Two groups of high schoolers, one from Lebanon High School in New Hampshire, the other from Fajardo Academy in Puerto Rico, found themselves in several snowy situations last weekend.
As flurries descended on the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains, the students strapped on snowshoes and ventured out into the cold. They measured snow, weighed snow, installed sensors under the snow – and made some more personal observations.
“I won’t forget the first time I sled,” said Gabriel Sosa, an 11th grader from Fajardo Academy. “Touching snow, making my first snowball – we had a snowball fight yesterday. It was fun.”
Sosa said he also enjoyed meeting new people, making friends, and learning about a project to use slingshots and velcro balls to track the spread of an invasive insect – the hemlock wooly adelgid.
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Meghan Wilson, a Lebanon High School teacher, and Briseida Fernández, a teacher at Fajardo Academy, organized the trip with the same goals as many exchanges: to give their students a chance to connect with each other.
But they also wanted them to connect with science.
“I like my students to see that when doing science, we all do the same things wherever we go,” Fernández said. “The ecosystems are two different ecosystems. Biotic and abiotic factors are completely different. But at the same time, the dynamics of the ecosystems are very similar.”
Brendan Leonardi, the program and education manager for the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, said the goal of the weekend was for students to understand the importance of snow. They learned about how it insulates underground habitats, how it recharges soil with water when it melts in the spring, and how cold temperatures are necessary for fun winter activities.
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Courtesy
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Andrew Cassel, Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest
Students used snowshoes to get around, as snow fell throughout the weekend.
At one point, he said, the whole group was rolling around in the snow.
“It was very immersive – like, this is winter, this is winter ecology,” he said.
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They also talked about how winters are getting warmer and less snowy.
Max Perriello, a tenth grader at Lebanon High School, said he’s seen the effects of warming winters in his own life.
“I can remember when I was a kid, every Thanksgiving we’d be snowed in,” he said. Now, he said, snow isn’t as reliable.
For Gia McCarty, an eleventh grader visiting from Fajardo Academy, climate impacts at home look a little different. December and January have always been warm. But now, she said, they feel like another summer, with temperatures hotter than she’s used to.
“Also in the summer you get a lot of storms,” she said. “We’re constantly worried about hurricane season.”
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Learning from one another helped students see how climate change is happening everywhere, said eleventh grader Yaliet Santa Villafañe.
“It makes you realize that it is affecting everybody,” she said. “At first you’re thinking only about where you live and how it will affect your living. But you have to realize that it’s happening all throughout the world.”
Villafañe said learning about climate change comes with some fear – environmental shifts are happening fast, and looking at data makes that feel real.
“People need to realize that that is happening, and it’s happening now,” she said. “And it will affect everyone if there’s not a change.”
Noelia Báez Rodríguez, a program coordinator with the Luquillo long-term ecological research site, accompanied the students on the trip. Her research site does the same kind of work as Hubbard Brook. Students from Fajardo Academy used data from the Luquillo site in school projects, which they presented to the New Hampshire students over the weekend.
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Báez-Rodríguez said part of her goal for the trip was to show students that there are people everywhere committed to studying climate science.
“I would like them not to be scared about things, but understand how and why those things occur in different types of ecosystems and environments and the repercussions of that,” she said.
She says she’s hoping to show them that science is a career worth exploring, and there are places across the globe set up for gathering data on the natural world.
Ed. Note: If this was you and you are interested, please email [email protected] so I can put you in touch with OP.
“Dear PoPville,
I was biking home from a doctor appointment a little before noon on Friday, and stopped at a red light on New Hampshire & L st nw. There was a woman across the street who was looking fine in her dark blue (I think they were) scrubs. I might be crazy, but it felt like we kept checking each other out. By the third time,
if we were in a romcom, one of us would have waved. Sorry I didn’t, but if you are reading this and date men, reach out to the Prince if you are interested in that man on the bike. Have a great weekend!”
Ed. Note: If this is you, please email [email protected] so I can put you in touch with OP. PoPville is not affiliated with either party, please proceed with any potential connection at your own risk using caution as you would any online encounter. For those curious about past missed connections, many have been made and when possible I’ll try to update when/if more are made.
