Forest Notes, Summer 2024

BIRD BANDING AT BLACK MTN | CLIMATE-ADAPTIVE FORESTRY

N E W H A M P S H I R E ’ S C O N S E R VAT I O N M A G A Z I N E

An Ode to Wetlands

Celebrating Their Subtle Beauty and Ecological Significance

SUMMER 2024

forestsociety.org

You are part of the solution Forest conservation is an essential strategy for addressing climate change.

Your support helps the Forest Society conserve and manage forests for the long term.

EMILY LORD/MULLIGAN FOREST, NOTTINGHAM

To make an additional gift toward forest stewardship for today and tomorrow, please visit forestsociety.org/ stewardshipmatters.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: SUMMER 2024, No. 318

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FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

(CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT) RYAN SMITH, CARRIE DEEGAN, MIKE STREICHER_FLICKR

8 New Hampshire Wetlands Key to Climate Resilience, Threatened by Human Activity

14 Managing for Resilient Landscapes Climate Adaptation at the Peirce Reservation

2 FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK A Forest Connection

4 THE WOODPILE + 5 Hikes Challenge 2024: We all belong outdoors! + Easement Stewardship Mid-Season Report + Forestry Word Search

6 FOREST CLASSROOM

BIRD BANDING AT BLACK MTN | CLIMATE-ADAPTIVE FORESTRY

N E W H A M P S H I R E ’ S C O N S E R VAT I O N M A G A Z I N E

An Ode to Wetlands

Celebrating Their Subtle Beauty and Ecological Significance

SUMMER 2024

forestsociety.org

On our cover: Northern New Hampshire is home to expansive forests, meandering rivers and streams, and undisturbed wetlands, such as those at the Forest Society’s newly protected 730-acre Cascade Hill Forest in Berlin. Pictured, a wetland complex on the property forms the headwaters to a perennial stream, Tinker Brook, located in the Androscoggin River watershed.

Turn to page 8 to learn more about wetlands. Photo by Ryan Smith.

Bird Banding Begins at Black Mountain

20 NATURE’S VIEW Goldfinches Bide Their Time

22 PUBLIC POLICY How New Hampshire's Forests Benefit From the Federal Farm Bill

24 A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT Help Protect the Morrill Farm and the Merrimack River

26 2024 ANNUAL MEETING Come together for a day full of trips, speakers, awards, and good food in the Monadnock Region

FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK

CHAIR Drew Kellner, Brookline

VICE CHAIR Peter Fauver, North Conway

SECRETARY Allyson Hicks, Concord

TREASURER Jason Hicks, Meredith

PRESIDENT Jack Savage, Middleton

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Susan Arnold, Strafford Philip Bryce, Deering Deb Buxton, Greenfield George Epstein, Silver Lake Don Floyd, Concord Jameson French, Portsmouth Patricia Losik, Rye Nancy Martland, Sugar Hill Michael Morison, Peterborough Elizabeth Salas, Weare Bill “Tuck” Tucker, Goffstown Tom Wagner, Campton Janet Zeller, Concord

STAFF Ben Aldrich, Field Forester Frank Allen, Building and Grounds Assistant Sarah AlSamaraee, Stewardship & Forestry Administrative Coordinator Dave Anderson, Senior Director of Education Brie Belisle, Regional Stewardship Manager Anna Berry, Director of Communications and Digital Outreach Nik Berube, Maintenance Assistant Naomi Brattlof, Director of Easement Stewardship Rita Carroll, Tree Farm Administrator Tony Cheek, Vice President for Finance Connie Colton, Land Protection and Stewardship Coordinator Linda Dammann, Development Assistant Carrie Deegan, Reservation Stewardship and Engagement Director Leah Hart, Land Conservation Project Manager Stacie Hernandez, Land Conservation Project Manager Brian Hotz, Vice President for Land Conservation Steve Junkin, Field Forester Susanne Kibler-Hacker, Senior Philanthropy Advisor Allan Krygeris, Senior Technology Specialist Matt Leahy, Public Policy Director Margaret Liszka, Membership Director Nigel Manley, Senior Outreach Manager, The Rocks Ann McCoy, Development Manager Stephanie Milender, Human Resource Director Jack Minich, Regional Stewardship Manager Scarlett Moberly, Program Director, The Rocks Michelle Morse, Finance Specialist Carl Murphy, Facilities Manager Sophie Oehler, Communications Coordinator Cara Pearson, Membership Specialist John Plummer, Regional Stewardship Manager Meredith Reed O’Donnell, Foundation Relations Manager Tina Ripley, Administrative Coordinator Jack Savage, President Matt Scaccia, Recreation and Community Relations Manager Ryan Smith, Communications Manager Maria Stewart, Senior Executive Assistant Dylan Summers, Stewardship Projects Manager Laurel Swope-Brush, Land Steward & Volunteer Programs Coordinator Lauren Thomas, Administrative Assistant, The Rocks Anne Truslow, Vice President for Development Wendy Weisiger, Managing Forester Harriette Yazzie-Whitcomb, Administrative Assistant

2 | FOREST NOTES Summer 2024

A Forest Connection

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he cover of this issue features a newly conserved forest, more than 700 acres, in the city of Berlin. It seems right that the Forest Society owns and will manage in perpetuity a forest in the “City That Wood Built.” Thanks to a willing landowner, generous donors, and dependable partners, we now do.

I take heart in the fact that here in New Hampshire we have forests in our cities.

The Forest Society has conserved forests in three other of the state’s 13 cities: in Concord (our headquarters, The Merrimack River Conservation and Education Center), in Rochester (Champlin Forest), and in Portsmouth (Creek Farm).

This matters not only because of the value of the water protection, wildlife habitat, carbon uptake, public recreation, and wood supply these forests provide, but also because cities are where most of the people are. Urban forests arguably make connecting people to a forest experience more likely.

We want everyone to have and take the opportunity to explore and to enjoy their own forest adventure. That in itself can make the world a better place. The Forest Society expends no little effort urging people to appreciate the woods by going to these places. For example, our annual 5 Hikes Challenge, which is in full swing as we go to press, is the perfect way to find new forests near and far to visit.

Annie Proulx, this year’s Annual Meeting keynote speaker, writes in the introduction to her book Fen, Bog and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction, “I am anchored in that childhood time when to recognize a sassafras bush from its mittenshaped leaves was the sense of finding a friend in the woodland fringe.” She goes on to note that those with a strong sense of natural place are left “aching with ecogrief” over the destruction and loss of those places where such friends reside.

I know the feeling.

Fostering personal connections between people and forests, enabling that sense of finding a friend in nature, makes us all feel a sense of loss when we trade the natural world for the developed. In too many parts of the world, that trade is unbalanced.

In New Hampshire, it is not too late.

Through the Forest Society, with your help, with more people caring deeply about forests through their own experiences, we can keep more forests as forests.

Thank you for all you do.

Jack Savage is the president of the Forest Society. He can be reached by email at jsavage@forestsociety.org.

WEB EXCLUSIVES

(OPPOSITE PAGE) RYAN SMITH; (THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) CARRIE DEEGAN, CHARLES DENTON, SY MONTGOMERY, CRAIG ROMANO

Coming Home A musician visits his namesake forest forestsociety.org/tomrushvisit

Losing a Legend Celebrating the life of Russ Dickerman forestsociety.org/russdickerman

Summer of Sy Meet writer/naturalist Sy Montgomery forestsociety.org/symontgomery

“We had a great time kayaking on Long Pond at the Ashuelot River Headwaters Forest in the MonadnockSunapee Highlands. It was just us and the loons enjoying the placid waters in this massive greenbelt in western N.H. I’m proud to be a 40-year member of the Forest Society, who spearheaded the protection of this area and so many more special places in the state!”

—Craig Romano

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@ForestSociety

@Forest_Society

Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests

A nonprofit membership organization founded in 1901 to protect the state’s most important landscapes and promote wise use of its renewable natural resources.

Basic annual membership fee is $45 and includes a subscription to Forest Notes.

