hiking partners.

[music playing] Tom Kidder is the chair of the Tucker Mountain Town Forest management committee.

John Ninninger is the vice chair.

Caroline Ninninger is a dedicated volunteer.

[music playing] How many acres in this Tucker Mountain Town Forest?

636 acres.

Wow, that many.

Yeah.

Whoa.

And that was one private holding at one time.

It was actually two members of the same family.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Ted Leach and his father, Phil, and his wife, Ginny.

Phil and Ginny Leach owned most of this.

They bought it back in the '70s because it was-- someone was planning on developing it, and they wanted to buy it and protect it.

Yeah.

And so they bought up more and more acres.

And then their son bought some acres over here by Woodchuck Mountain.

And then they decided to sell it to the town at half the assessed value.

[strummed music] Old stone walls wind their way around the town forest, a reminder that this was once a part of the town's agricultural history.

But that was a long time ago.

Nature reclaimed the land.

[strummed music] I like to see the light green stuff that's coming up around the rocks.

That's really pretty.

Lamb's ears, right?

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

What is it?

Lamb's ears, I think.

Ah.

You can see the stone walls there and over [inaudible].. You couldn't see those three years ago.

They were completely grown up in brush.

Like so many of the back pastures in Vermont and New Hampshire.

Once dairying changed and no longer pastured young stock and dry cows back, on the hills, they quickly grew up to brush and then, ultimately, trees.

[music playing] Volunteers removed a lot of brush.

They laid out and marked the trails, and put up beautiful information kiosks.

Most of it is volunteer.

Yes, it's almost all volunteer.

I mean, the volunteers have been incredible and just come forward like we've never expected.

I think-- Are these all local, all Newburyites?

Almost all.

The first year we had over 80 volunteers.

Wow.

Last year was around 50, but with COVID, that slowed things down, especially community service-- [interposing voices] --from the schools and things like that.

That brought our numbers down.

But-- So COVID did have an effect on this, even though-- In terms of volunteering, yeah.

We didn't organize as many projects as we had the year before.

And I think the big difference was, with COVID we didn't have the community service projects where you get the elementary staff of 20 people up here working.

[slow music] Has the pandemic affected at all how you all are able to get outdoors?

My perception has been the pandemic has meant more people coming up to see it.

People that never hiked in the past seem to be hiking, not just here but, as you know, on a lot of the other trails.

So I think COVID may actually help, in that more people will see this and appreciate what that committee of volunteers has done.

So places like this, during the pandemic like the one we're having, and have just had, become more important, you think?

I think it has.

And we've seen probably more use, as a result of the pandemic, because it's close.

People who love to hike, they've been getting out a lot more during the pandemic because there's not a whole lot they can do indoors.

Rather than drive an hour-and-a-half or two hours over the White Mountains, you know, this might be 15 minutes away, a half an hour away, for our locals.

And they're up here.

I mean, we have hikers that are regulars.

They come once or twice a week, we'll see them up here.

One woman comes up here every Sunday morning.

She says, it's my church.

And she never fails.

She and her dog are up here.

[music playing] I believe having a place close to the residents of the town that they can go to recreate-- they cross-country ski up here, they hike up here, picnic here-- I think that's important.

So for most people, the pandemic meant social distancing, keeping away from other people.

But you could always get outdoors, couldn't you?

That's true.

And a lot of people did.

You could socially distance on the trails.

Yep.

A lot of people came up here.

I also hike the next one down-- as you know, Wright's Mountain-- several times a year.

And I would see people there.

Many people I would talk to, they'd never been there or here before.

But because of COVID and being cooped up, they, you know-- short of going crazy, it was a lot better to get out and take a walk.

Use a little energy.

Get some fresh air.

This one and I, every day, Hubbard Park, a couple miles.

Which is nice, you know.

It's hills and woods and everything.

And you could still see people and keep your distance and be safe and have a conversation, you know.

Although a lot of Vermonters, with their masks on, they see me coming.

They don't know I've had my shots and everything, you know.

But they kind of go-- and they step back into the woods and kind of watch me go by.

[laughter] I know, I'll tell ya.

They think, where have I seen that picture?

In the post office or on "Windows to the Wild"?

Which was it?

Getting outdoors is incredibly valuable because everyone is so focused on the news and so focused on everything that's going on in the world, which there's been so much lately that has not been positive.

But by being able to get outdoors, get the fresh air, it's a nice distraction from the rest of the things going on in the world today.

Now, you're a photographer too, right?

I try to be.

I'm still in, you know, I'm in search of that elusive perfect photograph.

Well, you know, it's the same in fishing and golf, you know.

Absolutely.

It doesn't change at all.

You'll get it.

You'll get it.

