I spent half of my March vacation at my family’s ski condo at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine. It’s safe to say that I spent more than an hour immersing myself in the environment. I was out skiing every day (until I got hurt and had to sit in the condo).

I always see animal tracks when I’m riding on the chairlift, and when I’m skiing in the glades. This year, thanks to NR2, I was able to identify multiple sets of deer tracks, and also those from snowshoe hares. The forest structure at Sugarloaf is mostly spruce-fir, though at lower elevations there are some birch, aspen, maple, and other northern hardwoods. I frequently saw black-capped chickadees, though this is certainly not a new bird species for me. I certainly heard a bird calls as I was skiing through the glades, but I was too hyped on adrenaline to stop and figure out what they were.

Sugarloaf’s land-use history is tied up with logging, which I find very interesting. The trails were cut using logging methods, and the trees that were cut down were sold for profit. Now, of course, the only profit at Sugarloaf is made by selling lift tickets, food, and merchandise around the mountain. I find that this history is somewhat similar to the Burlington waterfront, which was used as an industrial port for many years, before it became what it is now; a recreational haven. However, the waterfront is not an enterprise as Sugarloaf is, it doesn’t strive to make money. Ultimately, Sugarloaf and my little beach on lake Champlain are very different places. One is on a lake, the other is on a mountain. However, the two places are somewhat similar in their land-use histories, going from industrial to recreational.

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