Forest Notes Spring 2025

200 FORESTS AND COUNTING | SAVING WATERVILLE VALLEY

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

From Seeds to Scions Harnessing the Power of Partnership

SPRING 2025

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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: SPRING 2025, No. 321

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FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

12 The Kids Are Alright Forest Society Interns Reflect on a Summer that Shaped Them

18 A Lasting Legacy How Waterville Valley’s Wild Heart Became Part of the White Mountain National Forest

22 For the Love of Her Land Introducing the Bean Forest in Farmington, the Forest Society’s 200th forest.

2 FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK Managing the People’s Forest

4 THE WOODPILE + Studying Visitor Use at Mount Major + Full Circle + Search-and-Rescue Volunteers Make All the Difference

8 IN THE FIELD Propagating Partnerships

26 PUBLIC POLICY Should Forest Carbon Projects Be Taxed?

28 PROJECT IN PROGRESS Help Protect the Top of Mount Kearsarge!

30 THE MANY FACES OF CONSERVATION

200 FORESTS AND COUNTING | SAVING WATERVILLE VALLEY

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

From Seeds to Scions Harnessing the Power of Partnership

SPRING 2025

forestsociety.org

On our cover: A white oak scion grafted to a swamp white oak root stock grows a new leaf at the New Hampshire State Forest Nursery.

Turn to page 8 to learn more.

Photo by Ryan Smith.

Dewey and Mary Clark

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 Amy Reagle Meyers, Jaffrey 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 Kristine Arey, Program Director, The Rocks Brie Belisle, Regional Stewardship Manager Nik Berube, Maintenance Assistant Naomi Brattlof, Director of Easement Stewardship Adam Buxbaum, Christmas Tree Farmer, The Rocks Rita Carroll, Tree Farm Administrator Tony Cheek, Vice President for Finance Connie Colton, Land Protection and Stewardship Coordinator Linda Dammann, Development Assistant Carrie Deegan, Vice President for Recreation Management and Public Engagement Steve Fuller, Regional Stewardship Manager 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 Michelle Morse, Finance Specialist Carl Murphy, Facilities Manager Sophie Oehler, Communications Coordinator Cara Pearson, Membership Specialist 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 Kaity Stanton, Regional Development Manager – Seacoast 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 Brenna Woodman, Director of Communications Harriette Yazzie-Whitcomb, Assistant 2 | FOREST NOTESAdministrative Spring 2025

Managing the People’s Forest

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s the White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) at risk from unsustainable harvesting? More than a few people have asked the question this spring in response to the executive branch’s desire to have our national forests provide more of the timber we use for housing and other societal needs.

Growing the wood we use in New England is an admirable goal. So is harvesting that wood sustainably—ideally growing more wood than we harvest.

These were foundational principles of the Forest Society’s centennial vision in 2001, New Hampshire Everlasting. Today, in New Hampshire, we do grow more than we harvest, but as a region we import a significant amount of wood, and we may or may not know how sustainably sourced our imported timber may be.

A prerequisite for either of these goals is to first keep our productive forests as forests.

Then we need to manage them long term.

We also need innovative loggers, truckers, mill owners, and customers who care where and how the wood they use is sourced.

The Forest Society has forest management plans for each of our 200 properties across 66,000 acres. Compiled by trained foresters, the plans outline our goals for each property, taking into consideration the characteristics of the site, the current conditions of the forest, species distribution, and our long-term organizational goals. The plans also integrate recreation, wildlife habitat, water quality, carbon uptake as well as marketable timber.

We manage our forests for the long term, aways looking to foster resilience against pests, disease, and the impacts that we observe due to climate change.

We aren’t unique in this approach— many private landowners do the same. As do public landowners, such as the State of New Hampshire and the U.S. Forest Service.

In the case of the Forest Service, which is called upon to manage the forests of the

people, each national forest is guided by an overarching Forest Management Plan, which is compiled with extensive input from many stakeholders and members of the public. The WMNF’s management plan outlines areas of the forest that are set aside as wilderness, areas that welcome millions of recreational visitors, and areas that will benefit from harvesting.

Good forest management should evolve from improved understanding of forest ecosystems rather than short-term political decisions. In New Hampshire, we have been fortunate to benefit from world-class research stations in our backyard at Hubbard Brook and Bartlett. The continuum of research, planning, public comment and input, development of alternatives, and adoption of a well-informed forest management plan is essential to the balance of many uses on national forests, especially here in the White Mountains.

As Dave Anderson’s article on page 18 reminds us, the Forest Society has played many roles as a partner with the White Mountain National Forest over the past century. Just as we defend the implementation of a publicly adopted management plan that includes timber harvesting, we will also be vigilant in making sure that transparent planning processes, science-informed silviculture, and common sense continue to drive decision-making in the Whites.

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) COURTESY OF USDA, KAITY STANTON, JODIE ANDRUSKEVICH

Buzz Worthy A celebration of the black fly forestsociety.org/blackfly

Creekside Inspiration Native plants abound at Creek Farm forestsociety.org/creekfarmgarden

“Meredith Village Savings Bank was thrilled to sponsor the Earth Day cleanup efforts at Mount Major together with the Forest Society.

A wave of dedicated volunteers swept the trail, picking up litter and leaving nothing but footprints. How lucky we are to call this beautiful area home and to share it with such a caring community of residents.”

In the Spotlight Staff, board honored by NHBR forestsociety.org/nh200

CONNECT WITH US! facebook.com/ForestSociety

@ForestSociety

—#meredithvillagesavingsbank (From left: Jason Hicks, EVP chief financial and risk officer for NH Mutual Bancorp; Marcus Weeks, MVSB president; US Senator Jeanne Shaheen; and Jack Savage, Forest Society president)

T ag #forestsociety on Instagram for a chance to be featured in a future issue of Forest Notes.

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 2025 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:

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Spring 2025 FOREST NOTES | 3

THE WOODPILE—NEWS NOT SO NEATLY STACKED

Studying Visitor Use at Mount Major This summer and fall, the Forest Society is partnering with Outdoor Research Insights, LLC to conduct a visitor use survey at Mount Major in Alton. As one of New Hampshire’s most beloved and heavily visited hiking destinations, Mount Major sees year-round use—and this study will help us better understand who is visiting, what they value, and how their experiences can inform future planning.

From June through November 2025, trained researchers will conduct brief, voluntary surveys at the Mount Major trailhead off Route 11. The information collected will help guide trail improvements, reduce crowding, and ensure a welcoming, high-quality recreation experience that also protects the natural resources we all cherish.

If you’re hiking Mount Major this season and are approached by a surveyor,

we encourage you to participate and share your thoughts. Your feedback will play a vital role in shaping the future of this treasured landscape.

Learn More: For information, visit forestsociety.org/ mount-major-visitor-use-survey.

Full Circle In the autumn 2024 issue of Forest Notes, Senior Director of Education Dave Anderson wrote about a particular red mulberry tree at the Merrimack River Outdoor Education & Conservation Area in Concord that was beloved by birds and by local elementary school students. Over time the Merrimack’s riverbank eroded and the tree began to cave toward the river. Enter farmer Bill Wardwell. In fall 2023, Wardwell cut twigs off the tree and expertly grafted the scions to mulberry rootstock at his farm in Dunbarton. In May 2024, Forest Society staff planted three of the special trees back home on the Merrimack floodplain nearly within sight of the mother tree. “It is more accurate to say they planted clones of the original tree next to itself to be reborn,” Anderson says. “They are truly an arboreal Lazarus rising again from the sandy Merrimack River floodplain.”

Learn More: Turn to page 8 to read about another exciting Forest Society grafting project.

4 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2025

Left: Vice President for Recreation Management and Public Engagement Carrie Deegan and Seasonal Stewardship Technician Sam Boduch pose with one of the grafted mulberry trees.

Right: Senior Director of Education Dave Anderson waters a grafted mulberry tree.