Editor: Ryan Smith Design & Production: The Secret Agency Printing: R.C. Brayshaw & Company, Inc. Forest Notes is printed on elemental chlorine-free Sappi Flo paper with 10 percent post-consumer recycled content.

Sappi Flo is made from pulp purchased from suppliers who document sound environmental practices and sustainable forest management.

Permission is required for reproduction of any part of this magazine.

Copyright 2024 SPNHF. US ISSN: 0015 7457 54 Portsmouth Street, Concord, N.H. 03301 | Phone: 603-224-9945 | Fax: 603-228-0423 info@forestsociety.org | forestsociety.org The Forest Society proudly supports the following organizations:

Cosponsor

Underwriter

Member

Summer 2024 FOREST NOTES | 3

THE WOODPILE—NEWS NOT SO NEATLY STACKED

5 Hikes Challenge 2024: We all belong outdoors!

The Forest Society’s popular do-it-yourself hiking adventure returns for its fifth year this fall with the theme of “We all belong outdoors!” From August 31– October 31, 5 Hikes Challenge participants can visit more than 30 Forest Society properties that boast excellent hiking trails and unique features to explore.

The Challenge is designed for everyone interested in reaching new places and exploring unsung natural destinations in different regions across New Hampshire.

New locations this year include Forest Society North at The Rocks in Bethlehem, Lamprey River Forest in Epping, Powder Major’s Forest in Madbury, and Peabody Forest and Bald Cap Peak Forest in Shelburne.

Each participant will receive printed trail maps and directions, interpretive

information, hiking tips, and a one-of-a-kind 5 Hikes Challenge sticker. The Forest Society will also host a series of free guided hikes across the state, and organizations, including Adaptive Sports Partners, LGBT+ Outdoors, and LezHang Seacoast, will lead affinity hikes in Bethlehem and North Woodstock. To cap off the Challenge, the Forest Society will host a community gear swap on October 26 at the Conservation Center in Concord.

For registration information and an event schedule, visit forestsociety.org/ 5hikeschallenge2024.

Correction In the Spring 2024 issue of Forest Notes, the caption on page 19 should have stated as follows: In a photo from winter 1964, Irving E. Jennings (left), original owner of the Jennings Forest, pulls a Christmas tree alongside grandson William B. Maley Jr.

Easement Stewardship Mid-Season Report In June, the Easement Stewardship Department held their annual field day at the Governor’s Island Conservation Easement on Big Island Pond in Atkinson, Derry, and Hampstead to practice field techniques, including reading surveys, collecting data points, and map and compass navigation.

The stewardship staff spend a lot of hours in the field this time of year. And sometimes the hardest part isn’t finding the property they're supposed to monitor—it’s getting there. In May, on her way to ground monitor the adjacent Georgaklis conservation easements along the Merrimack River, Brianna Belisle ran into rural New Hampshire’s version of a traffic jam when Brookford Farm’s dairy cows walked on the road to access a pasture on the Gold Star Sod Farms, Inc. conservation easement in Canterbury.

The slowdown was short lived, however, and Belisle made it to her destination with plenty of time to spare.

When meeting with landowners recently, stewards have often been asked 4 | FOREST NOTES Summer 2024

Left: (clockwise from left) Director of Easement Stewardship Naomi Bratloff; regional stewardship managers Brianna Belisle, Jack Minich, and John Plummer; and Seasonal Easement Steward Madeline Smith enjoy some time on the water at Big Island Pond.

Right: Cows block part of the road in Canterbury as they walk to a pasture protected by a Forest Society conservation easement. about landowner liability and duty of care laws. If you, too, have liability concerns, visit wildlife.nh.gov/hunting-nh/ landowner-relations-program/landownerliability for more information. Other

available resources related to owning and managing conservation easements can be found in our digital reference library at forestsociety.org/landowner-stewardshipreference-library.

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(OPPOSITE PAGE, FROM LEFT) MADELINE SMITH, BRIANNA BELISLE (THIS PAGE) RYAN SMITH

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Find the following words in the puzzle. Words are spelled in four directions:

buffer

dendrology

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habitat

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regenerate

thinning

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ecoreserve

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KEEP SEARCHING! Turn to page 14 to see how many of these words you can find in our feature story about creating resilient forests in the face of climate change.

Summer 2024 FOREST NOTES | 5

FOREST CLASSROOM

Left: A lightweight aluminum band with a unique identification number is affixed to the leg of each bird before it is released. These bands are issued to bird banders by the Bird Banding Laboratory at the U.S. Geological Survey.

Right: Educator and licensed bird bander Lindsay Herlihy checks the molt stage and wear on a blue jay’s flight feathers.

Bird Banding Begins at Black Mountain

By Carrie Deegan

I

t’s 4:30 on a July morning and I’m winding through understory saplings and shrubs on the Black Mountain Forest in North Sutton, tightening guy lines and unfurling nets. Despite the fact that we need headlamps to see what we’re doing, the dawn chorus is cacophonous— ovenbirds and wood thrushes, vireos, and an assortment of warblers are all belting out their songs simultaneously. This is the Black Mountain Banding Station, the newest New Hampshire addition to the MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity & Survivorship) program organized by The Institute for Bird Populations.

More than 1,200 MAPS banding stations across North America collect important information on breeding birds—data that can be used to determine key demographic parameters such as breeding productivity and survival rates of individuals, as well as the timing of nesting and fledging of young. Banding at each MAPS

6 | FOREST NOTES Summer 2024

station takes place about every 7-10 days throughout the breeding season, roughly mid-May through mid-August in our area, and stations must be run for at least 5 consecutive years.

“This one is all set,” announces Lindsay Herlihy, once we have set up a fine-meshed mist net to the appropriate height and tension. And we move to the next net site. Herlihy is a licensed bird bander and educator and is the principal researcher and coordinator for the Black Mountain Banding Station. As soon as the last net is erected, a timer buzzes: it’s time to double back and check the first net for any captures. When we arrive at Net 1, Herlihy is thrilled to find a black-throated blue warbler, typically a high canopy species that is more difficult to capture in our relatively low mistnets. After carefully extracting the bird, placing it in a cloth bag, and checking the other nets for captures (no more this round), we are ready to start banding.

“As an educator, it is very important to me to bring that component into banding because there are very few opportunities to get that close to wild songbirds. It can be a real spark moment for people to realize how incredible and readily observable these creatures are,” Herlihy explains.

At the banding table, the black throated blue warbler is sexed (male) and aged (at least two years old) and then Herlihy uses banding pliers to affix a small aluminum band with a unique identification number to the warbler’s leg. The bird is weighed and its wing length measured, with Herlihy explaining each part of the process. A final step for this bird, before being released back to the forest, is removal of two tail feathers which are carefully placed into a small paper envelope. The feathers (whose removal will not affect the bird’s flight) contain DNA that will be analyzed by the Bird Genoscape Project, a complementary research effort seeking

Left: An adult male chestnut-sided warbler shows off his beautiful plumage before being released. This warbler species prefers shrub thickets and forest-edge habitat.

(OPPOSITE PAGE) CARRIE DEEGAN (X2); (THIS PAGE, FROM LEFT) LINDSAY HERLIHY, CARRIE DEEGAN

Right: Lindsay Herlihy explains the feather molt stage of a wood thrush during an educational field trip at the Black Mountain Banding Station. to understand whether distinct subpopulations of migratory bird species can be mapped according to their breeding and wintering ground locations.

Populations of many songbird species are declining in the Western Hemisphere, the result of many overlapping factors including loss of habitat on both breeding and wintering grounds, competition with exotic invasive species, exposure to pesticides and food shortages due to pesticides, and challenges related to climate change. Data from MAPS stations and the Bird Genoscape Project can help scientists figure out what and where the greatest threats are, with the aim of developing solutions and targeting restoration projects to help these populations rebound.

As Herlihy notes, “My goal at the Black Mountain Banding Station is to utilize the data collected here for as many useful purposes as possible scientifically; that way I can have the largest amount

of positive impact even with a relatively small banding station.”

