Forest Notes, Spring 2024

BEYOND THE CHESTNUT BLIGHT | BEAVERS ON THE FLOODPLAIN

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

Charting Their Course

Women on a Mission of Conservation and Creativity SPRING 2024

forestsociety.org

With a view encompassing New Hampshire’s White Mountains, The Rocks is a year-round destination with a visitor center and family-friendly activities across 1,400 acres.

Walking trails • Wildlife watching

Self-guided history tour • Gift shop

Interpretive exhibits • NH Maple Museum Wildflower Walks • Maple Tours

Christmas tree farm • Educational programs

Vacation rentals • Wedding packages

Forest Society North at The Rocks builds on a tradition of conservation, education and innovation.

Help us meet the challenge! The final phase of our $8.5 million capital campaign is in full swing. There is still time to be part of this award-winning project by making a gift or pledge today!

Donate at forestsociety.org/fsn

113 Glessner Road Bethlehem, NH 03574

forestsociety.org/therocks

(OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM) CHRIS WHITON, COLLEEN ELIASON, WHITE MOUNTAINS ATTRACTIONS ASSOCIATION X2, NIGEL MANLEY; (THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT) RYAN SMITH, A G EVANS PHOTOGRAPHY, LEAH HART

TABLE OF CONTENTS: SPRING 2024, No. 317

20

8

24

FEATURES 8 Lulu Fichter’s “Water Fired” River Pods A Peterborough potter’s journey of learning how her artistic ability melds together with the natural environment.

14 100 Landowners, 8,600 Acres: Connecting a Community of Women in the Woods The sold-out Womens Landowner Summit brought together 100 women with a goal of fostering relationships, community, and a love for the land.

DEPARTMENTS 2 FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK Visionary Women

4 THE WOODPILE + A New Cohort of Stewards + Local Wood is Good + PSU Celebrates One of Their Own + Art at The Rocks

7 IN THE FIELD Spring Events Are Here!

16 ON OUR LAND Beyond the Blight: Innovations in Chestnut Tree Breeding and Restoration

18 CONSERVATION SUCCESS STORY The Expansion of the Jennings Forest

20 NATURE’S VIEW

BEYOND THE CHESTNUT BLIGHT | BEAVERS ON THE FLOODPLAIN

Busy Beavers: Fellow Foresters and Farmers

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

On our cover: Charting Their Course

Women on a Mission of Conservation and Creativity SPRING 2024

forestsociety.org

On a warm May evening, photographer Garrett Evans captured a dazzling viridescent field framed by 3,893-foot Mount Kearsarge.

22 PUBLIC POLICY Landfills vs. Greenspace

24 PROJECT IN PROGRESS Striking a Balance in Berlin

26 THE MANY FACES OF CONSERVATION Randolph’s Gary Newfield

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 Cameron Larnerd, Christmas Tree Farm Manager, The Rocks 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 Spring 2024

Visionary Women

M

y drive from home to the Forest Society’s Concord headquarters at the Conservation Center takes me along a quiet dirt road. I spy wildlife often enough to drive slowly, with anticipation of catching another glimpse of black bear, moose or fisher, along with the frequent deer and turkey. The road carries me by the Jennings Forest, protected decades ago through the generosity of Ellen Jennings. Those 385 acres host Hayes Brook, headwaters of the Piscataqua River via the Cocheco feeding the Gulf of Maine beyond Portsmouth.

As you can read in this issue, the protected lands of the Jennings Forest expanded by 314 acres in 2023 thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Elisabeth Maley, daughter of Ellen Jennings. That’s more protected brook frontage, more wildlife habitat, and more productive forestland. There is no doubt that the women of the Jennings family have created an important legacy.

Women are often the driving force behind forest protection among landowners. And women have been at the center of the Forest Society’s work since the beginning. Among those that gathered at the founding of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests in 1901 was Ellen McRoberts Mason of North Conway.

She and her husband ran the Sunset Pavilion hotel on the site of what is now the Eastern Slope Inn. Known as a forceful and convincing speaker, she was vice president of the Federation of Women’s Clubs and the chair of its Forestry Committee

and, with those credentials, was a founder of the Forest Society.

In the 1920s, as a key leader of the Forest Society’s campaign to save Franconia Notch, it was the Federation of Women’s Clubs that rose to the challenge to raise a matching $100,000 to buy 6,000 acres. The women’s clubs counted 12,000 members statewide in 151 towns; and their magazine declared of that campaign, “We of New Hampshire will not sell our birthright for a mess of pottage.” The oldest donor to that campaign was Mary “Granny” Whitcher of Whitefield, aged 105. No surprise that it was the women who came to the rescue of the notch home to the Old Man of the Mountain.

A century later, women landowners (and aspiring landowners) are taking active roles in sustainably managing their forestland. Sophie Oehler writes in this issue about the popular Women in the Woods program that we facilitate with UNH Cooperative Extension and NH Timberland Owners Association. At the sold-out Womens Landowner Summit this spring, 100 women landowners who attended represented 8,626 acres of New Hampshire forest. They too are creating an important legacy.