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

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Licensed foresters should address inquiries about advertising to Anne Truslow by calling 603-224-9945 or emailing atruslow@forestsociety.org.

Spring 2025 FOREST NOTES | 5

THE WOODPILE—NEWS NOT SO NEATLY STACKED

EASEMENT STEWARDSHIP

A Note From the Director’s Desk The department is glad to be back out in the woods!

If you are an easement landowner in the southwest part of the state, you may meet our newest hire, Steve Fuller.

If you are in the southeast part of the state, you may get an out-of-the-office message from Brie Belisle, who has welcomed her second child into her family this spring.

In the north, you may encounter a familiar face from the past! We’re glad to have Abraham Ames joining us this summer as a seasonal staff to help monitor easements as we navigate some transitions within the department.

Interested in learning about owning and managing land (including habitat management or forestry)?

View our library at: forestsociety.org/landownerstewardship-reference-library —Naomi Brattlof Director of Easement Stewardship 6 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2025

Search-and-Rescue Volunteers Make All the Difference

By Tim Acerno The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department is responsible for all searchand-rescue (SAR) operations in the woodlands and inland waters of the state, and given the increased interest in outdoor recreation, conservation officers are busy year-round responding to calls for hiker assistance. These missions are executed by officers with the critical support of experienced volunteer searchand-rescue teams. Without these specially trained and passionate volunteers supporting Fish and Game, some calls for help may not have the positive outcomes people have come to expect.

Conservation officers are well trained in SAR and are experts in diverse aspects of outdoor emergency response.

However, because search and rescue is one of many of the officer’s duties, they cannot physically be everywhere at once.

New Hampshire’s outdoor community is fortunate to have dedicated volunteer teams committed to partnering with Fish and Game on SAR operations, and

these trained volunteers are vital to many successful missions.

Search and rescue is physically demanding work that can be extremely dangerous, and teamwork is the key to success. Because of the risks and costs associated with SAR missions, outdoor enthusiasts are strongly encouraged to recreate responsibly. The hikeSafe educational program was developed and endorsed by the White Mountain National Forest and the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. To learn more visit hikesafe.com.

Outdoor enthusiasts are also encouraged to purchase a Hike Safe card every year.

Proceeds help defray the costs of training and rescue equipment. “People seem to appreciate having a way to contribute to our search-and-rescue readiness. At the same time, they get the peace of mind that if an incident occurs, reimbursement costs are covered,” said Fish and Game Col. Kevin Jordan. To purchase a Hike Safe card, visit wildlife.nh.gov/get-outside/hiking-safety.

SAVE THE DATE! SPECIAL EVENT A Celebration and Dedication of the Bean Forest as the Forest Society’s 200th Conserved Forest July 13 | 11 a.m.–2 p.m.

Join Forest Society staff and friends as we celebrate the generous land conservation legacy of Dorothy “Dottie” Bean when we dedicate this new 340acre forest in Farmington. The wellmanaged land includes trails winding through mature red oak, beech, white pine, and hemlock forests. Open ledges from near the summit of Chesley Mountain offer sweeping views of the Salmon Falls River valley. A guided two-hour hike on the loop trail includes strenuous uphill hiking to reach the top.

Volunteer Appreciation Day July 20 Bear Brook State Park, Allenstown Five Hikes Challenge

September 1–October 31 2025 Theme: Hike with Heart

Monadnock Trails Week September 4–8 124th Forest Society Annual Meeting September 27 Colby Sawyer College New London Registration opens August 4

For more information about these or other events, visit forestsociety.org/events.

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Find the following words in the puzzle. Words are hidden: Vitals History Soap Assessment Fracture Shock

Cravat Irrigation Asthma Blister Breathing Circulatory

Evacuation Exhaustion Hypothermia Lightning Pain Respiratory

Splint Wound Sting Transport Allergy Altitude

Burn Infection Rescue Tourniquet CPR Epinephrine

Spring 2025 FOREST NOTES | 7

IN THE FIELD

Propagating Partnerships:

Advancing Research Goals Through Statewide Collaborations

By Steve Junkin

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t’s been said many times before that partnerships advance conservation efforts in New Hampshire. Our feeowned land—67,000-plus acres—offers a platform for collaborating with other organizations to achieve a unified goal. To increase our collective knowledge about ecology and forest management, our forests offer ideal conditions for research projects. Forest Society foresters know these lands well, and they can quickly provide intimate details about these forests when responding to research inquiries. For example, when the New Hampshire State Forest Nursery in Boscawen asked the Forest Society for permission to collect seeds of specific species growing on our land, we were ready to assist and direct them in short time. This request led to the creation of the Seed Seekers Program, now in its third year, where Forest Society volunteers are trained in identifying and locating requested seeds. By providing tree species data and locations across Forest Society forests, we have been able to help the Nursery increase the genetic diversity of the trees they grow. When the diversity within plant species increases so does the resiliency of those species to withstand stressors, including climate change, pests, and pathogens.

Another collaboration with the Nursery and the Division of Forests and Lands Forest Health Program involves the propagation of white ash trees. In 2022, State of NH Forest Health Specialist Bill Davidson revisited forests, several of them on Forest Society properties, where he had previously injected white ash trees with pesticides to protect them from the Emerald Ash Borer.

Ash trees experienced a bumper crop of seeds that year allowing Bill to gather seeds from a handful of sites in the state. The trees saved were selected due to each site’s ability to grow resilient ash trees into the future.

8 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2025

Caption

New Hampshire State Forest Nursery Manager Billy Kunelius collects white oak scion using a bucket lift at the Dame Forest in Durham, N.H., (above) and a pole pruner at Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown.

STEVE JUNKIN (X2)

These collected seeds were planted that same year with help from Billy Kunelius at the State Forest Nursery. It took the seeds two and a half years to sprout and grow large enough for harvesting in the spring of 2025, and Davidson and Forest Society staff are in the process of planting the trees at the sites where the seeds were collected from. Davidson is hoping this will inform future restoration efforts in the wake of the devastating Emerald Ash Borer infestation.

Adding to the list of partner projects, the Forest Society recently collaborated with the Nursery on the establishment of a white oak seed orchard. In 2022, Steve Roberge and Andy Fast of the UNH Cooperative Extension applied for and received grant funds from the White Oak Initiative, whose mission is to restore oak species across its native range in the eastern U.S. By building a seed orchard, the collaborators aim to increase the production of seeds in a controlled, fenced-in environment, which will prevent animals, including white-tailed deer, turkey, and black bear, from grazing on the sought-after white oak acorns.

This year, Kunelius asked the Forest Society if we knew of places on our land where they could collect branches (aka scions) from seed-producing white oak trees. As with other requests for information, we were able to quickly pull up our inventory records and database of species to provide Kunelius with multiple locations to choose from. The goal of this scion-collecting effort was to collect from 30 sites spread widely across the state to aid in genetic diversity. Kunelius and Forest Society foresters Ben Aldrich and Steve Junkin visited the Morse Preserve in Alton, Ryan and Dame Forests in Durham, and Burch Forest and Harmon Preserve in Freedom in search of white oak scion material. Since the best scions are located in the upper branches of the trees, Kunelius used a boom lift and specialized pruning pole to gain access to the canopy.

After collection, the scions are stored in Ziploc bags in the refrigerator, so they remain dormant and don’t dry out.

Spring 2025 FOREST NOTES | 9

IN THE FIELD

Top left: Forest Society Forester Steve Junkin wraps his graft tightly at the UNH greenhouse. Right: A macro photo of a white oak scion grafted to a swamp white oak rootstock.

Bottom left: Scions collected from the Dame Forest in Durham are bagged and ready for grafting. Right: In just under a week, the grafted stems developed new leaves.

10 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2025

(OPPOSITE PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) STEVE JUNKIN, RYAN SMITH, STEVE JUNKIN, RYAN SMITH; (THIS PAGE) RYAN SMITH

Billy Kunelius waters newly arrived swamp white oak root stock from the Virgina State Nursery.