Herlihy’s selection of Black Mountain Forest for siting this new MAPS station was deliberate. “Part of the reason I wanted to set this station up on Forest Society property, and specifically Black Mountain Forest, is because it’s already an outdoor classroom for Kearsarge Regional School District. Having taught in the district and having connections there, and just being in such close proximity to the high school, really opens the door to a lot of very rich educational experiences that can be tied directly in to the science curriculum.” She plans to engage KRHS students via the school’s Extended Learning Opportunities (ELO) program, which can incorporate independent learning outside of regular school hours or during the summer.

Even in this inaugural summer at the Black Mountain Banding Station, former students of Herlihy’s at KRHS and a

number of summer interns from the Harris Center for Conservation Education have been helping out. Since the property’s protection in 2010, the Black Mountain Forest has hosted KRHS students engaged in trail maintenance and construction projects on the Lincoln Trail, monitoring eastern brook trout and aquatic invertebrates in its streams, and learning about tree identification and sustainable forestry.

The Forest Society is thrilled to support a MAPS banding station that will continue to provide opportunities for students and educators to connect with and learn about the natural world, while also contributing data toward a more robust scientific understanding of bird populations.

Carrie Deegan is the reservation stewardship & engagement director for the Forest Society.

Summer 2024 FOREST NOTES | 7

New Hampshire Wetlands

Key to Climate Resilience, Threatened by Human Activity

By Dennis McFadden

A

Spruce and fir trees surround a high-elevation wetland complex at the Forest Society's newly protected Cascade Hill Forest in Berlin. mong popular images of New Hampshire’s natural environment, the tall peaks and vast forests enjoy pride of place. Our many lakes, rivers, and streams are similarly treasured, some lending their names to entire regions: the Connecticut River Valley, the Lakes Region. But New Hampshire is home to subtle landscapes as well as the grand ones.

Many are complex, shaped not only by the forces of nature, but also by the impact of human activity and the interplay between the two. Broadly known as wetlands, New Hampshire’s fens, bogs, swamps, and marshes are sometimes complicated to define, and yet they knit together land and water to create unique habitat every bit as essential to the wholeness of our landscape as our charismatic mountains, lakes, forests, and rivers.

The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) defines wetlands as “an area that, either through surface water or groundwater, is wet enough and wet for a long enough period of time to support a predominance of vegetation that grows in saturated soil conditions.” The number of wetlands in New Hampshire and the total land area they represent are hard to quantify. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and DES both use remote imaging technologies to try to accurately identify and

8 | FOREST NOTES Summer 2024

measure the state’s wetlands. Documenting the many small wetlands, inherently dynamic in size and shape and frequently obscured by vegetative cover, is a particular challenge.

While the parameters for what constitutes a New Hampshire wetland are general, the descriptions of fens, bogs, swamps, and marshes are detailed and precise. Each type has its own physical characteristics. There can be some overlap between wetland types and over time one sort may evolve into another. But the key hallmarks of each wetland type are determined by the sources of the water that feed a particular wetland, the quality and composition of that water, the species of plants that thrive in a particular wetland, and the rate at which dead plant materials in a particular wetland collect and decompose.

Fens and Bogs

Fens and bogs frequently are discussed together. Both produce peat, and the soil and water in fens and bogs is acidic and oxygen-poor. As a result, dead plant materials that become submerged in fens and bogs do not decompose readily. In fact, plant materials accumulate more quickly than they deteriorate.

This is how peat is formed. Over time, in a process called lake-fill

The Forest Society is currently working with three landowners to conserve more than 740 acres in and adjacent to “Campton Bog” in Rumney and Campton, N.H. This area is a high-quality 350-acre peatland complex of regional significance. Peatland habitats are important for carbon sequestration, can contain more than 550 different plants, and provide extraordinary wildlife habitat for numerous species.

(OPPOSITE PAGE) RYAN SMITH; (THIS PAGE) EARTHAERIAL PRODUCTIONS

peatland formation, enough peat may accumulate to fill the basin in which water had collected to become the bog or fen.

Both readily support mosses of the genus Sphagnum, but it is the other plants that thrive in them that distinguish bogs from fens.

Bogs are home to dwarf heath shrubs such as cranberries, blueberries, crowberries, leatherleaf, and a few sedges. Fens tend to support growth of taller signature species, including sweet gale and meadowsweet. Sedges are more abundant in fens, and other plants that are absent in bogs—Saint John’s-wort, cinnamon fern, and in some rich fens, orchids—are common in fens.

In addition to the plant communities that each support, fens and bogs are also distinguished by the source of their water. For example, the Natural Heritage Bureau of the New Hampshire Division of Forests & Lands notes that while both are peatlands, “Bogs receive very little surface water…” while “Fens are… associated with moving water...” In New Hampshire, fens and bogs are often classified as open wetlands as opposed to swamps, which are characterized as forested wetlands.

Swamps

While open wetlands support low-growing plant communities and shrub vegetation, swamps, which also support these, have significant tree coverage, too. Like fens and bogs, swamps form in stagnant basins. Since they have soils that are acidic and low in nutrients, organic material from plants that grow in them can accumulate and produce peat. But because these plants are growing in the shade, the makeup of those plant communities differs from those of fens and bogs. The dominant species of trees found

in swamps at various locations in the state vary as do the shrubs and herbs that develop beneath them, though winterberry and highbush blueberry are common in swamps statewide.

The 2025 New Hampshire Wildlife Action Plan divides forested wetlands into two broad categories: northern swamps and temperate swamps. Northern swamps are most common from the White Mountains north and, at higher altitudes, in the southwestern part of the state. Most often developing around black or red spruce trees, these swamps are frequently surrounded by bogs or fens and may be in the final step of their development from open to forested wetland. Examples can be found at Cape Horn State Forest in Northumberland and Brown Ash Swamp in Thornton. The dominant tree in the temperate swamps, found primarily in southern and central parts of the state, is the red maple. The soils and waters in temperate swamps are often less acidic than those found in northern swamps and a larger portion of the water flowing into them is likely to come from streams and even small rivers. This in turn impacts the species found in them. Examples of temperate swamps can be found at Canterbury Shaker Village and within the watershed of the Contoocook River in Peterborough.

Marshes

Marshes are the fourth type of wetland that is common in New Hampshire. With extensive shrub and herbal vegetation, water and saturated soils, but no trees, they are visually reminiscent of fens and bogs. The most common in New Hampshire are drainage marshes found in relatively flat locations where nearby streams, ponds, and other water bodies regularly flood, bringing Summer 2024 FOREST NOTES | 9

Hampton Salt Marshes, acquired by the Forest Society in the late 1960s and ‘70s, are now the focus of several efforts to restore their original function and protect native species. These marshes were heavily ditched over two centuries as early colonists turned them into productive farm fields. Now scientists are working to restore their original tidal water flow regime and provide habitat for declining native species.

Currently, the Forest Society is working with several groups to apply restoration practices on these important ecological reserves.

them nutrient rich water and causing the water level in them to fluctuate. Two other types, sand plain basin marshes and sandy pond shore marshes, also occur in the state. All three types provide the conditions required for plant materials to decompose.

But because the water levels in them fluctuate seasonally, those materials are exposed to oxygen as they deteriorate. This allows them to release nutrients and produce muck rather than peat.

Not surprisingly, peat moss, which is a signature species in bogs, fens, and swamps, is not found in most marshes.

Many marshes are associated with bogs, fens, streams, rivers, and lakes. One location where a number can be seen is the Connecticut Lakes Natural Area in Pittsburg. They can also be found along the Pine River in the Heath Pond Bog Natural Area in Effingham. Heath Pond Bog is also one of the few designated Natural National Landmarks in the state.

Four Centuries of Survival

Most of the bogs, fens, swamps, and marshes found across New Hampshire today are the survivors of the four centuries during which the landscape of New England has been reshaped since the first colonists encountered it. Early European settlers in the region found established and productive but almost entirely abandoned agricultural lands as they moved inland from the coast. These did not resemble the fields they had left behind in England and Holland and they set out to remake them so that they would. An important step in many locations was to shape fields to accommodate the agricultural practices and products they knew best.

