♪ Welcome to Windows to the Wild.

I'm Willem Lange.

Today we're on the water from coastal Maine to the frozen playgrounds of Vermont.

Along the way, you'll witness a fight against a growing invasive problem.

But first, I want you to meet Nicolle.

Littrell, the Dory rowing woman.

During the height of the Covid pandemic, Nicolle found a way to get outdoors, have fun and start a new business.

♪ Kiki and I are in Belfast, Maine, a coastal city of about 7,000 people.

We're here to meet one of its residents, Nicolle Littrell.

NICOLLE: I mean, I row year- round, so it doesn't stop me... WILLEM: Before most people are out of bed in the morning, Nicolle is busy on the waterfront.

[orrs thud] We're heading out to Belfast Bay.

[paws thud] NICOLLE: Here, baby.

Good girl!

WILLEM: How long you been here?

NICOLLE: I've been in Belfast since the spring of 2000.

WILLEM: Oh, wow.

You going to have a celebration next year 25 years?

NICOLLE: I guess I should.

Maybe I should have done it this year because I've been in Maine for 25 years.

WILLEM: Nicolle is from upstate New York.

She's the granddaughter of a dairy farmer far removed from any body of water large enough to float even the smallest craft.

NICOLLE: So, Willem, you want to row?

WILLEM: I can do that, I suspect.

NICOLLE: All right.

Why don't you get your orrs set up?

WILLEM: Okey-doke.

♪ [orrs spreading water] WILLEM: She now rows a dory.

More on the boat in a bit.

Nicolle might have lost her rowing club.

Now, how did you get into this business?

NICOLLE: Well, it was a total pandemic thing.

So, it was completely unplanned for.

WILLEM: Yeah?

NICOLLE: Yeah.

So, I was a recreational and competitive rower here in Belfast, rowing with an organization called Come Boating.

♪ And where I put my hands, Willem, are way down.

WILLEM: Yeah.

And then you just hover them, you know, one over the other.

It doesn't matter which one.

WILLEM: Okay.

NICOLLE: So, you can row any time you want.

♪ And I started rowing with them in 2012, and rowed with them basically until the pandemic.

And then the pandemic hit and that just changed everything.

The whole world shut down, basically, including their programs.

So, I thought I was going to lose my mind not rowing.

♪ [William chuckling] WILLEM: Nicolle might have lost her rowing club, but all she needed was a boat.

NICOLLE: And, you know, of course, we were in a time of confinement as well, you know?

So, a question emerged in my mind, Well, what if you got your own boat?

So, that's what I did.

This boat came to me this beautiful Swampscott dory and it was love at first sight.

And I used my stimulus check to pay for her.

[Willem chuckling] [orrs spreading water] WILLEM: Her name is Sorcière.

NICOLLE: So, when I was a little girl, I was definitely drawn to all things magical and mythical mythological.

And I remember reading books about witches and pretending I was a witch, and it just was fun.

And the way that this boat came to me, and the magic that I feel when I'm out there, her name just had to be Sorcière , which means witch.

♪ [orrs spreading water] WILLEM: With the help of a professional boat builder, Nicolle's nineteen-and-a-half- foot Swampscott dory was built by a group of middle school students.

♪ [water rippling] The dory is a heritage you know, is a heritage Maine boat.

It's a classic Maine boat, like the peapod, double-enders.

WILLEM: Well, Swampscott, MA, might choose to argue that.

NICOLLE: Well, yeah, but they found their way up here.

They found their way up here, didn't they?

[chuckling] WILLEM: Yeah, they did.

WILLEM: And, you know, Maine used to be part of Massachusetts.

WILLEM: Yeah.

NICOLLE: So, dories were as ubiquitous on the Maine coast and certainly down in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Connecticut all of New England as ubiquitous as a station wagon from Kittery to Lubec.

WILLEM: With a boat of her own, Nicolle was back on the water.

NICOLLE: Friends of mine started coming out of the woodwork in the fall and, you know, they were going crazy not rowing too.

And so, I started rowing with them, and I had six or seven people who I was rowing with.

I was rowing six times a week.

And we rowed, you know, into the fall, and people were like, Well, when are you going to take your boat out of the water?

And I just said, Well, let's go to the end of the month and see.

Before you know it, it was the end of the year and we just kept rowing through the winter, rowing into the spring, and the whole wellness aspect was really palatable.