Once the rootstock—young trees grown specifically for grafting—arrived from the Virginia State Nursery, it was time to begin grafting. A common practice among apple growing and other fruit crops, grafting marries the strengths of the two species that are fused together. In the case of this project, Kunelius grafted white oak (Quercus alba) scions to swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor) rootstock. Why not use white oak as the rootstock? Grafted trees need copious amounts of water for the grafted connections to take successfully. Swamp white oaks have a very high tolerance for wet conditions, which means they can tolerate the frequent waterings. The scions need to be dormant while the rootstock needs to be just exiting dormancy and otherwise beginning to grow. This is true whenever trees are grafted together.

As part of the grant, in late March 2025, Dr. Laura DeWald from the University of Kentucky, traveled to UNH greenhouses to teach a grafting workshop. To assist Kunelius in grafting 500 trees, more than 15 state and university employees joined him and DeWald at the workshop. In later weeks, Forest Society staff and other state and university employees completed the grafting of the remaining trees. Over

the next year, Kunelius and his team will monitor the seedlings as they grow in the greenhouse, and the healthiest looking trees will be selected and planted in the nursery’s orchard in spring 2026.

Kunelius’s goal is to grow 100 trees in the orchard that will produce seed (typically in as little as 5–7 years), plant the seed, and later sell the seedlings at the nursery.

Why White Oak? White oak is a species that was once much more widespread and abundant in New Hampshire, but currently only occupies a small amount of its original range because of many factors, including a shift in disturbance patterns over the last several centuries. Oaks require a lot of sunlight to regenerate, and the largescale, light-spreading disturbances that open a forest canopy occur less frequently.

Forest fires would have historically created these conditions; however, today’s land use practices, which aim to suppress fires, have little benefit to fire-adapted species.

In the absence of fire, there are forestry methods that can achieve a similar post-fire condition, but this requires an intensive approach that can be hard to convince landowners to implement.

Sometimes, even when the stars align and oaks are successfully regenerated, it doesn’t take long before white-tailed deer find them. Oaks are preferred by deer over other tree species leading to a radical shift in forest composition where deer densities are too high. From an ecological standpoint, white oak fills an important niche in the food web as it provides both highly palatable acorns—more sought after than red oak—and rough, flaky bark where insects hide and become food sources for many bird species. White oak is also a highly sought after lumber species for making barrels that age and ferment libations, such as wine and beer. Some species stand less of a chance of doing well in the future as our climate changes.

However, white oak is projected to do well in a warming climate, so it is considered a climate resilient species.

From seeds to scions, the Forest Society is ready to assist when our conservation allies come calling. No doubt, our partnerships and relationships outside of our office walls will be key to protecting our state’s natural resources in the days and years ahead.

Steve Junkin is a field forester for the Forest Society.

Spring 2025 FOREST NOTES | 11

12 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2025

The Kids Are Alright

Forest Society Interns Reflect on a Summer that Shaped Them

By Sophie Oehler

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n the fall 1975 issue of Forest Notes, short articles throughout the magazine highlight the efforts of an inspired group of young people. This is the Forest Society’s second ever class of summer interns, a tight-knit group

of college grads and Masters degree students who spent the summer of

‘75 (for some, the summer before, too) exploring newly acquired Forest Society properties, clambering through the mountains in search of historic

cellar holes, and following in the footsteps of history at some of the Granite State’s most iconic places. Fifty years on, still smiling and still close friends, they have grown into pillars of conservation, environmental action, and

public service thanks to foundations built solidly in the basement of the Forest Society’s former headquarters at 5 South State Street in Concord.

Spring 2025 FOREST NOTES | 13

Jameson (Jamey) French interned with the Forest Society The early 1970s were in the summer of 1975 in between graduating from Trinity College an exciting time for both with a BA in history and doing graduate work in economic history environmental action and at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He worked with Dijit Taylor youth empowerment. The and another intern on the campaign to protect Sandwich Notch, Environmental Protection specifically completing a field inventory of historic sites in the notch, along with a Agency was newly formed, report on the area’s history and cultural significance. He has been president and the national voting age had CEO of Northland Forest Products since 1990 (the family has been in the hardwood just been lowered to 18, and industry since the late 19th century). Northland was the first in North America to school campuses across the adopt forest certification, a voluntary standard that ensures forest products are country were maintaining the sourced from sustainably managed forests. He served as the chair of the Land Trust social momentum whipped up during the anti-Vietnam War Alliance—the first Granite Stater to hold the position—and remains the youngest demonstrations and the first person to have served as chair of the Forest Society board. He continues to lead Earth Day five years prior. With his business and the boards he has chaired, keeping in mind the words of former environmental protection just Forest Society President/Forester Paul Bofinger, a mentor and family friend: “If emerging onto the national people on both sides of the issue are mad at you, you’re in the right place.” stage, interest in environmental careers amongst young people was on the upswing. and experiences. In New Hampshire, the only two organizations “I was part of a whole group of young people who had been offering internships were the Central New Hampshire Regional inspired by Earth Day to become involved in the environment,” Planning Commission and the Forest Society. says Lucia Kittredge. “Nobody had really talked about environmental protection before, and our colleges didn’t even have environmental programs. These internships were a big deal.”

At that time, Forest Society internships were facilitated by programs sponsored by the Massachusetts Audubon Society and University of Massachusetts-Amherst. To apply, each hopeful intern selected from a long list of institutions seeking seasonal staff, and were hired for projects that best suited their skills, interests,

“I knew I wanted to get back to New Hampshire, which was a big draw for applying to the internship program,” says Dijit Taylor, who at the time was a Master’s candidate in natural resource conservation at Cornell. “I spent much of my childhood on my family’s property in Epsom, N.H., and hiking in the town forests around my hometown of Natick, Mass. I knew I wanted to get into conservation because those memories engrained in me the importance of outdoor spaces, and I wanted those same experiences to continue Dijit Taylor for future generations.”

During her 1975 internship with the Forest Society, Dijit was During this era, the Forest initially assigned to create an interpretive nature trail through Society was, as Jameson the Kingston Cedar Swamp but joined Jamey French’s project to (Jamey) French puts it, inventory the historic resources of Sandwich Notch. The notch “the Grande Dame of New inspired her graduate thesis at Cornell: a study on rural land use Hampshire Conservation.” and resource allocation conflicts. The Forest Society used her Thanks to the Forest Society’s thesis in their materials for the successful campaign. Dijit went on to serve as the advocacy, Current Use Appalachian Mountain Club’s first female director of research, and the director for taxation policy had been the Center for Land Conservation Assistance at the Forest Society where she started recently written into law and plans to build a superthe annual land conservation conference, Saving Special Places. She became the highway through Franconia executive director of the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program in 2010 Notch had been blocked. where she facilitated the permanent conservation of more than 53,000 acres of land The Forest Society was a and 177 historic buildings. She fondly remembers her internship, specifically playing pioneer in adopting the use softball against the Central New Hampshire Regional Planning Commission interns, of conservation easements, and “getting a strong dose of feminism from the other female interns.” “I love this creating a ripple effect in the industry, it’s so important for the permanence of land,” she says. “People need land land protection community, to know and love it, and I love being part of something so significant.” and a campaign to protect

14 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2025

Sandwich Notch, the state’s last unprotected and undeveloped mountain pass, was underway. With regional land trusts still few and far between and environmental protection as a political issue continuing to gain momentum, the Forest Society was at the forefront of conservation action in New Hampshire.

involved with the organization since departing his internship.

“The Forest Society has greatly impacted my desire to keep the forest industry engaged and recognizing the role they have in conservation and the good care of forests.”

“Without the Forest Society I wouldn’t have had the same sense of how forestry and conservation fit together, and I certainly wouldn’t have the same sense of New Hampshire,” Difley says.