This included draining wetlands, which were frequently viewed as wastelands. While the exact number is not known, it has been estimated that today’s wetlands represent fewer than half of those that were here when the colonists arrived.

The attitude toward wetlands as useless and disposable land persisted through the period when the state’s natural resources

10 | FOREST NOTES Summer 2024

were exploited extensively to accommodate a rapidly growing population and fuel economic expansion. As is well known, beginning in the colonial period and continuing through the nineteenth century, New Hampshire’s landscapes were cleared of timber for lumber and fuel and significant expanses were opened for large scale farming. Prevailing attitudes toward wetlands in that period are captured by R. L. Allen in his The American Farm Book, published in 1849. There he writes: “Swamps and Peat beds occur frequently in a hilly country. These are low, level, wet lands, whose constant saturation with water, prevents their cultivation with any useful plant.” Early efforts to dry out damp spots would have relied on small open ditches. Subsurface drains fashioned from lumber, stones, or bricks were relied on to dry out larger areas. It is reported that the first use of clay tiles to drain land in New Hampshire was in 1854 on a farm in Exeter. When wetlands were drained, the waters that had saturated them for centuries were collected, channeled, and directed away, revealing fertile soils rich in organic materials.

In New Hampshire, farmers continued to drain and work agricultural lands that remained productive. But as the advantages of land in the Midwest drew development there, areas in New Hampshire were left fallow and, by the early years of the twentieth century, forests began to grow back across much of the state. It seems likely that in some locations, especially where woodlands reestablished themselves, wetlands may have done so as well. It is not known whether any may have been purposely restored. If so, and if it had involved the removal of networks of drainage tiles, it would have been a costly process requiring excavation.

Wetlands at Risk

In parts of the state where the population continues to grow and previously undeveloped or incompletely developed land is

Sharon Bog, a rare kettle bog located in southwestern New Hampshire, is home to many unique species including pitcher plant, which can grow in the bog’s mineral-poor and highly acidic soils.

(OPPOSITE PAGE) JERRY MONKMAN/ECOPHOTOGRAPHY; (THIS PAGE) RYAN SMITH (X2)

being suburbanized, wetlands that remain are at risk. The view of them as a wasteland is now captured in the perception that any land that remains unbuilt has not been developed to “…its highest and best use.” At the same time, a growing knowledge of natural systems, a heightened awareness of interdependencies between the different elements that comprise them, and the emergence of environmentalism have led to a deep appreciation for wetlands.

For some, this appreciation is driven by the beauty they find in landscapes nature has composed of water, land, and varied forms of vegetation. The importance of these landscapes for the survival of environmental diversity concerns others. New Hampshire’s current list of Species of Greatest Conservation Need includes animals whose survival depends on wetland landscapes.

Rusty blackbirds nest in spruce fir trees found adjacent to peatlands; the northern bog lemming feeds on sedges that grow in fens; black gum swamps are home to spotted turtles; and the rare Hessel’s hairstreak butterfly spends most of its life in the canopy of Atlantic white cedar swamps. Marshes that serve a large and highly diverse environmental community provide critical stopping points for migrating birds.

Especially powerful in an era in which the extensive impacts of climate change have grown so apparent is the growing awareness of the valuable environmental services wetlands provide. High among these is the ability of wetlands to buffer the impacts of more frequent and severe extreme weather events and the flooding they cause. Wetlands’ ability to absorb sudden surges of water and filter and release it over time has proved invaluable. It is now also understood that water they absorb and clean can move below the surface, raising the water table, and, in some instances, emerge as ground water to augment the flow of streams and rivers and even temper them to the benefit of species that live and reproduce in them. Research on the reproductive success of native brook trout in Coos County has shown that they seek out spots

in streams where the ground water that travels underground from nearby wetlands moderates temperatures, creating areas that are cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Finally, at a time when the negative impacts of atmospheric pollution—especially that of large quantities of CO2—has captured the attention of policymakers, the extraordinary ability of peat formed in bogs, fens, and swamps to sequester that gas has turned the long-lived characterization of wetlands as wastelands on its head.

Dennis McFadden lives in Sugar Hill, N.H. He is particularly interested in insights the arts and humanities provide into our attitudes toward the more-than-human world.

A Note on Sources: The author wishes to acknowledge his debt to Dan Sperduto and Ben Kimball for their masterful The Nature of New Hampshire: Natural Communities of the Granite State (University of New Hampshire Press, 2011), a source he frequently consulted while researching New Hampshire’s extraordinary wetlands.

Get Out! Wetlands exist on many Forest Society properties and conservation easements. Examples include Cockermouth Forest in Groton, Powder Major’s Forest in Madbury, and William H. Champlin Jr. Forest in Rochester. While access to some wetlands is difficult, others can be visited with little effort thanks to extensive boardwalks that have been constructed.

These offer opportunities to spy some especially fragile wetland environments without endangering them. For more information, visit forestsociety.org/visitor-guide.

Summer 2024 FOREST NOTES | 11

In the following excerpt from Fen, Bog and Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis, author and Forest Society Annual Meeting keynote speaker Annie Proulx offers a compelling account of wetland history, one that is both eye-opening and a powerful call to action to protect these fragile ecosystems.

S

ince the fifteenth century when feudalism began to give way to nation-states, Western capitalism and imperialism, we have heard that peatlands are worthless because that same land drained is valuable for agriculture. We are now in the embarrassing position of having to relearn the importance of these strange places that are 95 percent water but fibrous enough to stand on. Climate, weather, season, earth movement, wet and dry environments are all flexible, all giveand-take, and these jostling, shifting processes are only briefly impressed by levees, dams, drains, dikes, culverts. Water is the ultimate flexibility as Fela Kuti sang in “Water No Get Enemy.”

It will always win. Or will it? Some researchers think that the next fifty years will see humankind take up all the remaining land on earth for agriculture and use every drop of fresh water.

And then what?

Europeans, especially in northern Germany and Ireland, have harvested peat by hand for thousands of years with specialized tools, adapted in Ireland as the slane and turf barrow before the invention of heavy peat-cutting machinery. But now a great change is under way; some people are rewatering and restoring old peatlands. Ireland, with plenty of bogs and few oil wells, and thus more dependent on peat than most, has been struggling with difficult decarbonization goals since a study found that in one year each hectare of drained and stripped peatland gassed out 2.1 tons of carbon. Britain, freed

by Brexit from old EU rules on farming subsidies to promote intense agricultural production, is considering more projects for a category called “the Public Good,” which includes wetland restoration. The richly encouraging books The Shepherd’s Life and Pastoral Song by the British farmer James Rebanks give hope for a turn to thoughtfully ecological agriculture.

The world’s largest peatlands are Canada’s Hudson Bay Lowlands, Russia’s Great Vasyugan Mire, the Mayo Boglands, America’s Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Indonesia’s peat forests, the Magellanic Tundra Complex of Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands, the marshes of Mesopotamia and the Central Congo Basin’s Cuvette Centrale. Indonesia’s richly complex wooded peatlands where entrepreneurs log, burn and plow to make palm oil plantations are one of the saddest examples of great biological loss. In shops and stores I read labels and when I find bars of soap made with palm oil I get a mental image of a ravaged forest. I do not buy that soap.

While some people living in peatland countries may be looking at their watered topography with new respect, some are 12 | FOREST NOTES Summer 2024

looking with fear, as are the residents of the Yakutia region of eastern Siberia, one of the fastest-warming places anywhere. Here, and in the Great Vasyugan Mire in western Siberia, the permafrost is going fast—the cover is being lifted off the pot.

