14 | Snowmobile VERMONT TRAILS By Matt Tetreault, VAST Trails Administrator REPORT I am sitting down to write this after cleaning a foot of snow out of the driveway… in November! The even better part is that this is not the first time I have cleaned snow out of the driveway this year. We are off to a great start to the 2018/19 season, and all I can say is, “May the snows keep accumulating!” I do want to note the obvious irony in all of this. Many years we are looking for snow for the holidays and complaining that it has not arrived yet. With the abundance of recent snow, we have forgotten the talk of snow dances and sacrificial offerings to the snow gods and instead are complaining that the snow caught us off guard and that we aren’t ready for this much snow so soon. We are never happy, are we? Welcome to the Northern Forest, where snow is always a possibility and where it is almost snowmobile season! Speaking of northern forests, I was fortunate enough to be invited to the 2018 Northern Forest Regional Symposium in November. The Symposium is held every other year in a different location. This year’s host was the Mt Washington Hotel. The symposium was sponsored by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation (Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund), The Betterment Fund, Northern Border Regional Commission, and the Northern Forest Center. They cannot be thanked enough for funding such a great event. The Mt. Washington Hotel was a great setting for such an event and the quality of the hotel was certainly matched by that of the symposium itself. The symposium’s main goal was for the diverse user groups to explore evolving trends in outdoor recreation and its role as a critical economic driver in our region. Overall, it was a perfect opportunity for attendees to connect, learn, and inspire one another. An action packed and thought-provoking agenda was set for the symposium. Approximately 175 registrants were in attendance. The diversity of the attendees and presenters was truly amazing. All hailed from states encompassing the Northern Forest Region (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York) with backgrounds from multiple forms of motorized and non- motorized recreation, conservation groups, grant specialists, outfitters/ (Nancy Piette photo)