And it just felt good to be out there and the companionship.

And I really enjoyed guiding people how to, you know, row this boat.

And then, another question emerged, Well, what if you started a business doing this?

♪ WILLEM: Nicolle became a licensed Maine Guide and created DoryWoman Rowing.

NICOLLE: And I did that and did all the things that I needed to do and I launched my business in August of 2021, and I've been rowing ever since, bringing people out for lessons and tours.

♪ NICOLLE: I have never seen the eagles like this so close.

WILLEM: Nicolle has a deep passion for rowing and the places where it takes her.

NICOLLE: Right behind you!

[women gasp] NICOLLE: Oh my gosh, I love you.

WOMAN: So cute!

NICOLLE: I love you.

Hi, friend!

Hi!

WILLEM: It's a bit contagious, and that's the point.

She wants other people to feel as she does.

[laughing] NICOLLE: Happy winter!

You’re doing great.

I really am very passionate about what I do and about getting people out in the water.

[providing instructions] And it can be as simple as just a few hours out in the water, but some people row with me that are wanting to have their own boat their own dory.

I'm working with a couple of women in Milbridge, up the coast a bit, that come down once a month to row with me.

They're in their 70s and they want to get their own Dory.

WILLEM: Tell them it's time.

NICOLLE: Oh, they’re going to do it.

They're going to do it.

So, yeah.

You know, it's an opportunity to, like I said, get out in the water for just a couple of hours and have a great time or build some skills; build some confidence.

It's very empowering.

You know, I get both men and women in my boat, but I do get a lot of women who used to row as girls rowed out at camp.

You know, I get breast cancer survivors in my boat.

I also had an almost-90 year-old man not you that came out in my boat a month ago, and it meant the world to him to be out here because people said, You can't do that.

You can't row.

WILLEM: Did he survive?

NICOLLE: He did.

[Willem laughing] [Willem laughing] And he left a good tip!

He sent me a note after and he said, I didn't think I could row.

And he said, With you, I could.

WILLEM: Voilà.

That’s your tip right there.

NICOLLE: That's right.

♪ WILEM: Belfast, Maine, is where Nicolle lives.

♪ NICOLLE: I row year-round, so it's a really unique opportunity to experience all four seasons out in the water.

And, right now, we're in the fall, and to see the foliage reflected in the water is like, you know, it's like a painting.

It's just like a painting.

♪ In the winter, to be able to row in the snow, to be able to row up onto the ice and to hear that sound of the flat bottom of the boat sliding up on the ice is pretty special.

[water rippling] [bottom of boat scraping ice] [Nicolle laughing] [bottom of boat scraping ice] It is often a jaw-dropping experience to be out there, and my overarching mission with DoryWoman Rowing is really to get people to care about place and to know that they belong in that place, that they're part of that place, and that they can also bring that caring back to where they come from, and perhaps even turn that into some form of stewardship.

♪ [chatter] This is a very low-impact way of experiencing the natural world this dory: very low impact.

Or you could even say it's slow tourism, right?

Because there's nothing slower than rowing a dory in a big body of water.

Rowing a little boat in a big body of water.

But it's a particular feeling that I know that you know and that you appreciate and enjoy as a rower yourself.

♪ WILLEM: Nicolle is right.

I have rowed most of my life.

The feeling and sounds of gliding a hull across the water never leaves you.

♪ [water rippling] NICOLE: To be able to ply a boat with your body alone and your wits through the water is a pretty amazing, pretty satisfying feeling.

WILLEM: And you’ve answered one major question of mine: How can I see where I'm going?

I love that.

NICOLLE: Everybody asks me about that.

They're just as interested in that as the boat.

And so, people will say, Oh, I see you got a rear-view mirror!

And I say, No, no, no, no.

It's a front-view mirror.

Because, as rowers, we're facing the back of the boat we're looking where we came from and the mirror shows where we're going.

NICOLLE: So, it's front front-view.

♪ WILLEM: The day ends where it began... back in Belfast, Maine.

It's been fun, and my back is glad it's over!

♪ [water rippling] NICOLLE: The question is: Is he ever going to leave the boat?

Not without help.

That's for sure!

Are you really okay, Willem?

Because I can come back and help you.

♪ The European green crab is an invasive species.

For decades, it's wreaked havoc along New England's coastline.

But now, a biologist with New Hampshire Sea Grant has decided to fight back.