The permafrost in Yakutia, a major agricultural region, exists as great lobes of ice—a kind of very thick ice called yedoma—embedded in the soil like garlic slivers inserted in a roast. Up on top, land that was recently crop acreage, cattle and reindeer pasture is swimming in meltwater. Great chasms open up, roadways tilt and slump. Weird craters, possibly caused by underground bursts of methane gas, gape wide. The rivers bulge with water and flood the fields. Yakutians, intensely sensitive to the subtleties of the natural world after deep generations on the land, now say they no longer understand the place. They do know that they can no longer make a living here and are moving out of the known rural world of their fathers into the wilderness of cities. The only ones

CAMPTON BOG | CAMPTON AND RUMNEY, N.H.

EARTHAERIAL PRODUCTIONS

who are happy are hunters of the mastodon tusks exposed for the first time in millennia, the corpses emitting a great stench as they rot—for the hunters it is the stench of money as long as Chinese folk medicine believers keep buying. That is the frightening side of peatland’s ability to hold in huge amounts of carbon dioxide: rip or burn the cover off and it is in your face.

In aggregate, the world’s peatlands resemble a book of wallpaper samples, each with its own design and character— some little more than water and reeds, others luxuriously diverse landscapes of colors we urban moderns never knew existed, silent sepia water, brilliant mosses, pale lichen, sundews like spilled water drops. And always they are in achingly slow motion that we cannot discern unless we keep measurement records—you can stand for a year and watch, though you won’t see a saltwater marsh silt up and become a fen. And always these places are under assault.

Wetlands are classified by the values of what-use-are-theyto-humans. They are categorized as geography, topography, chemistry and hydrology. Ecologists use a different measuring stick; they are interested in the different ways wetlands fit into the natural world’s mesh of existence. In recent decades the ecologists have had a seat near, if not at, the classification table. A cool and dispassionate scientific approach to wetland classification in these times often masks painful emotions and grief when confronting environmental loss and destruction. These feelings are as much an occupational hazard for environmental scientists as for people working in disaster relief and health care fields. The painful stresses are steadfastly ignored by most of us so there is little amelioration.

Copyright © 2022 by Dead Line, Ltd. Reprinted by permission of Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, LLC. Summer 2024 FOREST NOTES | 13

Managing for Resilient Landscapes CLIMATE ADAPTATION AT THE PEIRCE RESERVATION

By Ben Aldrich and Wendy Weisiger

14 | FOREST NOTES Summer 2024

Forests provide habitat, wood products, places for recreation, and clean air and water. Forests also play a fundamental role in combatting climate change.

T

(OPPOSITE PAGE) RYAN SMITH; (THIS PAGE, FROM LEFT) JEFF LOUGEE, RYAN SMITH

he Forest Society’s foresters incorporate practices designed to address climate adaptability and resilience in the forest management plans formulated for each property, including measures to prepare for more frequent extreme weather events like intense rain, windstorms, and drought. Global trade and milder winters have compounded these natural hazards through the introduction and increased survival of forest pests.

While every forest will face these challenges, the Forest Society recently had the opportunity to participate in a demonstration project centered at the Charles L. Peirce Wildlife and Forest Reservation in Stoddard and Windsor, one of the largest Forest Society properties.

The Charles L. Peirce Wildlife and Forest Reservation lies in the heart of a 100,000-acre intact forest block in southwest New Hampshire. At almost 4,000 acres, the property includes a variety of forest and habitat types, including patches of old growth forest, as well as areas lacking the species diversity that will prove to be important as the climate changes.

The property was given to the Forest Society in the late 1970s and was later encumbered by a conservation easement that

placed a “forever wild” designation on 80 percent of the acreage, thus excluding it from active forest management that can help make the property resilient in the future. The remaining acreage that is open to forest management, nearly 800 acres, is located in several large blocks across the property.

In 2023, Forest Society Managing Forester Wendy Weisiger and her team joined a group of land managers, foresters, and climate scientists, coined the Climate Resilient Forest Management (CRFM) network, to think about how they might manage lands, specifically in the context of climate change, at a landscape level. Funded by a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant, organized by The Nature Conservancy, and led by Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS) and University of Vermont Forestry, the group developed targeted climate resilient management plans for projects guided by NIACS’s Forest Adaptation Workbook. The project included plans for how to implement management practices and then share takeaways from each project at future group meetings. The following article, written by Field Forester Ben Aldrich, summarizes some of the methods the team used during the Peirce Reservation project.

Facing Page: Forest Society Forester Ben Aldrich spies a woodpecker hole in a white pine tree growing at the Peirce Reservation.

Above, left: A group of natural resource specialists from the Climate Resilient Forest Management network tour the Peirce Reservation after the timber harvest. Right: On a cold day in December 2023, Managing Forester Wendy Weisiger and Consulting Forester Jeff Snitkin walk the project area at the Peirce Reservation.

Summer 2024 FOREST NOTES | 15

"Forever wild" forest.

No trees removed.

Irregular shelterwood harvest in the upper pasture

Forest thinning in the Wright Pasture

An aerial view of the Peirce Reservation climate-adaptive forestry project and the three types of management conducted on the property.

I

n winter 2024, the Forest Society initiated a climate-adaptive forest management project on a 140-acre stand at the Peirce Reservation. The trees in the project area, known as the Wright Pasture, had received little to no management after regenerating on abandoned pastures and heavy cutting in the 1950s. The result was an even-aged stand with little understory regeneration, high levels of unacceptable growing stock, and a mix of tree species that were not all well-suited for the site. This made the stand even more vulnerable to stressors expected in a warmer climate, such as drought, windstorms, pests, and disease. In their forest inventory, foresters Gabe Roxby, formerly of the Forest Society, and Steve Junkin developed four separate harvest prescriptions for this stand based on site conditions. In 2023, Forest Society foresters met with consulting foresters from Full Circle Forestry on site to discuss and refine the prescriptions. Over the summer of 2023, Full Circle marked the area for harvest. The following sections describe how the goals for adapting the forest to meet the threats of climate change were addressed.

16 | FOREST NOTES Summer 2024

IMPROVE INDIVIDUAL TREE VIGOR THROUGH THINNING In the lower portion of the Wright Pasture, where younger trees were growing, foresters decided to remove, or thin, lower quality trees to improve the vigor of remaining trees they wanted to cultivate. This presented several challenges to the consulting foresters responsible for marking which trees loggers should cut and which trees should remain. Foresters had to pick trees to cut that would make space—or release—the crowns of the remaining trees while not shining too much light on the stems. Introducing too much light can trigger sprouting of dormant buds, also known as epicormic sprouting, which degrades the wood quality. Epicormics also indicate trees are under stress and are competing for resources. The oak on this site was extremely sensitive to sprouting after disturbances, such as a timber harvest or windstorm. By analyzing the annual growth rings on stumps of the cut trees, foresters noted that growth in the stressed trees had slowed under the dense canopy conditions.

The next challenge foresters faced was to maintain the overall diversity of the stand, which was done by retaining less abundant

Aerial perspective of the thinned portion of the stand. Crop trees, including red oak and red maple, were lightly released from competition on one to three sides to improve vigor and resistance to drought.

RYAN SMITH (X2)

species such as cherry and yellow birch. Thinning improves resilience by allowing more growing space to the best-suited trees, which improves their vigor and reduces competition for water, nutrients, and light. This makes the trees more resistant to droughtrelated mortality, a disturbance that will increase in frequency and duration as the climate warms. Climate change also increases the likelihood of another common forest disturbance: wind events.

Thinning addresses this by increasing the stability of the trees.

Finally, maintaining species diversity acts as a hedge against forest pests and diseases such as spongy moth, emerald ash borer, and beech leaf disease, similar to how a stock portfolio decreases the risks associated with investments through diversification.

TRANSITION TO UNEVEN-AGED MANAGEMENT In the upper part of the stand, the land use history created different conditions. This area, bordered by stone walls, was used as a pasture by local sheep farmers before abandoning the pasture more than 100 years ago. The forest regenerated in open light

conditions, which allowed the pines to be attacked by the white pine weevil. This resulted in the trees growing in the distinctive multi-trunked wolf pine shape, which makes them susceptible to snapping and breaking in high winds and unsuitable for forest products. The foresters determined the best course of action was to initiate a regeneration harvest in the former pasture while maintaining a partial overstory with an irregular shelterwood prescription. The variable site conditions favored an irregular approach where the intensity of the cutting depended on the availability of advanced regeneration, overstory species composition, and soil suitability for seedling establishment of desirable species. Creating multiple age classes improves forest resilience by ensuring that when disturbances occur, a new generation is waiting in the understory to take its place.