“The work we did expanded and deepened my conservation ethic

As a result, the interns of 1975 found themselves in positions of significant responsibility. Jamey French and Dijit Taylor served as early data and story collectors for the campaign to save Sandwich Notch, connecting with communities and key players across the state to compile reports that Diane Kostecke spent a summer interning with the Forest Society would play an instruin 1974, putting together The Franconia Notch: An In-Depth Guide mental role in the after graduating from Brandeis University. The following summer, campaign’s eventual sucshe interned with the Central New Hampshire Regional Planning cess. Cleve Kapala ran Commission and finished the guidebook with the Forest Society in the Forest Society’s sumher spare time. The historic and cultural research, media production, mer camp and connected and community engagement work she completed during her internship was the with public schools across bridge to a long career with Wisconsin public television. In her time working in media New Hampshire. Jane Difley production, she has been involved with multiple environmental documentaries and developed management plans projects, and in her retirement she completed an oral history and documentary on that would guide stewardship Roy Lukes, a major environmentalist from Door County, Wisc. Though she moved away of Gap Mountain and built from New Hampshire shortly after finishing her internships with the Forest Society, relationships with promishe remains a generous supporter and admirer of the organization and her fellow nent landowners in the local interns: “I learned so much from [the others] and, though having lost touch over all community. Lucia Kittredge these years, they are indelibly etched in my memory with respect and affection.” identified and laid out a new route for the MonadnockSunapee Greenway, and Diane Kostecke wrote The Franconia Notch: An In-Depth Guide (Forest and convinced me to stay in conservation and commit my career Society, 1975), which is still available for purchase online. “I to it. Plus, it formed lifelong relationships that have followed me didn’t know it at the time but there was no better place to be through my career and have meant a lot to me.”

As can be expected for like-minded, outgoing, and inspired launched into a career,” Kostecke says. “We interns had a lot of autonomy with the big projects we got to do. Even when some of young people working in close proximity, the interns quickly us might have felt out of our depth, we just did it. That kind of bonded into a tight-knit group that remains interwoven today.

The result is a long history of living and working in the state mentality set me up for so many other opportunities.”

Kapala echoed Kostecke’s sentiment: “The Forest Society was a intersecting with each other and the Forest Society. Jamey French launching pad for me and the direction I gravitated toward for the served on the Forest Society’s Board of Trustees at the time when remainder of my life. The internship was socially, educationally, the organization hired it’s first and only female president/forester: and philosophically important. It made collaborating with a certain Jane Difley. Jane would lead the Forest Society for 23 partners second nature, it instilled a strong respect for years, and during that time the Forest Society helped establish the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program to support environmental quality, and it inspired my career interests.”

After their summers at the Forest Society, each of the interns land conservation and historic preservation in the state—where left to pursue careers that were somehow influenced or supported Dijit Taylor, many years later, would serve as executive director. by their individual assignments. Most of them remained in Cleve Kapala went on to work in industry for TransCanada, and environmental fields with the exception of Kostecke, who went in doing so was instrumental in placing a conservation easement on to become a successful public television producer. All of on more 2,300 acres with 31 miles of frontage on the First and them remained dedicated to the values, ethics, and life lessons Second Connecticut Lakes in Pittsburg—an easement held by the absorbed during their intern experience. “My whole life has Forest Society.

Their personal lives, too, have remained connected. Difley and been working with one leg in the industry and the other in the environmental community,” French says. He has remained French share a birthday and celebrate the occasion yearly over Spring 2025 FOREST NOTES | 15

lunch. Difley, Kittredge, and Taylor have formed a hiking group of women called “The Trampers,” who meet weekly to “tramp” across forests, fields, and riverbanks that each member played a role in conserving.

Jane Difley interned with the Forest Society in the summer of

1975, drafting land use management plans on Gap Mountain, as well as the Webster Natural Area and the Tophet Swamp. After receiving a master’s in forestry at UMass Amherst, she served as vice president of forestry programs and national director for the American Forest Foundation’s American Tree Farm system before going on to become the executive director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council. She is best known for being the Forest Society’s fourth president/forester and the first woman to hold the position at the organization. During her tenure as president, Difley doubled the Forest Society’s conserved forestland acreage, played a major role in halting Eversource’s Northern Pass transmission line, and led the organization’s centennial vision campaign, New Hampshire Everlasting. In her two decades as president, Difley ushered in an era of change and evolution for the Forest Society and continues to enjoy witnessing the forward movement of forestry in the Granite State. “We’ve evolved a lot in the priorities we set around forestry,” she says. “We’re talking about how we are going to prepare for climate change and how we can educate people on the role of forestry in mitigating it. As always, we need to involve landowners in the conversation. It’s really all about people.”

Lucia Kittredge and Cleve Kapala married each other.

They met in the basement of 5 South State St. Kapala describes the afternoon of their first encounter, working late to type up an assignment after the secretaries had gone home. Kittredge returned from the field, less shocked to find Kapala still working as she was to find him capable of doing his own touch typing. “I remember thinking, ‘Here’s this lovely person who’s interested in me because of my typing skills? How can that be?’” he says. “When you think about it, the Forest Society did change my life. It was a foundational experience.”

upheaval, finding their way to contribute to the greater good of environmental stewardship.

Following their example, Ben Leoni served as a policy intern with the Forest Society in the early 2000s. Today, he is a land use attorney for the US Department of the Interior, advising federal agencies on Lucia Kittredge spent two summers interning with the Forest the legality of activities on Society, both of which were spent planning and helping to reroute public lands. “If you want the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway. In between summers, to learn the effectiveness of Lucia was a graduate student in landscape architecture at UC policy and if you base success Berkeley and went on to lead a successful career as a traditional on outcomes, the Forest landscape architect before turning to independent consulting, Society is a great place to learn providing land conservation guidance for landowners. She was from,” he notes. instrumental in the conservation of the Canterbury Shaker Adam Gough spent two Village, Andorra Forest in Stoddard, and the Forest Society’s Cockermouth Forest. summers painting boundary She currently serves on Hopkinton’s Open Space Committee and chairs the lines with the forestry department and met his Hopkinton Trails Committee and is thrilled to have been a part of their effort to current employer on a Forest conserve the Hopkinton Village Greenway, a 4.5-mile loop around the village center, Society timber landing, leading in perpetuity. “I’ve worked with so many wonderful landowners and seen some to the beginning of an inspired beautiful land across the state. I feel I’ve come full circle in so many ways.” and influential consulting forester profession. “Working There are many unique and special things about this group. for the Forest Society broadened my horizons and helped me Humble as they are successful, they fill our conversations with create new relationships throughout the state,” Gough says. “It anecdotes of people who made their work possible, reflections sets a foundation for what it means to be a good forester, leaving a on what they’ve learned as professionals as opposed to what tangible legacy where you’ve truly made a change with the places they’ve conquered, and unending gratitude for the experiences and people you interact with.” that life has granted them. But what is particularly striking What these more recent interns have in common with the about this group is their perseverance through change and interns of 1975 is more than just their starting point. They are 16 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2025

intelligent, insightful, irrefutable in their pursuit of purpose.

They are empowered by people and, in doing so, empowering of people. They can, and have, brought about change felt across communities—natural and human—that extend far beyond New Hampshire’s borders. And that is why the Forest Society hired them. Not because of a GPA or a family connection, but because even before they knew who or what the Forest Society was, they were already living its mission.

know. But the benefit of being a young person is that you stand at the threshold of possibility. That fear, curiosity, and quest for knowledge and belonging can impel you toward your mission.

And that is why internships can be so powerful. Intern experiences can bring together that youthful energy, drive, and curiosity with hands-on experience, real-world problem solving, and new perspectives. They create a community of change. And they build the next generation of leaders and innovators for institutions like the Forest Society.

