Ed Rosenberg took this fall photograph of Buck’s Ledge from his Woodstock home. Submitted photo
WOODSTOCK — ‘What do you want for the future for your children?’ was the question Leslie Rosenberg’s Crescent Park School students were asked in 1999 when they were designing the Millennium sculpture beside the post office in Bethel.
Leslie and Ed Rosenberg stand on their deck that has a view of Buck’s Ledge. Submitted photo
Their responses were to have the mountain ridge lines always stay as they were. The sculpture built by Richard Duca, reads, “Then, now, and always.” The words are carved in an arc above the ridge line.
Fast forward to COVID, when Leslie’s husband Ed Rosenberg met with conservation partners Kirk Siegel from Mahoosuc Land Trust, Julie Evans from Northern Forest Center, Kristin Peet from the Forest Society of Maine, and Marcel Polak from the Woodstock Conservation Commission and the owners’ representative from Bayroot that owned Buck’s Ledge in Woodstock.
From where the group sat on Johnny’s Bridge they could see across to the mountain range.
Surrounded by that group it seemed like the right time to restart the project of conserving Buck’s Ledge, said Rosenberg.
“We can climb that,” he (metaphorically) told the others. “Because we have the right people sitting here to guide us to the top. We all have a mutual desire to conserve Buck’s Ledge right?”
While things started slowly, the last few years have been a sprint to conserve and preserve Buck’s Ledge.
View
“Normally you can see nearly all the way to Vermont,” said Ed Rosenberg on recent hazy evening. The view from the Rosenberg’s deck on ‘Heaven’s Splendor’ is typically spectacular, but clouds are obscuring the mountain range. Besides Buck’s Ledge, Lapham’s Ledge and Moody Mountain, there are 11 other ridges including Mount Washington in the distance. Just before sunset, the clouds break revealing the mountains’ majesty.
The inside of the Rosenberg’s 1999 home is museum-like with work by several artists. Some work is their own – Leslie paints and Ed is a photographer – but many other works are on display, too.
Ed Rosenberg grew up a short distance from where he lives now, but spent more than 20 years in the coast guard leading the response to major oil spills and doing other environmental work. Because of his work protecting the environment, he said he wanted to help conserve Buck’s Ledge, too.
More history
On April 26, 2021, townspeople in Woodstock voted to designate $80,000 in conservation funds to preserve all 646 acres of Buck’s Ledge. The Woodstock Community Forest Committee raised $175,000 in private funds and $329,000 was granted from Land for Maine’s Future.
The idea of a Trail for All on Buck’s Ledge came when the Rosenbergs’ talked with Melissa Prescott’s art students during COVID in Feb. of 2022. They were tasked with designing and installing the kiosk at the Buck’s Ledge parking lot and painting four benches, too.
On the video Prescott and her students are masked. Ed is wearing a t-shirt that says, “May the forest be with you.”
“What is it you want to see in the future?” Ed asks the students.
About 12 minutes into the recording, a student asks, “Will there be any signs with braille … is it going to be for everyone or is it going to be, ‘hike it if you can find it?'” The student said she wanted blind people to be included, too.
Since then, the commission has been working toward this end, enlisting disabled athlete Enock Glidden, of Albany, and Liz Peacock, the managing director at Maine Adaptive, to act as advisors on the Trail for All.
Kickoff
This kickoff fundraiser for the Trail for All will start at 2 p.m. on Sat., Oct. 14. Following the dedication ceremony there will be giant bubble blowing and a short walking tour to the future Trail for All location.
The location of the talk is about a quarter of a mile from the parking lot at the summit of the Trail for All.
There will be three parking options. First, vehicles with an accessibility plates will be able to drive to a small lot at the lookout, which is a quarter of a mile from the parking lot on Route 26. Others will park at the log landing past the summit or lastly in the Route 26 lot.
They will likely have a van, too, for people who want a lift up the hill.
The active Woodstock Conservation Commission, Bob McQuueney, Marcel Polak, Jim Chandler, Jane Chandler, Carla Phillips, and Rosenberg have worked with dedication and were honored by Town Manager, Vern Maxfield with Woodstock’s Spirit of America Award in April of 2023 for their efforts. Tony Giambro, of Woodstock, joined more recently.
Some of the students from the millennium project of 1999 at Crescent Park School likely have children of their own by now.
Does “Then, now, and always” still ring true for them?
Rosenberg response is easy, “Buck’s Ledge will always be protected and enjoyed by all!
Leslie Rosenberg’s flag depicting the ridge line with hands and heart above. Leslie Rosenberg
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