TRANSITION TO A MORE RESILIENT COMPOSITION The variable canopy cover within the shelterwood harvest creates a variety of shading conditions facilitating the regeneration of

Summer 2024 FOREST NOTES | 17

Before and after photos of the harvest area on the slope of Round Mountain at the Peirce Reservation. species across a spectrum of degrees of light tolerance. Windfirm pine with large crowns and climate-adapted hardwoods were retained to serve as both seed and shade trees to facilitate the establishment of a new cohort of trees better adapted to a warmer climate. On wetter soils, yellow birch, a species with moderate shade tolerance, were favored for regeneration, while the drier sites were favored for pine and other hardwood species. Less abundant species, such as black cherry, were retained for their wildlife mast value and adaptability. Under current climate projections, the growing conditions in southwestern New Hampshire are shifting to be more suitable for black cherry. Expanding the tree species diversity further works toward the Forest Society’s goal of creating a more climate-adapted forest.

Under mixed competition, the species least adapted to a warmer climate compete poorly with the better-adapted species in the canopy of a mature forest. The more species present, the higher the likelihood that the mature forest will have a composition that is more resilient to climate-induced stressors.

Mutualistic interactions between species can also occur when the species mix cooperates to cope with stressors such as drought.

This is demonstrated by the dispersal of water from deep-rooted species to the upper soil layers where it can be reached by shallow-rooted species, known as hydraulic lift. Mixed species forests have also been shown to be more resistant to insect damage and fungal pathogens by slowing the rate of spread. Wind resistance is also improved in mixed-species forests through higher growth efficiency, resulting in more stable trees with larger crowns.

Mixing forests is a valid strategy to combat the forest senescence observed in monocultures around the world as the climate warms. During my studies in Central Europe, I was exposed to the devastating effects a multi-year drought can have on

18 | FOREST NOTES Summer 2024

monoculture forests, where I observed entire landscapes of dead trees killed by bark beetle. In the Rocky Mountains, climate change has increased the vulnerability of the forests to Mountain pine beetle infestations and fires, effectively deforesting a large swath of the landscape. Fortunately, the forests of the Northeast have much higher species richness than other economically important forest areas in the world.

PROTECTION OF VULNERABLE SPECIES Climate change will shift species distributions to higher elevations and latitudes (in the northern hemisphere). Two species facing different types of threats, red spruce and white ash, were the focus of strategic protection during the Peirce project.

Ash are threatened by a novel pest, the emerald ash borer (EAB), whose larvae feed on the cambium resulting in tree mortality. To retain ash on site, moderately sized openings were created in wetter, enriched soils in both harvest areas to create favorable sites for ash seedling establishment. While mature ash are susceptible to EAB, the smaller diameter trees are ignored by the insects. The hope is that a new generation can be established and will mature at a time when the EAB population is under control.

Growing in the harshest Northeast environments, red spruce is exposed to high winds and snow loads at high elevations and can only thrive when competition from faster growing trees is hindered by the harsh winter. The spruce patches at Peirce are in danger of disappearing as winters warm. So to combat this and work to maintain the species’ distribution, patches of red spruce regeneration overgrown by hardwoods have been released. Fellerbuncher operator Joey Hardwick went above and beyond in this task by cutting off the tops of small diameter hardwood saplings that were overtopping the spruce stems.

FORESTRY GLOSSARY CAMBIUM

Layer of living cells between the bark and the wood.

EVEN-AGED STAND

All trees are the same age or at least the same age class. A stand is considered even-aged when the range of tree ages do not vary by more than 20 percent.

EPICORMIC SPROUTING

Branches that sprout from the main stem of the tree below the crown, lowering the value of the wood.

The continued presence of spruce (pictured in the background) at the Peirce Reservation was promoted through the removal of competing, overtopping hardwoods (pictured in the foreground).

MANAGEMENT FOR UNCERTAINTY

RYAN SMITH (X3)

Relying on a single strategy to adapt to climate change would pose a significant risk to forests. Our management in this harvest was designed to address the uncertainties of climate change through a variety of strategies to improve the vigor of the remaining stand while creating a more resilient and diverse new cohort of trees. The results of this project will lie in contrast to the uncut wild land that exists on the majority of the Peirce Reservation. This is part of the scientific process that guides our decision making for future management. Establishing mixedage stands with a diversity of species will also increase carbon sequestration resiliency. As carbon continues to be stored in the older wild lands, the newly established cohort of trees will maximize their carbon sequestration rate as they reach 30 to 70 years of age. The remaining legacy trees will continue to store large volumes of carbon and provide critical wildlife habitat.

Through thoughtful and sustainable forest management, carbon can be sequestered and converted into durable wood products, extending carbon storage far beyond natural conditions. Working forests play an important role in fighting climate change. It’s a goal of the Forest Society to educate more landowners about the benefits and importance of climate-resilient forest management as a critical tool in proactively keeping forests healthy.

Online

In addition to the Peirce Reservation harvest, many other projects from across the country that are focused on climate resiliency and adaptation can be viewed at forestadaptation.org/adapt/demonstration-projects.

HYDRAULIC LIFT

Water in deep soil layers in the ground is pulled upward by roots and distributed in soil closer to the surface.

LEGACY TREES

Usually mature, older trees left on-site after harvesting for biological, wildlife, spiritual, or aesthetic purposes.

MUTUALISM

An association between species, where each derives their own benefit from the interaction.

REGENERATION

Seedlings and saplings that may come from seeds or vegetative sprouting.

SHADE TOLERANCE

Ability of trees to grow in shaded conditions.

SHELTERWOOD

A silvicultural practice, aimed at regenerating an area with partially shaded conditions.

THINNING

A silvicultural practice that reduces the stand density primarily to improve growth, enhance tree health, or recover potential mortality.

UNACCEPTABLE GROWING STOCK

Trees not suitable for valuable timber products due to form, rot, or lifespan.

WINDFIRM

A term used to describe trees that have a higher crown to diameter ratio that will likely be less impacted by wind damage.

Summer 2024 FOREST NOTES | 19

NATURE’S VIEW

Left: Goldfinches frequent weedy fields, gardens, and edges of habitats in search of food, including sunflower seeds.

Right: Male goldfinches reach their peak yellow breeding plumage by August, when they are busy building nests and feeding hungry nestlings while many other birds have already fledged their young, molted, and are quietly preparing for their autumn migration south.

Biding Their Time

Late-nesting goldfinches signal how summer is slipping

By Dave Anderson

A

merican goldfinches are common, conspicuous year-round resident birds found widely across New Hampshire. In winter, hungry hordes of goldfinches can be found visiting bird feeders stocked with their preferred seeds: thistle, Niger, and black oil sunflower. As winter progresses, males molt drab olivebrown plumage during late March and April into a striking canary-yellow breeding plumage. Most of our familiar resident winter birds are early nesters. Chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, and woodpeckers all begin nesting in April inside tree cavities with small entrance holes. The sturdy wooden structures are safe from wind, rain, and cold. The peak of the springtime songbird migration occurs later, when dozens of colorful warblers arrive from the tropics timed to take advantage of the

20 | FOREST NOTES Summer 2024

abundant insect protein available in the Northeast in May. As weather conditions usher in warm air and clockwise winds of high pressure from the southwest, successive waves of songbirds arrive in what birders describe as a “warbler fallout.”