She's gathered a group of volunteers, and they've been to combating this invasive species in some rather interesting ways.

♪ At low tide, this mudflat in Newcastle, New Hampshire, is a good place to hunt for an unwanted intruder.

It went really well, I don't I don't know if we tallied up all the numbers but we definitely got in the hundreds, of green crabs in an hour with, about 20 people.

Yeah.

And just be careful.

You can get stuck like you just saw Valerie get stuck in there.

Gabriela Bradt, also known as Gabby, is a biologist.

She spends a lot of time in New Hampshire's coastal waters looking for European green crabs.

It seems like there's no rhyme and reason, we just, you know, flip over rocks and and, seaweed.

She has a small army of volunteers working with her.

It's a really great way to educate people about the problem of invasive green crabs on the coast of New Hampshire.

Green crabs aren't new arrivals to the East Coast.

They came, over 200 years ago.

So they were first found, on the new Jersey and, Cape Cod coast around 1817.

So they've been here for quite a while, and, they came over in ballast water from from Europe and, so.

Yeah.

So they've been here for a while and they weren't totally a big nuisance.

Right off the bat.

And then we let them stay here for over 200 years, and now they're a giant problem.

As the ocean temperature increases, so do the numbers of this invasive crab with those increasing numbers, especially in coastal and estuarine areas, they tend to, we call them ecosystem engineers.

And so they love to dig.

They love to clip eelgrass.

They eat all the bivalves.

And so, you know, basically become sort of mucky, icky desert type stuff.

And so a lot of the biodiversity, gets lost.

That threat has caught the attention of folks who make a living on the water.

Primarily the biggest, fisheries that are impact are the shellfish fisheries here in New England, it's been the softshell clam fishery.

So millions and millions and millions of dollars lost.

That was how I got involved, is I got a question from one of our lobster fishermen.

What am I going to do about these crabs?

Fix it, do something about it.

And I had no, experience with crabs at all.

And so we started a summer project, the summer internship project, trying to just figure out the lay of the land of green crabs and what could be done.

So he's very, vulnerable right now.

There was a lot to learn about green crabs.

Gaby and her team began to look for basic leads.

Where green crabs live.

Do they move and when do they molt?

So part of what we're looking for is, you know, how many, how many are molting?

The biggest, thing that I wanted to research when I first started, was because I'm looking at it from, from a seafood perspective, you know, can I help our fishing industry have, you know, alternate source of revenue if people would eat these crabs?

To culinary experiments.

Thank you.

Green crabs need to molt, shedding their exoskeleton before they can end up on restaurant tables.

And so, before we could even do that at all, we had to figure out how do we even know they're going to molt?

So that took us a little while to figure out.

And we did it.

We figured it out.

And now, we have people who are able to do that, and, not too many yet, but there's definitely in York, Maine, Shell and Claw has perfected that ability to, collect pre-molt green crabs and molt them and put them on, you know, restaurant menus.

The interest in green crabs goes beyond the owners of local restaurants.

A distillery in Tamworth, New Hampshire uses them in one of their spirits.

I actually went to the New Hampshire state liquor store and they still they still have the Crab Trapper on the shelves.

And that was a really fun project.

And, you know, Tamworth is known for kind of their quirky, weird spirits.

And so they also wanted to have, like an eco groovy slant to, to this.

Their main distiller at the time was like, I've heard about this.

He got in touch with me about it because he's like, is it, you know, can we do this?

Is it a safe food ingredient?

And so, you know, we had to we had to do a little research on that.

And so then, yeah, we partnered up with Tamworth Distilling and we were able to connect them to local green crab harvesters in Hampton and Seabrook.

This one too is a female.

You see how it's kind of rounded on the sides?

Gabby's work continues along New England's coastline with citizen scientists, local businesses and the fishing community all lending a hand.

My hope out of all it is, is that the data will eventually be used by, you know, agencies and, other other stakeholders like oyster growers and stuff and be like, well, we just found out that in this area there's a ton of green crabs between June and July so maybe I won't you know, use this site as a potential site for aquaculture, for example.

But then also people will start asking questions and then asking, you know, seafood stores or restaurants like, oh, do you carry green crabs?

And, the more people ask and demand, hopefully the more markets can be, created and, you know, relax and start eating pretty much an endless resource here.

That's amazing.

You guys definitely went to town.

Oh, wow.

And it gets people outside.