I spent the summer of 2022 as a communications intern at the Forest Society. I found a place where I could make a difference,

Today, we have entered a moment in time where the winds of environmental change are gusty. We know better than ever before how important forest conservation is to our planet, we have better scientific and spatial data Cleve Kapala interned at the Forest Society from the fall of than ever before so that we 1974 through the summer of 1975, after which he was hired can identify and prioritize as a full-time staff member. In 1974, he helped Les Clarke important resources and run the Conservation Camp and Day Laboratory in Outdoor connections between them, Education. The following summer, after finishing his master’s in and we have more proven environmental education at Antioch University, he supported tools for collaboration and the Conservation Trust Program. During his 10 years at the common interests than ever Forest Society, he worked in multiple departments, from land before. But we need political protection, policy research, advocacy and lobbying to education, communications, will, bold action, and dogged and publications. This time engaged him in the planning and designing of the persistence. energy efficient Conservation Center and pulled him in a new career direction. The That part is not new, if we rest of his career has been dedicated to serving as community and government look back on the tumultuous liaison for major energy companies, including TransCanada and New England backdrop to the summer of Electric (preceded National Grid). He played a significant role in negotiating 1975, we’ll see that we have TransCanada’s 2,300-acre conservation easement with the Forest Society on the made bold change happen First and Second Connecticut Lakes in Pittsburg. “My younger self wouldn’t believe before—and the stories of the the career I’ve led. I never could’ve foreseen what I’m doing now.” interns of 1975 is a timely reminder. “It’s hard to see past our current situation in the federal government. Who knows what’s going to happen in the thanks to an organization that sticks by its values, a staff who next four hours or four days, let alone the next four years, or lift one another up, and the legacy of six young people, just like what that will do to our local work,” Dijit Taylor says. “The key me, who may not have known the great influence they would to avoid becoming demoralized is to get your feet, and the feet of someday have but pursued their future as if that is what they other people, especially elected officials, out on the land.” meant to do all along.

In Diane Kostecke’s words, “The story of human existence is The interns of 1975 will tell you that it’s thanks to the Forest always feeling like we’re on the cusp of something terrible but Society that they enjoyed such great success and purpose in their persevering despite that. There’s something in us that keeps us career—and maybe they’re right. But it takes a specific person trying. If that disappears, the world won’t feel the same.” to rise to the occasions and expectations that this organization Jamey French clearly remembered the effort that went into sets: a person with vision, tenacity, and passion; a person who affecting change. “When I look back to when I was chair of Earth welcomes challenge for the growth it promises; a person who Day in my town 55 years ago, the Merrimack River was full of not only wants change but inspires it. It takes a special person sewage, DDT was killing everything, and we had no eagles or to hold these truths for one summer. A rare individual will hold ospreys. We could’ve put our heads in the sand and said there’s no them their entire career. hope. But we didn’t and there’s been dramatic improvement since then. We must stay determined so that we can make a difference.” Sophie Oehler is in her third year as the communications coordinator To be a young person is to experience seemingly insurmount- for the Forest Society. able change; to worry how you fit into the world, if you’ll ever Spring 2025 FOREST NOTES | 17

A LASTING

LEGACY How Waterville Valley’s Wild Heart Became Part of the White Mountain National Forest

By Dave Anderson

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eginning in 1911 with the protection of Mount Sunapee in Newbury, N.H., Philip Ayres, the Forest Society’s first forester, and his small team embarked on a statewide conservation journey that would forever carve the organization’s place in New Hampshire history. Following Sunapee, the Forest Society’s first reservation, came Lost River Gorge (1912), Mount Monadnock (1914), and 1,500 acres on Mount Kearsarge (1918).

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Then in 1926, the Forest Society partnered with other organizations in a campaign to protect 5,000 acres in the heart of Franconia Notch, what is now Franconia Notch State Park. But perhaps the least-known project that Ayres led was his work to lobby for the protection of 23,000 acres surrounding Waterville Valley from 1925 to 1928. Ayres knew what was at risk of being lost if a proposed logging railroad through Mad River Notch was

approved. There, in the upper reaches of the Pemigewasset River watershed, lay an irreplaceable tract of uncut primeval forest surrounding the Greeley Ponds, an area of original forest that only the Nancy Pond Research Natural Area surpassed in size.

In his book The Waterville Valley: A Story of a Resort in the New Hampshire Mountains (1952, North Country Press), author Nathaniel Goodrich chronicles the evolution of logging privately owned forestland surrounding the summer resort community. The first European settlers entered Waterville Valley around 1825—late

by New Hampshire standards. Goodrich describes the remembered primeval forests of his childhood 70 years later in 1895: “Mile after mile it stood as it had grown, untouched throughout the years. Majestic sometimes with cathedral aisles of towering spruce, or intimate with green underwood veiling the gray or silver of beech and birch, always to me it was lovely, and quieting, and withal something strange.

Such was the forest of the Valley. I am privileged to have seen it. It was the playground of those who came in vacation time. They made trails in it without having to ask permission. They followed the brown sun-flecked paths beside ‘little brown brooks,’ and found places to sit and read or dream or fall in love. Now it seems the forest of a dream, and as a dream it passed, and is no more.”

According to Goodrich, before 1890, the International Paper Company had acquired the former land of the New Hampshire Land Company and began logging in Waterville Valley along the western slopes of prominent Noon and Jennings peaks. Logs were hauled to Campton and then by rail to the mill at Franklin.

Long logs were sledded down feeder roads to the banks of the Mad River in winter where they were cut into four-foot pulp logs and heaped in piles below a series of pools and driving dams constructed along the upper Mad River made for conveying the wood downstream. Hardwoods were not cut because they are too heavy for river drives; hardwood sinks. A pivotal moment for Waterville Valley occurred in 1926. Goodrich writes: “In 1926 the International Paper Co. sold its holdings in the Valley to the Parker-Young Co. for $1,050,000….

Driving logs down Mad River and shipping them by rail to Franklin was getting too expensive. The mill at Franklin was antiquated…. Parker Young, however had their mill at Lincoln and a logging railroad ending not far north of Greeley Ponds. They proposed to extend this through [Mad River] Notch, fork it out east and west, cut the remaining spruce and maybe the hardwood, and then get out. This was the last straw–not so much the cutting of more timber, for that was recognized by most people as inevitable–as the extension into the Valley of a railroad. To feed those boaconstrictors at a profit it seemed necessary to cut everything,

An early photo of the Waterville Valley Forest Guard Station located on the banks of the Mad River in Campton, N.H. down to sapling, while their engines were notorious for starting forest fires…. The reaction was instant and there began a campaign to have the Waterville timberlands made part of the White Mountain National Forest.”

Fifteen years earlier, the Parker-Young Company sawmill on the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River in Lincoln was the center of the sprawling timber empire of famed railroad logger J.E. Henry and Sons. Their ruthless logging tactics, notoriety, and sheer ingenuity fueled the campaign by the Forest Society to create the White Mountain National Forest via federal land purchases under the provisions of the Weeks Act Legislation in 1911. Today, more than 42 eastern national forests trace their origins to the Weeks Act. Goodrich goes on to explain: “The railroad peril galvanized friends of the Valley into strenuous action. For several years there had been efforts to get the Government to buy a small area of the best spruce, but these had come to nothing. One of the chief obstacles was that such a purchase would cost well over $60 an acre, whereas practically all the previous acquisitions in the White Mountain region had been cut-over land averaging $6.50 an acre. The cost of the whole Waterville tract, with over 6,000 acres of uncut forest remaining, would average $50 an acre…. it was essential to show that there was public sentiment in favor of the purchase too strong to be disregarded, in other words, to organize a pressure group. At this point the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests went into action, led by its canny, diplomatic and dynamic executive, Philip Ayres. Veteran of many such campaigns, he knew the ropes. To him, more than to anyone else, is due the success of an effort which, at the start, seemed a forlorn hope.”

