peter smith
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peter smith
@peterandreysmith.com
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reporter and researcher. senior contributor @undark.org. my work has appeared in the nyt, wired, stat, businessweeek, wnyc radiolab, and elsewhere

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What If Bicycles Don't Get Much Better Than This?
August 14, 2025 at 11:36 AM
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roads are melting back into the forest but I do wonder if old-growth trees are commonly found along roads (in and around south woodstock) that are lined with stone walls
Vermont feels like the frontier of climate change in the Northeast. Farmers in the bottomlands, who previously planted wheat and barley, are beginning to plant rice, which can be underwater for two days without damage to the crop. The old roads that early Vermont settlers hacked out on hilltops, which lasted for more than two hundred years, are melting back into the forest. Extreme-rain events scour the roads down to bedrock ledges, rendering them impassable, and, because no one then uses them, any blown-down trees don't get cleared. The next storm brings more blowdowns. A road that I went mountain biking on ten years ago, when it was a distinct pathway with old-growth trees on each side, lined by aged stone walls, is now such a tangle of fallen trees, branches, and rocks that it's hard to tell a road was ever there.
July 22, 2025 at 1:04 PM