STONEHAM – Kevin Harding guided the first nature walk of the season for Greater Lovell Land Trust Wednesday morning into the Great Brook area of White Mountain National Forest.

Harding explained that Great Brook is part of the system of brooks that feeds into Kezar Lake.

Understanding land history in this area has been important to Harding, a summer resident of Lovell. His background as a history teacher in Massachusetts during the school year combined with his enthusiasm for acquiring and sharing knowledge of the natural world make him a valuable educator for the GLLT.

Mary Adams, a participant said, “It’s not just that he knows so much but that he shares it with so much enthusiasm. He always has this big smile.”

Harding pointed out a big, spreading ash he estimated at about 100-years-old, probably black ash, he said, very valuable to Native peoples in the making of baskets. Smaller trees surrounding it and the size and spreading of the ash tree indicate that this land was once cleared and that tree probably left for shade, Harding said.

He added that in 1840, farmers in the Northeast began clearing land to raise Merino sheep. Yankee farmers, he said, always were in need of cash to pay taxes and this smooth, long-fiber wool provided it – but only for about 20 years.

Stone walls used to keep sheep in are still visible. Four-and-a-half-foot walls became the requirement for farmers, Harding said.

Farmers of old, he said, wouldn’t remove small stones from pasture land but they would remove them if they were going to till it for gardens or crops.

Harding mentioned the importance of foliage near the brook in keeping the temperature cool.

He discussed the five-year plan of White Mountain National Forest to create deep holes, beginning with Great Brook this year, to entice brook trout to spawn. They plan to use logs and rocks to create deep, cool pools in the brooks which have become shallow over time.

Almost all the trees common to northeastern forests were seen – red spruce, red and sugar maples, beech, oak, white pine, occasional red pine, white, gray and yellow birch, ash, hemlock, balsam fir, poplar, alder, even a couple linden trees and a few black cherry. This diversity, Harding said, indicates a healthy forest.

For information about walks and nature programs offered free to the public, call 925-1205 or pick up a listing at Charlotte Hobbs Memorial Library in Lovell.

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