You know, the more you, the more you know about something, you start to care about it, the more you want to protect it and you know, keep your eye on it.

♪ There's a town in New England that actually looks forward to long, cold winters.

That's because Lake Morey is then transformed from a beautiful swimming destination into a world class skating trail, one of the longest in the world.

♪ [skate blades carving ice] WILLEM: Kiki and I are sitting here talking to Paige Radney.

Originally from Buffalo?

PAIGE: Yeah.

WILLEM: School teacher?

PAIGE: Yep.

WILLEM: Who came here to pursue something a better dream?

PAIGE: A more fun dream.

That's for sure.

[both laughing] WILLEM: Oh yeah.

♪ [skate blades carving ice] When Paige heads out the door for work every morning, she ends up here.

♪ [skates blades carving ice] This is Lake Morey.

PAIGE: Yep.

WILLEM: Named for Samuel Morey, who lived across the river in Orford, New Hampshire.

PAIGE: Yes.

WILLEM: Lake Morey sits just off Interstate 91 in Fairlee, Vermont.

♪ Paige is in charge of recreation at the Lake Morey Resort.

Her job is to get people out the door and onto the lake.

♪ You're busy in the summer?

PAIGE: Yes.

We have two busy seasons: summer and February.

[Paige chuckles] WILLEM: You’re in your February busy season.

People come to skate and ski and that's it?

PAIGE: Yeah.

Yeah, the ice trail is a pretty unique attraction.

So, it draws people from all over the place.

WILLEM: Yeah.

You bet.

♪ [skate blades carving ice] Now, this is not your typical skating trail.

♪ [skate blades carving ice] To get a sense of how different it really is, you have to see it from up here.

♪ How long is it?

PAIGE: Right now, it's about three and a half miles.

It's gotten up to four and a half.

It just depends on ice conditions and where we're able to blaze the trail.

[engine starting] [whirring] [snow landing softly] MARK: Yeah.

The ice trail is about fifteen years old.

A gentleman by the name of Jamie Hess, who used to own Nordic Skater, he went to Scandinavia and saw that people were skating on trails.

So, when he came back to the States, he looked at Lake Morey and he started grooming an ice trail on the lake.

And then, in partnership with Upper Valley Trails Alliance, they worked on it for a year or two years.

[skate blades carving ice] And then, Lake Morey Resort took over as we have the ample amount of labor and we have the equipment that's able to really get you down to a nice black, solid sheet of ice.

♪ WILLEM: Mark Avery's family has owned the Lake Morey Resort for three generations.

♪ ♪ [stickhandling sounds] He took what Jamie had started years ago and kept it going.

♪ [skate blades carving ice] ♪ MARK: Yeah.

For the hotel, it really created an avenue for winter business.

We're in the large Connecticut River Valley, an hour away from all the major ski resorts, and, of course, if people want to go to Killington or Stowe, they're going to stay right there.

They're not going to stay with us.

So, we had a lake outside our back door.

So, we developed a skating program both with pond hockey tournaments and the ever-popular skating trail.

[skate blades carving ice] WILLEM: Until recently, Mark and his team ran both the skating programs on the lake... and groomed the ice.

That changed.

MARK: Actually, the Town of Fairlee runs this now because the insurance policy at the hotel wouldn't cover any lake ice activities.

So, the town graciously took over operation of the ice trail.

[whirring] I maintain the ice; get out there with a four-wheeler, a plow, and a brush and keep it going.

And now, with the Town of Fairlee, I’m volunteering my time to operate it.

[skate blades carving ice] WILLEM: Now, on a busy day, how many people are on the loop?

PAIGE: Thousands.

Two or three thousand over the course of the day.

WILLEM: Thousands?

On the loop?

PAIGE: Of course, not everybody stays out all day.

[chuckling] It's cold.

But yeah.

[skate blades carving ice] WILLEM: Wow.

PAIGE: But some people will stay out and do the loop five or ten times.

WILLEM: Yeah?

PAIGE: Yep.

WILLEM: I had no idea you had that many, though.

PAIGE: Yeah.

WILLEM: Woah.

MAN: Come on, baby.

We’re having a good time!

Let’s see it.

♪ [skate blades carving ice] MARK: And it brings in 2,000 people on a weekend to small-town Fairlee, Vermont, so it's really a great addition to the local economy.

[skate blades carving ice] WILLEM: Do you come up here often or what?