Spring 2025 FOREST NOTES | 19

In 1928, the Greeley Ponds in Waterville Valley were protected as part of Congress passing the McNary-Woodruff legislation.

Ayres organized support to lobby Congress to pass the McNaryWoodruff legislation, which extends Weeks Act funding for expansion of the National Forest. Goodrich outlined the succession of hurdles faced by the advocates: 1. Colonel W.B. Greeley, Chief of the US Forest Service, must recommend the purchase.

2. The Parker-Young Company must consent to sell.

3. The National Forest Commission must give approval 4. Congress must pass the McNary-Woodruff bill.

5. President Calvin Coolidge must take action to include the required funds in the federal budget.

“On November 2, 1927, Col. Greeley advised that the option had been granted and urged its acceptance. On December 7 the commission approved the purchase. The option had to be accepted before April 1, 1928, and full payment made before June 1. It remained to get the money made available before that date….The option was taken up on March 22 and final payment made June 4. So, the Valley, excepting the 508 acres of hotel property, passed 20 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2025

into the National Forest. For 23,000 acres the United States paid private owners, in 1928, $1,050,000 ($45.65/ acre). One hundred and ten years earlier, in 1818, two men bought from the State of New Hampshire, 33,000 acres, the whole township of Waterville, for $1,663.60 ($0.05/acre).”

The Aftermath After the 1928 federal acquisition, logging by The ParkerYoung Company continued in the forest surrounding Waterville Valley under management and supervision of USFS Forest Guards, precursors to the modern day USFS Rangers and District Foresters.

“Soon after the Forest Service took over there came a radical change in the method of getting logs out of the Valley. The last drive went down the river about 1931. The driving dams were blown up or have rotted away…. At this time several developments made it practical to take logs out over the roads. The highways became more able to stand the strain. In 1933 or 1934 the Forest Service opened the Tripoli Road, which greatly shortened the haul to Lincoln, and by that time motor trucks had shown what they could do. Also, the development of road-making machines made it economically practical to build good gravel roads right to the log piles and skidways.”

The silver cup given to Philip Ayres from the Waterville Valley Athletic Improvement Association in 1928 was given to former U.S. Forest Service employee David Govatski (pictured at left with Forest Society President Jack Savage) by the descendants of the Ayres family over three decades ago because of his involvement with presenting forest history. The cup was displayed during the Weeks Act Centennial in 2011 and the Centennial of the White Mountain Forest in 2018, and now, after being generously donated by Govatski, resides with the Forest Society at the Conservation Center in Concord.

Epilogue

“There was an understanding at the time of sale that ParkerYoung could continue cutting in the Valley for fifteen years, paying the Forest Service for the stumpage. This would enable the company to keep its mill (in Lincoln) supplied, and at the end of the period Government would have got back nearly all the purchase cost…. Another provision in the contract reserved entirely from cutting, a scenic area, a tract of 770 acres around Greeley Ponds. Unfortunately, the 1938 hurricane blew flat a great deal of this magnificent spruce.”

As noted by Goodrich, the September 21, 1938, hurricane not only leveled the timber in Waterville Valley and Mad River Notch it decimated large tracts across the White Mountain National Forest. The fuel load created from the blown-down timber caused part of Waterville Valley and other areas of the forest to be closed for nearly a decade due to the severe fire danger.

The campaign to save Waterville Valley was Ayres’ last hurrah to save an iconic, regional forest landscape. He had employed his tried-and-true tactics to identify public and private funding sources and lobby business and political leaders to build broad public support. Ayres ultimately retired from the Forest Society in 1934. He died in November 3, 1945, and lies buried in the Elmwood Cemetery in Franconia, near his summer home— the unofficial summer office of the Forest Society during that remarkable era.

Today, the legacy of Philip Ayres continues as the Forest Society works with—and on behalf of—our partners at the White Mountain National Forest and NH State Parks to effect landscape-scale land conservation of the most important scenic and recreational landscapes in New Hampshire, the mountains and forests at the heart of our state’s identity.

The History of Tripoli Road The mineral originally referred to as tripolite was first discovered near Tripoli, Libya. This mineral today known as diatomaceous earth was mined and baked in kilns and transported by rail during a short-lived industrial era along what is now the seasonal USFS Tripoli Road, which connects the upper end of Waterville Valley west to the Pemigewasset River Valley and Route 3 corridor in Woodstock, N.H. Diatomaceous earth is a glass-like silica material comprised of microscopic marine diatoms: tiny zooplankton in deposits of ancient seabed. It is used today in industrial applications ranging from reflective coatings for highway signs and paints for traffic lanes and as a filtration powder for applications including filtration of hot maple syrup.

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For the Love of Her Land

By Ryan Smith

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rowing up on the outskirts of Newark, New Jersey, where her father worked for the Western Union Telegraph Co. in New York City, Dorothy “Dottie” Bean spent part of

her childhood summers traipsing through the fields and forests of her grandparents’ 340-acre property in Farmington, New Hampshire. This exposure to both urban and rural environments at a young age gave Dottie a unique opportunity to experience two worlds generations apart. Although her grandparents’ farm was located just five minutes from downtown Farmington, stepping onto the property was like stepping back in time.

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(OPPOSITE PAGE) RYAN SMITH; (THIS PAGE) COURTESY OF SHERYL OLSTAD

Dorothy “Dottie” Bean (left) poses with her parents, Joseph and Donna.

Relics from the early, hardscrabble days of the Demeritt family—who settled the land in the late 1700s—still remain.

A pile of bricks is all that’s left of the blacksmith shop that once serviced the working farm. Munitions dating back to when original owner Mark Demeritt was enrolled in the New Hampshire Militia recently hung in the 1818 farmhouse. Barns and other outbuildings that were once used to raise cattle, oxen, and horses endure the test of time and unforgiving New England winters. Despite today’s rapid pace of progress, the days of yore have yet to vanish from the land, especially the decades’ worth of sweat equity Dottie invested in this historic property.

After earning a degree in biology in 1958, Dottie worked as a research supervisor in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. In 1970, she accepted a position with Tufts University at New England Medical Center, now Tufts Medical Center. By then, her grandparents had passed away, and her parents—who had retired in the early 1960s— were living in the farmhouse. Dottie mirrored her urban- rural upbringing by working full-time in Boston during the week and spending weekends on the farm in New Hampshire.

In 1990, with her father already deceased, Dottie retired from Tufts and moved into the farmhouse to care for her elderly mother until she passed away in September 1992, leaving the house and land to Dottie. With no one else left to maintain the property, Dottie dedicated the rest of her life to stewarding the land and its history.

Her deepening commitment to preservation led Dottie to join the Forest Society in 1992. Soon after, she arranged to bequeath

her property to the Forest Society, with the provision that the house and up to 20 acres would be sold and the proceeds used to care for the property in an endowment fund. The income from that fund will pay for taxes, maintenance, and ongoing improvements to the 338 acres that the Forest Society retains as the Bean Forest.

Dottie’s conservation efforts were part of her life long before her death, though. In 1993, she enrolled her land in the New Hampshire Tree Farm Program. While most Tree Farms are privately owned, some are municipal, school, or other public forests. Each must be at least 10 acres, follow a written management plan, and show a strong commitment to stewardship. Tree Farmers protect wildlife habitat and watersheds, conserve soil, promote sustainability, and provide recreational opportunities—all while producing forest products. Between the Forest Society and the Tree Farm Program, Dottie found the support she needed to manage the conservation values of her land. She was the first to register for every Forest Society Annual Meeting and traveled to them no matter how far from home. She was a champion and cheerleader for numerous land protection projects, especially the Powder Major Forest in Madbury and Lee. Dottie was as involved in the daily chores as she was in the long-term planning of her land. She tended the flower and vegetable gardens, mowed the grass, and painted the barns, fences, and gates. When help was needed, she often called on her neighbors, Miles and Sheryl Olstad, who helped her mow fields and clear fallen trees after storms. “Dottie was generous, Spring 2025 FOREST NOTES | 23

Rattlesnake Brook, a tributary of the Cocheco River, flows through the Bean Forest. hard working, steadfast, single-minded, and driven by her dedication,” Sheryl says. “She had these traits in her job at Tufts University and carried them right over to the preservation of her farmhouse and property when she retired.”