[slow music] Jason mentioned that he cares for people living with dementia.

The pandemic has kept a lot of people inside, so I was curious.

Does it help them to get outside at all?

Absolutely.

In fact, we have an enclosed garden off of there, where the residents can go out.

We've got raised flower beds so they can pick the flowers, smell the flowers, sit outside in the sun.

Ah, that's great.

[slow music] That's why I brought the trail over here, because of this lovely little drainage here, which is really beautiful right now, the crystal clear water and the moss, the mossy rocks.

It's nice to be thinking local.

And I think even with the issues with carbon consumption and not driving three hours to get someplace, but just look in your own backyard.

You're going to find something precious like this.

Even if it's not a town forest, there's plenty of woods and wilderness around to explore.

Yep.

[slow music] Climate change is-- you look into a forest like this where there's death and destruction, there's debris, you know, and I used to be of the mind, let's clean it up.

Let's get rid of all that stuff and make it look like a park.

But actually, there's probably more life in there now, in those dead logs, there's funguses and microorganisms.

And there's tons of things going on in there that are sequestering carbon and putting it back in the soil.

And all of a sudden I'm taking a whole 'nother viewpoint on the matter.

Instead of wanting to cut trees, I want to leave the forest alone.

It's amazing how much new information is coming out every day.

And that's one thing about COVID that's been remarkable, is all these Zoom webinars and things about managing forests and managing town forests and managing trail work and logging and carbon sequestration.

So it's really exciting, all this new information.

[music playing] This is a legacy birch.

It's a beautiful birch tree that just happened to blow down.

We decided let's not cut it.

Let's make it into a bench.

And let's bring the trail around the base of the stump.

And then I found this thing and it had a branch on it.

I stuck it in here and notched this.

This is just sitting here, see.

But go ahead and try it out.

Oh, nice.

Well this was private land, and a good owner who let people use it.

That's correct.

But he was going to sell it and you didn't know to whom.

So the Nature Conservancy bought it and held on to it until the town was able to vote.

That is correct, yes.

You're taking over.

Real concerned that it would be purchased and put off-limits to the public.

And it takes time to get support in the town.

It took time to get support from the town to purchase it.

Well, that's New England, you know.

You can't do nothing right away.

The Nature Conservancy stepped in and purchased it until the town come.

We have some forests on this property that are close to old growth forests as well.

And we're just leaving it for another 10 years, at the recommendation of our forester.

We're not going to touch it.

And just see what happens, see what it becomes.

It's beautiful to see that transition.

And we should give a lot of credit to the previous owners, the Leach family, who did very careful, conscientious forest management.

[slow music] If anybody wants to hike here, y'all have got a website, right?

Yes.

That they can just google Newbury Town Forest.

Tucker Town Forest.

I'm sorry.

Tucker Mountain Town-- That's right.

Tucker Mountain Town Forest.

Tucker Mountain Town Forest.

Town forest.

Dot org.

It'll show people where the entry points are.

And that's where your gate kiosks are, with those fantastic maps.

They're really good.

To have people come and use these trails and enjoy them, it's just so fun to be in it right from the very beginning.

Yeah, yeah.

Well that's great.

I'm glad you done it.

You don't mind if I come over now and then and walk my dog?

No, please do, please do.

Love it.

Let us know when you're coming.

We'll walk with you.

Yeah.

OK. [lively music] It's been a lot of fun to make all these discoveries.

Here and there is something new that's always coming along.

In this case, a couple of trees that are wrapped into an embrace.

[flowing music] It's time to say goodbye today, before we split up here, forever perhaps.

I want to thank everybody who showed up today-- Tom, John, Caroline.

[dog panting] Not you.

[laughter] That's all right.

Poor Gary.

Gary, Jason, and Trish.

We've had a great climb and a great time.

We've got to split up now because people have different places to go.

Plus which we're going to take you down the river a little bit, where Scott Ellis and some of his students are observing a little ritual of the season.

[strummed music] All right, welcome everybody to the Thetford Academy sugarbush.

It's late March here, which means it's sugaring season.

And at Thetford Academy, we're doing a really cool thing where we're tying maple sugaring to our science and our ecology and our natural history.

And kids are coming out here and making maple syrup, but they're also learning some really valuable lessons along the way.

And it's getting a little late, but this one's still dripping just a little bit.

This student is doing a really interesting lab experiment, where they're testing different size spouts or spiles.

And so they actually custom-made this spile.

And then they have ones of smaller and smaller diameter.

And they've tried to tap similar trees to see if the spile diameter actually affects the amount of sap.

And what we found is this larger one is actually producing quite a bit more.

So he's getting some really good data along the way to say yeah, spile size does affect how much sap you're going to get.