WOMAN: We've come up here every year since my son over there was six months old.

So, for the last fourteen years with a big group of people.

WILLEM: Beautiful.

How long are you staying?

WOMAN: Just a couple nights.

♪ [skate blades carving ice] WILLEM: When Jamie Hess returned from Scandinavia with the idea of skating on Lake Morey, he also brought with him a pair of Nordic skates.

♪ [skate blades carving ice] The idea caught on.

What you're wearing are called Nordic skates.

WOMAN: Nordic skates.

Yep.

WILLEM: They're just blades that clip onto your existing... cross-country ski boots?

WOMAN: Yeah, they're like cross- country ski boots with blades.

And so, your foot lifts up.

Super comfortable; much more comfortable than regular skates.

WILLEM: Yeah, yeah.

They can be a little tight.

WOMAN: Yeah.

They're comfy.

WILLEM: That's nice.

And the heel is loose, right?

WOMAN: Yeah.

The heel comes up, and it means that when you skate you can do longer glides.

WILLEM: Oh, that's wonderful.

WOMAN: Yeah.

You can go really fast.

[skate blades carving ice] WILLEM: Are you any good?

GIRL: I can get around.

We're going to do the loop.

Like, I've learned how to do it up here.

WILLEM: How many times a day you fall?

GIRL: Um... FRIEND: She just fell.

GIRL: I just fell [laughter] walking down here, but once I'm on the ice, I'll probably be fine.

[laughter] GIRL: Yeah... WILLEM: But you're okay now.

You’ve got traction.

GIRL: Yeah, exactly.

[laughter] WILLEM: Beauty.

♪ [skate blades carving ice] GIRL: I really like it compared to other skating because you can, like, go so much faster without moving as much.

And it helps get around, definitely.

And it feels pretty stable.

It's kind of like skiing like cross-country skiing.

WILLEM: Yeah.

You go like the wind with these things.

♪ [skate blades carving ice] We tried to film this story for three years prior to this winter, but for three years, the weather didn't cooperate.

♪ [skate blades carving ice] MARK: Last couple of years, we’ve had three weeks of skating: the first two weekends of February and the last weekend of January.

Climate change warmer weather has really affected the ice trail.

This year, it’s been really good.

We opened up in mid-January and we had some prolonged cold, dry weather, which is perfect for the ice trail.

But, in recent years, just like last night, when you get an inch and a half of snow, sleet, slush I call it slain now: sleet and rain.

It's like a new type of precipitation and rain.

It wreaks havoc on the trail, and that's what we’ve been getting the past couple years because it's just a few degrees warmer and it's above the freezing point.

PAIGE: I think it's... very important, specifically, to have free open spaces like this that allow people to access the outdoors in a way that's fun and recreational and doesn't cost them a dime.

It perpetuates the love of the outdoors; it keeps people active; it maintains a culture that has been around for a really long time.

WILLEM: Yeah.

PAIGE: And in the face of things like climate change, it really illustrates to people why it's important to maintain spaces like this.

♪ [skate blades carving ice] WOMAN: I've never been anywhere where there's anything like this, like having this, you know, incredible loop.

And it's beautiful.

And yeah, I don't know any other.

It's what I look forward to in the winter doing this Nordic skating and being outside.

♪ WILLEM: Yeah!

WOMAN: It makes winter bearable.

WILLEM: And where else could you go?

WOMAN: There's nothing around here.

There's nowhere else.

I mean, there's some ponds around us in Western, MA, but nothing where you can do these long WILLEM: Yeah.

At a hockey rink, you got to do two strides on one skate and two strides on the other.

WOMAN: Yeah, yeah.

No, this is like nothing.

WILLEM: Yeah.

WOMAN: Beautiful.

WOMAN: It’s magical.

♪ Well, we've come once again to that part of the show that I've always liked least, the time we have to say goodbye.

So I shall.

Bye bye.

I'm Willem Lange.

Thank you for watching Windows to the Wild.

♪ Support for the production of Windows to the Wild, as provided by the Alice J. Reen Charitable Trust.

The John D. McGonagle Foundation the Bailey Charitable Foundation, Road Scholar, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

Make a gift to the wild and support the Willem Lange Endowment Fund, established by a friend of New Hampshire PBS.

To learn how you can keep environmental, nature and outdoor programing possible for years to come, call our development team at (603) 868-4467.

Thank you.

♪