The Olstads had four children, all of whom spent considerable time on Dottie’s land—sledding in the winter, exploring the property in the summer, and picking pumpkins in the fall.

“Dottie was like a third grandmother to our kids,” Miles says.

“She was always there on birthdays and holidays, enjoying the company of our children.”

Dottie was generous when it came to letting others enjoy her land. She let the Boy Scouts run their camporees in the sandpit, she allowed a friend to tap her maple trees in exchange for syrup, and she never posted her property from hunting. She took pleasure letting hikers walk on the property’s trails, including the loop trail that leads to a scenic view near the top of 1,000-foot Chesley Mountain. The west side of the loop trail climbs through a beautiful hemlock and beech forest while the east side skirts beside towering red oak and white pine trees and an intermittent tributary of Rattlesnake Brook. Over the years, the Boy Scouts and Trailwrights Inc. volunteered their time to 24 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2025

maintain the trails, including by clearing brush and building bridges and rock staircases.

After being diagnosed with cancer, Dottie continued maintaining her property for several years, not allowing her illness to slow her down until the cancer finally took her life in August 2021 at age 84. Ever thinking beyond her own needs, she had a new roof installed on the farmhouse shortly before her death, calling it a “birthday present” of sorts for Forest Society President Jack Savage and the organization.

Dottie didn’t just talk about conservation—she lived it. Today, the Bean Forest is open to all, and—to add more significance to her generous gift—it marks the 200th property the Forest Society now owns. “Dottie worked hard every day taking care of her house and property and was driven by her dedication to the previous generations who lived on the farm,” Sheryl remarks. “She was steadfast in the commitments she made for the preservation of the property for the Forest Society, and she would be absolutely delighted to know that her property will continue to be available for the public to enjoy just as she intended.”

Ryan Smith is the editor of Forest Notes.

Celebrating Our 200th Conserved Forest 1 Lost River (1912)

50 Stearns-Lamont Forest (1985)

100 High Watch Preserve (1997)

200 Bean Forest (2025)

150 Tebbets Hill Reservation (2006)

RYAN SMITH (X3)

ASSETS TO ACRES Dottie Bean had a clear vision of her land legacy as a balance of conservation, public access, funds for stewardship, and new generations of families making her house a home. With her legal advisors and the Forest Society, she created an estate plan with specific intention that has now come to fruition.

Through the Assets to Acres Program, the Forest Society works with landowners to plan for land donations and devises of property intended for re-sale.

For information, please contact Anne Truslow, Vice President for Development, at atruslow@forestsociety.org or (603) 224-9945, ext. 319.

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PUBLIC POLICY

Should Forest Carbon Projects Be Taxed

By Matt Leahy

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orest carbon markets are controversial. For many years, the debate has been over their validity—can they actually help to mitigate climate change— and their benefits. Recently in New Hampshire, the conflict has been most acute over the relationship between forest carbon markets and timber tax revenue.

Specifically, municipal and state officials have expressed concerns about the loss of timber tax revenues because of private forestland owners enrolling their properties into carbon markets.

The question at hand is if forest carbon markets are having a negative impact on local tax bases, should governments tax the property owner to capture that reduced timber tax revenue? During this year’s legislative session, the New Hampshire House of Representatives passed a bill that proposed to do just that. House Bill 123 would have required landowners to pay an annual yield tax of 10 percent of the “estimated net value of the carbon offset credits issued and sold in the previous calendar year.”

Broadly speaking, the arguments for taxing carbon projects focus on three points:

1. Revenue generation Taxing forest carbon offset projects could generate revenue for governments or, as proposed in New Hampshire, recoup lost revenue which can then be redirected into other government activities.

2. Ensuring fairness Taxing carbon offset projects in a similar manner to other industries will ensure fairness in the tax system and ensure companies or individuals are paying their fair share of taxes.

3. Market distortion Without proper taxation or regulation, there’s a risk of “greenwashing,” where 26 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2025

companies might invest in low-quality or ineffective offset projects just to claim they are meeting carbon-neutral goals.

Taxing carbon offsets might incentivize better quality projects that are genuinely helping the environment.

However, others argue against taxation and cite the following reasons:

1. Government policy should encourage investment in carbon offset projects Forest carbon offset projects are often designed to mitigate climate change by removing carbon from the atmosphere.

Furthermore, they can be an avenue for forestland owners to generate additional revenue thereby helping them keep their forests as forests and maintaining that forest stand’s ability to sequester and store carbon.

2. Double taxation concerns In New Hampshire, opponents of HB 123 highlighted this argument. Under the bill, the owner would pay a yield tax of 10 percent of the estimated net value of the carbon offset credits issued and sold and then be taxed again when trees were harvested. In the case of a corporate landowner who already also pays business taxes like the NH Business Enterprise Tax or the NH Business Profits tax, the new tax would amount to triple taxation.

3. Economic and social benefits Forests provide additional benefits beyond sequestering and storing greenhouse gas emissions. They protect biodiversity, improve water quality, and support local economies through outdoor recreation opportunities. Forestland owners often provide and encourage these benefits without receiving any compensation. Taxing forest carbon projects reduces the ability of these owners to steward their lands.

During the Legislature’s consideration of HB 123, the Forest Society recognized the concerns forest carbon programs have raised. We also agree the Legislature should find a way to support municipalities that may have experienced a reduction in local tax revenue.

However, we were also concerned that inaccurate information was presented to legislators about what forest carbon programs are and what they are not. As we noted in our testimony to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, 1. Landowners can and do continue to harvest timber on properties where they have negotiated a forest carbon contract; 2. The landowner retains ownership of the property;

Together Making New Hampshire a Great Place to Live, Work, and Explore 3. Recreational activities such as hunting, fishing, and hiking are allowed. It is inaccurate to say that enrolling a property in a forest carbon program will end public access on a property that had previously allowed it.

Instead of approving a complex tax bill, the Forest Society asked the Senate Committee to take a bigger view of the issues involving forest carbon programs to determine if other approaches exist that would address the municipal tax question without unfairly limiting forestland owners from using forest carbon programs.

We asked the Senate to amend HB 123 to establish a study commission to review all possible approaches to supporting municipalities. We also argued this study commission should consider how forest carbon programs can benefit private forestland owners and contribute to maintaining sustainable forests.

In the end, the Legislature significantly changed this bill. On the positive side, it does establish the requested study commission. It also sets up a voluntary timber tax reimbursement (payment in lieu of taxes) program. Unfortunately, the bill also includes a two-year moratorium preventing a forestland owner from enrolling a parcel of more than 500 acres into a carbon credit offset program.

This conflicted outcome highlights how controversial forest carbon projects are.

Whether they will ever be widely accepted or, conversely, whether the market will shrink is hard to predict. Regardless of how macro-economic and political forces affect them, we continue to believe they should be an option to help forest landowners sustainably steward their properties.

As the Forest Society engages with the Study Commission, we will advocate for solutions that strike an appropriate balance between the concerns of local officials with the rights of private forestland owners.

