Trail Tales: Board Member Aaron Wisman

I have learned a lot from the lands that I’ve lived near or on. The latest addition to the atlas of land that has taught me is Mount Pisgah in Berlin/, and Northborough, MA. There is a fairly well-marked five-mile loop that skirts ponds, climbs rock outcroppings, passes through forests, and climbs hills. The elevation gain is enough to get you huffing and puffing. I first went some time in 2019, while I was still living in Kansas, and I visited it frequently once I moved back to Massachusetts. It was some of the land I knew I had to say goodbye to when I moved to Michigan. 

I suspect Mount Pisgah would have just been another conservation parcel to me had I not visited on April 13, 2023. That day, the air felt dry, with every step you could smell dry wood and pine, and feel the low humidity. Looking back now, I wonder if the fire had actually started, and I was smelling smoke. The land felt combustible. It felt like a brushfire could spread very quickly. The next day, it did. 115 acres burnt. The local fire departments quickly extinguished it. Over subsequent hikes through the burn scar, the grass has grown back, new life coming amidst the charred trees—the brightest green.