A New Hampshire motorcyclist who had been missing since the Fourth of July was found dead in Shelburne late Thursday night.
State police say they received a request from the Berlin Police Department just after 7:30 p.m. Thursday for help locating 41-year-old Wesley Grondin — the Berlin man was last seen riding his motorcycle on Saturday, July 4, and had been reported missing.
Troopers received a call a couple of hours later, around 10:10 p.m. Thursday, from a concerned resident who had been out looking for Grondin along Route 2 in Shelburne. The person told police they had found Grondin dead, along with his Harley Davidson.
According to state police, a preliminary investigation determined that Grondin was riding his Harley on Route 2 westbound in Shelburne when, for reasons that remain under investigation, he crossed over into the opposing lane, struck a post, and came to a final rest in the wood line.
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The crash is believed to have occurred just before midnight on July 4. At this time, police say there’s no indication that another vehicle or person was involved.
All aspects of the crash remain under investigation, however. Anyone with information that may assist investigators is asked to contact Trooper Hunter Newsham at Hunter.P.Newsham@dos.nh.gov.
KEENE, N.H. — A Nashua woman who had a town clerk falsely certify a marriage that never happened so she could claim her late partner’s property has been sentenced to seven days in jail, placed on probation and ordered to repay thousands to his estate.
Attorney General John Formella said Wendy Leedberg‑Snow, 60, turned to Winchester Town Clerk Jim Tetreault after the death of her longtime partner, Eric Leedberg — who was born in Lowell — using the falsified license to pose as his spouse and lay claim to property from his estate, an effort prosecutors describe as an attempt to rewrite the couple’s history for financial gain.
“This case involved a deliberate effort to manipulate official government records and exploit the death of a loved one for personal financial gain,” Formella said in a press release announcing the sentencing. “Our vital records system depends on honesty and integrity, and those who seek to corrupt that system will be held accountable. I want to thank the investigators and prosecutors whose work ensured justice for the victim’s family.”
According to Leedberg’s obituary, he was 53 when he died on Oct. 12, 2023, following a two‑year battle with cancer.
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In the obituary, Leedberg-Snow is described as his “significant other.”
Prosecutors said Leedberg‑Snow moved quickly after his death, relying on Tetreault’s signature to fabricate a marriage that never occurred and position herself as Leedberg’s surviving spouse.
Tetreault, who was a New Hampshire justice of the peace at the time, falsely signed the marriage license claiming he had officiated the couple’s wedding. He later admitted he never performed any ceremony for Leedberg‑Snow and Leedberg and had no personal knowledge of them ever being married.
Leedberg‑Snow used the fraudulent certificate to obtain property from Leedberg’s estate, including a pickup truck and trailer, and later attempted to influence a witness connected to the scheme.
Leedberg‑Snow pleaded guilty in Cheshire County Superior Court in Keene to felony counts of solicitation to commit vital records fraud, title fraud, theft by misapplication of property and witness tampering.
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In addition to her seven‑day jail term, she must serve two years of probation, pay $4,600 in restitution, return the truck and trailer to Leedberg’s estate and comply with a suspended three‑and‑a‑half‑ to seven‑year prison sentence, which means the sentence only takes effect if she violates the conditions of her probation.
Tetreault, who continues to serve as Winchester’s town clerk and “fully cooperated with the State’s investigation,” according to prosecutors, pleaded guilty in April to notarial misconduct, a Class A misdemeanor. As part of a negotiated plea, prosecutors dropped a felony charge of vital records fraud. He was sentenced to 90 days in the house of corrections, all suspended for two years on good behavior, and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine plus a $240 penalty assessment.
He resigned his commissions as a justice of the peace and bail commissioner and agreed not to seek recommissioning as a justice of the peace or notary public during the two‑year suspension period.
Tetreault could not be reached for comment at his office number.
Follow Aaron Curtis on X @aselahcurtis, or on Bluesky @aaronscurtis.bsky.social.
