Mobbs Newsletter - Winter 2023

MOBBS MONTHLY

The Mobbs Farm Committee Newsletter

December 2022/ January 2023

Following a meteorological roller coaster to wrap up 2022, winter has finally settled in at Mobbs Farm. Although we experienced a few false starts to the winter season, with snow and Polar Vortexes arriving in late January, Jericho is finally officially winterized for 2023. It seemed bizarre to witness bare ground, after almost 24” of snow had fallen in December, but such was the case as exceedingly warm temperatures and abundant rain completely obliterated our early season snow pack by the start of the New Year. The SnowDog snow grooming machine was champing at the bit to get out onto the trails, but it had to wait until the final weeks of January, before there was sufficient snow to even attempt grooming the trail network. Thankfully, low temps and a decent amount of snow arrived to transform Mobbs Farm into a wintery wonderland. Over 4.5 miles of trails have been groomed by committee member Christine Smith and her husband Dan. The intrepid couple completed a 90% network groom the other Friday evening, allowing the tracks to set up wonderfully, in time for a busy, sun-drenched, wintery weekend of skiing and snowshoeing for visitors to Mobbs. Special thanks to the Smiths for their hard work, grooming the abundant trails on both the Hillside (east of Fitzsimonds Road) and Meadow (west of Fitzsimonds Road) sections of the property. Chatting with visitors to Mobbs, many expressed their thanks for the enhanced conditions, thanks to the grooming effort.

Half of the Mobbs Farm Committee attended the recent Town of Jericho, Committee Appreciation Pot Luck at the Jericho Community Center. Those in attendance for the dinner reported that it was a really fun opportunity to meet informally with Jericho residents serving on a variety of other committees in Jericho. “Three goals” were expressed by each of the committees in attendance and Sam Graulty, vice chair of the Mobbs Farm Committee, delivered the MFC’s top three goals for the upcoming year: Repair / replace bridges & boardwalks as needed, Infrastructural upgrades for trails & drainage, ramp up special events for visitors.

Given the importance of bridges and boardwalks that connect the trail network, members of the Mobbs Farm Committee are working to secure funding and grants to replace and repair many of the walkways that are in need of some major TLC. It will be a busy spring and summer as these projects are undertaken by contractors hired by the MFC.

Interested in tracking critters at Mobbs Farm? Livy Strong of the Jericho Underhill Land Trust is organizing a nature walk around Mobbs Farm with noted wildlife tracking specialist, Sophie Mazowita on March 4th at 10:00 AM. Sophie is a naturalist, educator, and wildlife guide based in Jeffersonville, Vermont. She offers online and in-person tracking workshops through her website, Tracking Connection, and also guides week-long wildlife trips to Yellowstone and to Canada's polar bear country with Natural Habitat Adventures/WWF. At home in Vermont, her work focuses on identifying wildlife corridors and monitoring forest connectivity at a town and regional scale, and she manages the community science program for the nonprofit Cold Hollow to Canada. She also manages Tracker Certification, the nonprofit that offers CyberTracker wildlife tracking certifications across North America and hosts the biannual online North American Wildlife Tracker Conference. She holds an MS in Plant Biology from the UVM Field Naturalist Program, and her graduate work was focused on a natural resource study and management plan for Red Rocks Park in South Burlington. She has taught and coordinated chapters of the Vermont Master Naturalist Program for both South Burlington and Cambridge. The March 4th event will feature a walk around the property, to find and identify wildlife that live or travel across Mobbs Farm. Please contact Livy Strong (julandtrust@gmail.com) if interested in signing up as space is limited and pre-registration is required.

For kids of all ages, sledding is available at Mobbs Farm and easily accessible from the Brown’s Trace Parking lot! Following a quick walk up the hill from the lot, sledders will find a number of well-marked (see Field Daze photo) sledding trails that provide schussers a great opportunity to whiz down the trails into the large meadow below. Enjoy!