I like being outdoors.

It's also very nice.

And knowing about trees is good because it's just something that-- where we live, it's all trees.

So you want to know, if you do anything with them, how to do it right and keep everything alive and well.

[music playing] So I'm curious, Max.

There's this sugar in the trees that's all about this maple, right?

Can you explain how do we get the-- where's the sugar from?

What's going on with this movement of sap in the tree?

Well, so trees have roots and a trunk, and the canopy where the leaves are.

And so the roots get nutrients, like just general nutrients that the tree needs to do photosynthesis.

And there are things in the tree called xylem that are just big long tubes all the way up through the tree.

That'll bring the nutrients to the leaves, where those will make sugar and distribute it out through the tree.

Cool.

And then there's the phloem that goes down, right?

Yeah.

So xylem up, phloem down.

And so it's really flowing through those sugars in the trees, right?

Yeah.

And where'd all the sugars come from?

Like, what's the tree doing with these sugars?

Why does it have them?

Do you know?

Well, it stores them to keep it alive.

And it needs them to just live, like anyone else does with food.

Yeah, you imagine right now, they open up in spring, how much energy it takes to put all those leaves out again and everything.

So these trees have really held on to those sugars all winter.

Yeah.

Now we're just taking a little bit right now, right?

Are we hurting the tree?

No.

[music playing] So what does it have to do for the sap to run?

This is a seasonal thing this time of year, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The sap has to be-- the night before, it has to be frozen.

Cool.

So a freezing night, warm during the day, that's the ideal time to get a run, right?

And it's only this time of year that it happens.

Yeah.

You've signed up for this experiential environmental studies outdoor education class here with your last few months as a senior.

What do you hope to get out of this whole experience?

And why are you here?

Well, I mean, like, so much of high school has been doing, like, science classes, like physics, chemistry, doing like math.

And so, you know, with my last couple of months, as you said it, yeah, I really want to do something more hands-on.

You're doing a cool lab down there as well, right?

So you're trying to test something in the sugarbush.

Explain to me, what are you trying to test out there?

Yeah, so I've hung up some 5/16 line and some 3/16.

And we're going to see what collects more sap.

All right, cool.

And, yeah, the other day I went down with a drill.

And first time really, going down into the woods with a drill.

And I had to FaceTime one of my friends.

Like, how do I get the drill bit out of the drill?

How do you put a drill bit in, yep.

But yeah, I think that's the biggest part, just learning all this new stuff.

That's a lesson.

You know, like, you've got to know how to put a drill bit in a drill.

And that's not in every class.

But that's in this class, and you learned how to do that.

And you're going to remember that the rest of your life.

Exactly.

Cool.

[birdsong] Let Me Listen.

Let me listen to the world.

[music playing] Let me listen to the beat of your heart, the wind blowing, the trembling grass, crickets.

How do you listen to the stars, the moon?

Do you listen to ice?

Let me listen to the silence that comes after the question asked too many times.

Let me listen to your footsteps as you walk away into the dark.

I listen to my own as I follow.

Let me listen to the fox scream in the distance while the campfire crackles and our silence is deafening, once again.

Let me listen to your slow breaths and your whispers of an unwanted sorry.

[upbeat music] So Sadie, you've been doing some research on this thing called the maple borer, right?

What is this maple borer thing?

So, the maple borer is an insect that is native to North America.

And it digs tunnels through the vascular system of the maple tree.

So, like, in here it's underneath the bark and everything, digging tunnels and-- So I'm trying to figure out if it affects the amount of sap that is collected during sugaring season.

Yeah.

So if you get a lot of these insects, is it going to hurt your trees really?

100%.

What do you think?

Does it hurt the trees?

Oh yeah, definitely.

After a while, it kills the tree.

And really one of the only ways to stop if from spreading is to take the whole tree out of the grove.

OK.

This style of education is different, right?

What is the value to you of learning this way?

I think that even if it's not a career path that I want to take, it still is good knowledge to have.

And also, this class kind of teaches you not only about the environment and sugaring, but also a little bit about life.

I just think it's an important part of school that we don't usually get.

Yeah.

[piano music] Willem, this is always your favorite part here at the end.

I'm sorry we missed you.

We really-- we couldn't take care of you and, like, make sure you could get around today.

But we did manage to save you a sweet treat, as students here at Thetford Academy are doing some sweet learning.

This is "Windows to the Wild."

Take care.

So with that, we'll bid you adieu.

I'm Willem Lange, and I hope to see you again on "Windows to the Wild."

Support for the production of "Windows to the Wild" is provided by the Alice J Reen Charitable Trust, The Fuller Foundation, the Gilbert Verney Foundation, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

[piano music] [stringed music]