But goldfinches are the avian equivalent of the waning summer sunshine as they delay their nesting season until August, the latest of all the songbirds. Peak singing of their cheerful musical twitter of jumbled notes and po-tay-to-chip flight calls occur long before nest building and egg laying in mid-summer, after the other colorful songbirds begin to supplement their spring diet of insect protein with a summer diet of carbohydrate-rich fruits, including strawberries, black raspberries, blueberries, and elderberries. The sugar calories fuel the growth of their fledglings,

who leave their nests by mid-June. Postbreeding season, most adults molt into their “traveling clothes,” a less colorful drab autumn plumage. After raising their young, adults generally disperse in all directions to feed and rest. The dawn songbird chorus quiets dramatically, but the goldfinches still bide their time.

Finally in August, goldfinches weave nests made of coarse grass lined with soft downy fibers of thistle flowers. Their delayed nesting strategy gives young goldfinches the greatest chance of survival during the late summer when availability of their preferred foods—tiny weed seeds, sunflowers, common mullein, bull thistle, milkweed, and insects—are all at their peak. Over time, the yellow, black, and white flocks of goldfinches seen rising from weedy, unmowed fields or perching

on overhead wires become less noticeable. They pay more attention to quietly incubating eggs and brooding vulnerable chicks even as the autumn migration of coastal shorebirds has already begun.

The late summer days are the height of peak drying season in browning fields of weeds where green grasshoppers buzz by day and black field crickets chirp at night amid goldenrod, ox-eye daisy, browneyed Susan, Queen Anne’s lace, and wild

asters. The untended fields and edges of dry roadsides fill with flowers and insects, which are the chosen fare of the goldfinch flocks.

As fall arrives, take time to watch their undulating flight and note how their nesting season signifies another perfect summer is seemingly flying past.

Dave Anderson is the senior director of education for the Forest Society.

Get Out! Interested in spotting goldfinches near you?

The Rocks in Bethlehem, the Merrimack River Outdoor Education & Conservation Area in Concord, and Creek Farm in Portsmouth are great places to spy goldfinches along the weedy edges of these properties. Keep to the open fields and meadows as these birds do not prefer forested habitats.

Take a moment to appreciate that “weeds” and “untended” areas provide a wealth of seasonal food sources for these common birds of late summer.

Consulting Foresters

The Forest Society encourages landowners to consult with a licensed forester before undertaking land management activities.

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Summer 2024 FOREST NOTES | 21

PUBLIC POLICY

How New Hampshire’s Forests Benefit From the Federal Farm Bill

By Matt Leahy

T

he Farm Bill, officially called the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, is one of the key tools available to incentivize and promote the protection and stewardship of our country’s natural resources. In fact, it is the single largest source of federal funding for conservation activities. The nearly $6 billion the legislation annually allocates is used for the health and sustainability of our forests, wildlife, and natural landscapes.

For example, in 2021 with Farm Bill funding, the Forest Society restored important early successional habitat in a largely forested landscape at the Heald Tract in Wilton by removing invasive plants that were overrunning an apple orchard to promote the growth of native shrub species.

Beyond the funding it provides, the law authorizes several programs that support forests and the recreational, economic, and environmental benefits they provide, including: • The U.S. Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program, which provides technical and financial assistance to deliver nature-based solutions to support the forests and trees in urban and suburban communities.

• The Wood Innovations Grants Program and the Community Wood Grant Program, which support and build markets for wood products.

• The Good Neighbor Authority (GNA), which supports collaboration between the Forest Service and state, tribal, and local governments to keep our forests healthy and productive.

To date, 380 GNA agreements have been completed across 38 states.

• The reauthorization of the Forest Legacy Program’s Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, which, using money from the Land 22 | FOREST NOTES Summer 2024

With Farm Bill funding, the Forest Society restored an apple orchard at the Heald Tract in Wilton to promote the growth of native shrub species and create early successional habitat. and Water Conservation Fund, provides grants to states to permanently protect forested properties through easements.

Furthermore, the bill’s Conservation section contains programs to help steward and protect important resources, including: • The Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which helps the owners of working lands integrate various conservation practices to address natural resource concerns on their property.

• The Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, which helps land trusts cover the cost of placing conservation easements on privately owned agricultural properties.

• The Regional Conservation Partnership Program, which enhances partner initiatives to protect working agricultural lands as well as the restoration of wetlands and other sensitive natural resources.

These programs and services illustrate the Farm Bill’s broad reach. Since many of these programs are geared toward private landowners, they also reflect the role this group of stewards plays in overseeing the country’s resources. They need the support found in the Farm Bill to carry out that responsibility.

The U.S. Congress needs to renew—or reauthorize—the Farm Bill every five years.

It is important to remember, however,

Together Making New Hampshire a Great Place to Live, Work, and Explore that the act is one of the largest and most complex pieces of legislation the Congress considers. In addition to the sections on conservation and forestry programs, the Farm Bill includes 10 other sections on topics including support for major commodity crops, nutrition assistance for low-income households, and rural development programs. Each of these sections has its own set of stakeholders who advocate for­—or against—proposals relating to the issues that concern them the most. Adding to the complexity of passing the reauthorization, the proposal the U.S. Senate considers is typically different from the version the House of Representatives debates. Of course, whatever version passes out of the Congress may need to have enough support to overcome any veto threat from the president.

RYAN SMITH

What that means is that, most likely, Congress will not approve an updated Farm Bill in 2024 and will therefore need to pass a short-term reauthorization. That has happened several times this century.

The 2002 farm bill expired at the end of 2007, and Congress extended it into the spring of 2008. The 2008 Farm Bill expired at the end of 2012 and was extended for one year to 2013. The 2018 version has already been extended to 2024.

Regardless of the exact timing of final passage, the reauthorization of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 will provide significant opportunities for land trusts, private landowners, and communities to protect and steward high-priority farmlands, wetlands, forests, and other important natural areas.

Ultimately, the Farm Bill demonstrates that ensuring the nation’s communities are healthy and vibrant starts with safeguarding our forests, soils, and water resources.

As such, the Forest Society will continue to work with our state and national partners, and with New Hampshire’s Congressional delegation, to ensure that conservation priorities are included in the next Farm Bill.

Matt Leahy is the public policy director for the Forest Society.

We thank our business partners for their generous support Forest Society North at The Rocks – CDFA Tax Credit Program Badger, Peabody & Smith Realty, Inc. Bassinger Limited, PC Grappone Management Co., Inc. Lumbard & Kellner, LLC Mascoma Bank Meredith Village Savings Bank Merrimack County Savings Bank Milestone Engineering & Construction, LLC Nathan Wechsler & Company Northway Bank ReVision Energy Union Bank Woodsville Guaranty Savings Bank Summit Circle ($5,000 and up) Badger, Peabody & Smith Realty, Inc. Garnet Hill Inc. Mainstay Technologies Merrimack County Savings Bank Nathan Wechsler & Company Newburyport Bank Northland Forest Products, Inc. Seaboard International Forest Products, LLC Whalen Public & Media Relations, LLC Trustees’ Circle ($2,500 to $4,999) J Group Hospitality Meredith Village Savings Bank Northeast Delta Dental The Secret Agency, LLC St. Mary’s Bank President’s Circle ($1,000 to $2,499) Bangor Savings Bank BCM Environmental & Land Law, PLLC CheckmateHCM Solutions Chinburg Properties EOS Research Ltd. Frog Hollow Forestry Lumbard & Kellner, LLC Messina’s Flooring & Carpet Milestone Engineering & Construction LLC New England Private Wealth Advisors, LLC NH Conservation Real Estate Ransmeier & Spellman, P.C. ReVision Energy Rockywold-Deephaven Camps, Inc. Samyn d’Elia Architects PA Upstream Tech Steward ($750 to $999) Devine, Millimet & Branch, P.A. Meadowsend Timberlands Limited Partner ($500 to $749) Arcomm Communications Corporation Blue Mountain Forest Association Capitol Craftsman, LLC Durgin and Crowell Lumber Co., Inc. Eastern Mountain Sports FedPoint Half Moon Enterprises Harbor Group Leigh Starer Landscape Architect The Lyme Timber Company LP The Music Mill Pine Springs

