What: Wild About Lebanon season opener: cross country skiing and snoweshoeing.
Where: Balestra Farm, 14 Stevens Road, Lebanon.
When: Sunday, noon-3 p.m.
More Info:www.uvlt.org, alison.marchione@uvlt.org, 603-643-6626.
By Jared Pendak
When it came to conservation efforts in Lebanon, one of the late environmental steward Nicole Cormen’s favorite expressions was “nature bats last.”
Beginning on Sunday, a newly revised series of outdoor programs will help celebrate Cormen’s lasting legacy.
After several years of dormancy, Wild About Lebanon — a series of outdoor activities held on Lebanon’s approximately 2,000 acres of conserved lands — kicks off on Sunday at Balestra Farm on Stevens Road.
Originally scheduled for late January but postponed because of icy conditions and a dearth of snow, Sunday’s event will include a short ceremony and refreshments before an exploration of the 107-acre farm. The property features open fields with sweeping mountain views, ideal for cross country skiing and snowshoeing.
Wild About Lebanon was originally founded in 2003 by Cormen, a former Lebanon Conservation Commission and Planning Board chairwoman, city councilor and conservation lands ranger who died of endometrial cancer in 2015 at age 58.
Passionate about protecting Lebanon’s open and wild spaces, Cormen was equally motivated to link the city’s natural places with its residents. It’s that spirit that inspired the Upper Valley Land Trust, the city of Lebanon and the Lebanon Area Chamber of Commerce to revive the program.
Sunday’s event will be administered by the Upper Valley Land Trust.
“Lebanon is an area with a lot of beautiful natural landscapes and wild areas,” said UVLT president Jeanie McIntyre, a friend of Cormen’s. “Nicole understood how important it is for people to experience and appreciate their natural surroundings, and Wild About Lebanon was something that always received a lot of positive feedback. It’s a high-impact program. It will be great to see it up and running again.”
UVLT program director Alison Marchione is thrilled simply to finally be able to play outside in sufficient snow cover. The thaw that postponed the originally scheduled Balestra outing left many low-lying landscapes devoid of the white stuff, a downer for cross country skiers and snowshoers who rely on those activities for wintertime enjoyment.
“I’m excited for this weekend because of the snow,” Marchione said. “I don’t know about downhill skiing, but it’s been kind of a terrible winter for snowshoeing and cross country skiing. So just to get outside in a beautiful area with snow on the ground to recreate in will be great.”
Wild About Lebanon’s scheduled outings reflect Cormen’s wide-ranging interests supported within Lebanon’s natural areas. On April 5, Mascoma Audubon will lead a morning walk through several bird habitats for the spring migration. Two weeks later, on Earth Day, UVLT will take hikers on a one-mile walk to a plaque on Starr Hill, beginning in the parking lot of The Woodlands retirement community.
“I like the fact that a lot of these events are accessible for any demographic,” Marchione said. “If you look at a lot of hike (descriptions), a lot of them are more geared toward able-bodied people, but it’s important for everyone to get outside. There are a lot (of events) in this series that older or disabled people can easily participate in.”
There are also more strenuous outings scheduled, including a 500-foot climb along Indian Ridge in June, or a three-mile hike at Farnum Hill in August.
Mark Goodwin, a longtime colleague of Cormen’s and current GIS coordinator for Lebanon’s planning and development department, said the original Wild About Lebanon outings became less frequent after Cormen began her tenure as city councilor, which lasted four terms beginning in the late 2000s.
While the city’s conservation lands activities came under the auspices of the planning department’s conservation program, Goodwin said, it lacked the wherewithal to rekindle Wild About Lebanon satisfactorily.
“We just didn’t have the resources from an administrative standpoint,” Goodwin said in a phone interview. “When UVLT came to us and offered to work with us and take up that role, we thought it would be a great idea. It was something very near and dear to Nicole as a way to get people in Lebanon connected with nature.”
Cormen’s husband, Tom Cormen, will be out of town on Sunday visiting his father in Florida, but he was excited to learn Wild About Lebanon is resurfacing.
“It’s great for Nicole’s legacy, and it’s a great for people who live in Lebanon,” Tom Cormen said. “She wanted lands to be preserved so that people could enjoy them.”
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3225.