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

We thank our business partners for their generous support Summit Circle ($5,000 and up) Athletic Brewing Company Badger, Peabody & Smith Realty, Inc. Garnet Hill Inc. Gates Industrial Corporation Mainstay Technologies Merrimack County Savings Bank Nathan Wechsler & Company OnX Maps Seaboard International Forest Products, LLC Whalen Public & Media Relations, LLC Trustees’ Circle ($2,500 to $4,999) J Group Hospitality Littleton Food Coop Mallory Portraits Meredith Village Savings Bank Northeast Delta Dental Northland Forest Products, Inc. The Secret Agency, LLC St. Mary’s Bank President’s Circle ($1,000 to $2,499) BCM Environmental & Land Law, PLLC Bensonwood & Unity Homes CheckmateHCM Solutions Chinburg Properties EOS Research Ltd. Frog Hollow Forestry Froling Energy Lumbard & Kellner, LLC New England Private Wealth Advisors, LLC NH Conservation Real Estate Ransmeier & Spellman, P.C. Rockywold-Deephaven Camps, Inc. Savings Bank of Walpole Upstream Tech Steward ($750 to $999) Exterus Business Furniture Law Office of Leonard D. Harden Meadowsend Timberlands Limited TMS Diesel North Partner ($500 to $749) Arcomm Communications Corporation Brookdale Fruit Farm W. S. Badger Company Blue Mountain Forest Association Brookdale Fruit Farm Capitol Craftsman, LLC Durgin and Crowell Lumber Co., Inc. FedPoint Half Moon Enterprises The Lyme Timber Company LP Monadnock Paper Mills, Inc. The Music Mill Pine Springs R.M. Piper, Inc. Whole Wealth Management, LLC Colleague ($250 to $499) Banyan Global Dublin Road Tap Room & Eatery Frost Pond Carpentry Gideon Asen LLC

Colleague (continued) Grappone Management Company Hammond Lumber Company Hancock Lumber Innovative Natural Resource Solutions, LLC Kozikowski Properties, LLC Maxfield Real Estate Mediation Partners of New England, LLC Mulligan Forest, LLC Northeast Forest Services Portsmouth Paddle Board Company, LLC Proctor Hill Forestry and Logging, LLC Rek’-Lis Brewing Company Robbins Lumber Samyn d’Elia Architects, PA Seven Birches Winery Seven C’s Inc. Toadstool Bookshops Tri-State Iron Works, Inc. Underhill Acres, Inc. Viking Forest Products Winnipesaukee Chocolates Yankee Publishing, Inc. Zachary Berger Associates, Ltd. 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 Spring 2025 FOREST NOTES | 27 your clients or employees, please contact Anne Truslow at (603) 224-9945 or atruslow@forestsociety.org.

PROJECT IN PROGRESS

“View of Mount Kearsarge” by William C. Mitchell, 2007. Courtesy of William C. Mitchell.

Help Protect the Top of Mount Kearsarge!

By Anne Truslow

W

hen I left New Hampshire for a new job in Washington, D.C., I took with me a William Mitchell silkscreened print called “View of Mt. Kearsarge.” Having that print on the wall of my “garden apartment” in Washington was like keeping a window open to New Hampshire until I could return.

Now, I lived, and still do, in the Monadnock Region—you’d think I’d take a print of Monadnock. But it was Kearsarge that spoke to me because it is so ever-present in central New Hampshire. It embodies the landscape of our everyday, and it has been a quiet landmark for me through different times of my life: trundling from Massachusetts up Route 89 to Middlebury College; later driving the dirt roads to explore potential conservation projects from Boscawen to Bradford.

Kearsarge watches over us in central New Hampshire—and offers a particularly friendly greeting on the horizon whether you are returning from the north, west, or south. Funnily enough, Kearsarge stands out because it is actually a “monadnock.”

28 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2025

Not surrounded by close foothills and rising 2,100 feet in relative elevation, we see it as a height of land from long distances.

Mount Kearsarge has also played a recurring role in the history of conservation and collaboration between the Forest Society and the State of New Hampshire.

The Forest Society’s first purchase of land on Kearsarge was in 1918: 521 acres protected in honor of Governor Frank West Rollins, one of the Forest Society’s founders. Later transferred to the state, this is the land now known as Rollins State Park.

That first acquisition inaugurated a tradition that continues today, of the Forest Society stepping forward to protect land on Mount Kearsarge “to be held in public trust.” It was followed by 1,500 acres in 1935, 585 acres in 1963, 900 acres in 1971. Of course, there have been bumps in the road: the Forest Society was not a fan of telecommunications towers on Mount Kearsarge back in the day.

But over the course of a century, 9,500 acres on and around Kearsarge have been forever protected by the Forest Society,

the state, surrounding towns, and local land trusts.

Now, we have the opportunity to acquire and protect some of the final inholdings at the top of Kearsarge. Two parcels behind the entrance gate of Mount Kearsarge State Forest have been held in private ownership for decades.

Together encompassing 230 acres, these properties include frontage along Kearsarge Mountain Road as it enters the state park from Warner, as well as some unique higher elevation habitat. Almost the entire property ranks as Tier 1 habitat in the NH Wildlife Action Plan. And, the views! If not conserved, this land, even though behind the gates, could be developed as camp lots.

The road access to high elevation at Mount Kearsarge makes it an especially beloved place. You can drive most of the way and still get out for a satisfying hike to the 2,937-foot summit, with panoramic views from open ledges that include Smarts Mountain, Mount Cardigan, Ragged Mountain, bookended

by the distant Green and White Mountain ranges. To the southwest, views extend to Lake Sunapee and Mount Sunapee and sometimes Mount Monadnock and the Wapack Range or onto the Boston skyline. For the more intrepid, this is just a stop along the regional Sunapee-RaggedKearsarge Greenway.

The Forest Society has an agreement to purchase the 230 acres by the end of this year. To do so, we must raise a total of $500,000 toward the purchase and costs.

Fortunately, we have already received grant funding of $207,000, and so we must raise the remaining $293,000 by the end of the year. The Forest Society will acquire and own this property in the near term, but in keeping with many past projects, will seek to transfer permanent ownership to the State of New Hampshire so that it becomes part of Mount Kearsarge State Forest.

Please help us by making a gift to support the permanent conservation of the last large inholdings at the top of Mount Kearsarge! Your gift will be part of a long tradition of citizen action to protect the icons of our state. For more information, please visit forestsociety.org/ kearsarge2025 or contact Anne Truslow at atruslow@forestsociety.org. Thank you!

YES! PLEASE USE THIS GIFT TOWARD CONSERVING 230 ACRES ON MOUNT KEARSARGE IN WARNER. 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: Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests 54 Portsmouth Street, Concord, NH 03301

Donate online at forestsociety.org/kearsarge2025 For more information, call Anne Truslow at 603-224-9945 or email atruslow@forestsociety.org.

Thank you for your help!

4104T315 KM256FN

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

THE MANY FACES OF CONSERVATION

Dewey and Mary Clark

Peterborough, N.H. Members since 2021

MEMBERS MAKE THE DIFFERENCE! Dewey and Mary are among the 10,000 members who help the Forest Society protect and manage critical lands for wildlife, water quality, wood, and wellness across the state.

AL KAREVY

To join them, visit forestsociety.org/join-today.

W

e’ve always been active in the outdoors and spent 15 years as volunteer trail workers on the Appalachian Trail in the Mid-Atlantic. As we learned more about the land and the threats that exist, we worked with federal, state, and local land managers to recruit volunteers for forest health projects. When we moved to New Hampshire in late 2020, we immediately fell in love with the state’s beautiful hemlock trees; a stark contrast to the species die-off we witnessed in the Mid-Atlantic.

The Forest Society gave us a home to continue our efforts in forest health, recreation, and environmental education programing. One of the ways we do this is through sponsoring the Peterborough Town Library’s Natural New Hampshire

lecture series. Past presenters at our programs have included Forest Society staff members Dave Anderson, Matt Scaccia, and Dylan Summers. In addition, we volunteer as land stewards at Monson Center and participate in Forest Society conservation projects, including Monadnock Trails Week.

Supporting the Forest Society’s mission is critically important—especially now. Funding cuts at several agencies and the likelihood that fewer people will make donations endangers conservation efforts throughout New Hampshire. The Forest Society staff is extremely lean, dedicated, and knowledgeable.

The work they do is extraordinary, and we are happy to support them with our time and donations.”