Partner (continued) R.M. Piper, Inc. Whole Wealth Management, LLC Colleague ($250 to $499) Anagnost Investments C&S Wholesale Grocers Gideon Asen LLC Grappone Management Company Great Brook Veterinary Clinic, LLC Innovative Natural Resource Solutions, LLC J.M. Tree Service Kozikowski Properties, LLC Mediation Partners of New England, LLC Mulligan Forest, LLC Northeast Forest Services Portsmouth Paddle Board Company, LLC Rath, Young and Pignatelli, PA Rek’-Lis Brewing Company, LLC Robbins Lumber Samyn d’Elia Architects, PA Seven C’s Inc. Sunset Park Campground Tri-State Iron Works, Inc. Twin State Sand & Gravel Co., Inc. Underhill Acres, Inc. Winnipesaukee Chocolates Zachary Berger Associates, Inc. Matching Gift Companies ADP, LLC Advent International American Biltrite, Inc. Amgen, Inc. Bank of America Bank of New Hampshire Boston Scientific Bristol-Myers Squibb Company The Cigna Group Cleveland H. Dodge Foundation, Inc. Davis Polk & Wardwell, LLP Dell, Inc. Erie Insurance Gartner, Inc. Gilead Sciences, Inc. Google, LLC Gradient Hearst Communications, Inc. Intel Corporation Jacobs Solutions, Inc. Jefferies Financial Group, Inc. Johnson & Johnson Liberty Mutual Insurance Lincoln Financial Group Macy’s, Inc. Manulife Financial Corporation Microsoft Corporation Motorola Solutions, Inc. NetApp, Inc. Prudential Financial, Inc. Raytheon Technologies Corporation Shell Oil Company Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. The Travelers Companies, Inc. UnitedHealth Group Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. VMware, Inc.

We are grateful to the many businesses that support the Forest Society with gifts of less than $250.

The Forest Society…Where Conservation and Business Meet For information about business memberships, sponsorships, or to initiate a gift membership program for 2024 FOREST NOTES | 23 your clients or employees, please contact Anne Truslow at (603)Summer 224-9945 or atruslow@forestsociety.org.

PROJECT IN PROGRESS

A River Runs Through It

Help Protect the Morrill Farm and the Merrimack River Northfield Fife Conservation Easement #2 Franklin, 61 Acres

Pending - Morrill Dairy Farm Conservation Easement Penacook (Concord), 200 acres

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Fife Conservation Easement #1 Franklin, 124 Acres

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Brookford Brookford Farm Farm Conservation Conservation Easement Easement Canterbury, 540540 Acres Canterbury, Acres

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his fall the Forest Society and the Morrill family hope to complete the long-held vision of conserving the 200-acre Morrill Farm Dairy property along the Merrimack River in Penacook.

This would be the Forest Society’s fourteenth project in ten locations along the main stem of the Merrimack in the section between its origin in Franklin and our capital city of Concord—a total of more than 2,000 acres.

Morrill Farm cows have grazed within the Concord city limits in fields along the Merrimack River for nearly a century.

Their milk travels just four miles down North State Street to the H.P. Hood plant for processing. More recently, the Morrills have diversified the farm to grow grains such as barley, rye, and oats that are then marketed through partnerships like Valley Malt, which supplies local craft brewers, distillers, and flour millers. Morrill Farm products are available straight from the on-site farmstand.

But why is the Forest Society working so hard to conserve farmland? The 200-acre Morrill Farm property includes over a mile of frontage on the Merrimack River and another mile of frontage on Oxbow Pond.

The mix of open fields, wetlands, riparian areas and forest creates an important system for buffering the river, supporting both water quality and flood control functions, while also maintaining high value agricultural soils that will remain available to produce food and fiber into the future.

The Merrimack River also supplies drinking water to more than 700,000 people, many in urban areas downstream from Concord. With more extreme rain and flood events, runoff and sewage overflow threaten water quality. The more we can do to protect the upper watershed, the healthier the river will be in the long run. To learn more, you might enjoy watching the Forest Society-produced

Concord, 204 ac.

Boscawen Muchyedo Banks WMA Conservation Easement Canterbury, 292 Acres

Webster

Unitil Conservation Easement Concord, 138 Acres

Concord

Brookford Farm Conservation Easement Concord, 163 Acres

Hopkinton

W.Portsmouth St., Conservation Easement Concord, 200 Acres

Morrill Dairy Farm Easement Forest Society - Completed Merrimack River Projects

Woodman Conservation Easement Concord, 125 Acres

Conservation Center Concord, 103 Acres

Other Conservation Lands

Pending - Morrill Dairy Farm Conservation Easement 200 ± Acres, Penacook (Concord), NH Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests

film The Merrimack: River at Risk, found at forestsociety.org/riveratrisk.

The Forest Society is working with the Morrills to purchase a conservation easement that forever prohibits subdivision and development of the farm fields and riverfront, while allowing continued agriculture and recreational uses, including fishing, hunting, and paddling. The

July 18, 2024 Source: GRANIT

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11,800 Feet

Morrills will continue to own the property, and the Forest Society will hold and uphold the conditions of the conservation easement in perpetuity.

Conserving the Morrill Farm will not only support local agriculture and a family business, but also protect the natural qualities of the meandering banks of this iconic river, a source of food and trade over

The Morrill Farm property includes over a mile of frontage on the Merrimack River and another mile of frontage on Oxbow Pond. centuries of human settlement and seasonal migration. Paddling a kayak along the river today remains a timeless experience, with sandy beaches, oxbow bends, silver maple forests, and wildlife ranging from freshwater mussels to bald eagles.

To accomplish this project, the Forest Society must raise a total of $270,000 to purchase the conservation easement and support acquisition and stewardship costs.

Fortunately, grant programs like the NH Land and Community Heritage Program

and private donors like you have given us a head start. Now we must raise the final funds needed before the end of the year.

Please join us to support local farming, protect water quality, and conserve the Merrimack by making a donation today!

YES, PLEASE DEDICATE MY GIFT TO THE MORRILL FARM CONSERVATION PROJECT. Name: Address:

Town/City:

Telephone:

Email:

State:

Zip:

Enclosed is my tax-deductible contribution of $ _____________ VISA

MasterCard Number: ______________________________________ Exp. date: _______________ Security code: ________ Please mail the completed form to:

BRIAN HOTZ

Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests 54 Portsmouth Street, Concord, NH 03301

Donate online at forestsociety.org/morrill-farm or scan the QR code using your smartphone's camera app.

For more information, call Anne Truslow at 603-224-9945 or email atruslow@forestsociety.org.

Thank you for your help!

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SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF NEW HAMPSHIRE FORESTS 54 Portsmouth Street Concord, NH 03301-5400

Nonprofit Organization US Postage Paid Manchester, NH Permit No. 0494

Address Service Requested

Please join us for our

123nd Annual Meeting in the

Monadnock Region!

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 JERRY MONKMAN

PETERBOROUGH, NH

Mount Monadnock as seen from the Forest Society's Gap Mountain Reservation.

LOCATION: Monadnock Country Club, 49 High St., Peterborough, N.H. FIELD TRIPS: 1. Monadnock: The Mountain That Stands Alone film screening and Q&A with director Dan White 2. Mount Monadnock Early-Risers Hike 3. Explore the Beauty of Sharon Bog (Full) 4. Forestry in the Time of Climate Change: Gap Mountain Hike 5. More Than Meets the Eye: Welch Family Farm and Forest

Thanks to Our Sponsors

MEETING SCHEDULE: 9–11:30 a.m.

11:30 a.m.

Noon 1:00 p.m.

2:00 p.m.

Field trips (optional) Registration opens Lunch Business Meeting, Recognitions, and Awards Keynote: "Right Before Our Eyes: The World's Rapidly Changing Wetlands"

by Author Annie Proulx

COST: Registration includes field trips, lunch, and program.

Regular Price: $55/person (Registration deadline September 15) For more information or to register, visit forestsociety.org/annualmeeting or contact Linda Dammann at 603-224-9945 x325 or ldammann@forestsociety.org.

Savings Bank of Walpole