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) ELLEN KENNY, SOPHIE OEHLER, ANNA BERRY, LORI SULLIVAN

Opening Opportunities The beauty of post-storm regeneration forestsociety.org/forestregeneration

Unexpected Encounters The art of Warner’s Mimi Wiggin forestsociety.org/mimiwiggin

Talk About Trees The latest carbon market news forestsociety.org/carbonmarkets

“We chose to view the eclipse in April from the top of Mount Major as it is a favorite hike of ours.

We have shared that gorgeous, panoramic view from the top with our family, friends, and even our stuffed animal, Murray! It is such a special place to us, and it seemed only fitting to view something as unique as the eclipse from our favorite summit!”

CONNECT WITH US! facebook.com/ForestSociety

@ForestSociety

@Forest_Society

– Lori Sullivan (@tellmeastorylori)

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

Spring 2024 FOREST NOTES | 3

THE WOODPILE—NEWS NOT SO NEATLY STACKED

Local Wood Is Good A team of New England-based forest researchers recently released Beyond the “Illusion of Preservation”; Taking Regional Responsibility for Protecting Forests, Reducing Consumption, and Expanding EcoBEYOND THE logical Forestry in “ILLUSION OF New England. As PRESERVATION” the subtitle suggests, the report explores how New England can continue an ethic of forest conservation that has been a hallmark of the region, while also meeting its wood consumption needs in a sustainable way.

The report adds to a robust discussion underway in this age of climate change, carbon, and forest management. While offering several specific recommendations, the report summarizes: “We must simultaneously advance the preservation of intact Wildlands while conserving additional lands for wood production and establishing a better balance between consumption and sustainable production.

Striking that balance should start locally, right here at home.”

Taking Regional Responsibility by Protecting Forests, Reducing

Consumption, and Expanding Ecological Forestry in New England

C a i t l i n L i t t l e f i e l d | B r i a n D o n a h u e | P a u l C a t a n z a r o | D av i d Fo s t e r | A n t h o ny D ’A m a t o | Ke n n e t h L a u s t s e n | B r i a n H a l l

On the last day of their training, volunter Forest Society land stewards posed for a photo in Gilford.

A New Cohort of Stewards Forty new Forest Society land steward volunteers completed their core training requirements recently at a culminating field day held at the Gilford Town Hall and the Forest Society’s Weeks Woods in Gilford. As part of the training, land stewards learned about the Forest Society’s history, mission, and goals; forest management; trail maintenance; recreation management; and navigation skills.

Hailing from across the state, the 2024 class of stewards will monitor and care for 39 different Forest Society properties, many of which were lacking active stewards.

The Forest Society owns and manages more than 60,000 acres of conservation land in more than 95 communities.

These lands were conserved for their scenic beauty and to promote sustainable forestry, protect water quality, and provide wildlife habitat. “The Land Steward Program now has roughly 185 active stewards monitoring 164 properties,” Forest Society Land Steward Coordinator Laurel Swope-Brush says. “As the program continues to expand in the coming years, we hope to get even closer to 100 percent coverage of all our forests.”

Learn more and read the report at

forestsociety.org/advocacy-illusion.

Go Wild, Three Times a Week Hosted by Forest Society Senior Director of Education Dave Anderson and New Hampshire Audubon Conservation Biologist Chris Martin, Something Wild has been exploring the wonder of the landscape that surrounds us in New Hampshire for more than 25 years. The program airs on New Hampshire Public Radio every other Friday at 6:45 a.m. and again at 8:45 a.m. during Morning Edition; and starting in April 2024, an encore edition began airing the follow morning during Weekend Edition Saturday at 9:35 a.m. You can continue to download episodes of Something Wild on Apple Podcasts and read a transcript of each program at forestsociety.org/blog.

4 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2024

EASEMENT STEWARDSHIP

PSU Celebrates One of Their Own Senior Director of Education and Plymouth State University graduate Dave Anderson gave the keynote address at his alma mater’s 153rd graduate commencement on May 10. At the event, Anderson received the 2024 Granite State Award for his commitment to service reflecting the university’s motto, Ut Prosim (That I may serve).

Since the 1980s, Anderson immersed himself in natural resource conservation, from climbing osprey nest trees while studying natural science and environmental biology as an undergrad to his current role at the Forest Society. He lives on a 54-acre Tree Farm in Sutton where he embodies the wisdom of Yankee tradition: “Experience is such a dear teacher... fools will learn by no other.”

A renowned communicator, Dave writes for the New Hampshire Sunday News and

Spring has sprung!

Dave Anderson speaks at Plymouth State University’s graduate commencement in May 2024.

This means our annual spring mailers should have arrived (or will soon arrive) in easement landowner mailboxes.

Forest Notes and co-hosts Something Wild on NHPR. His passion for land conservation and forestry has earned him prestigious awards, but his true joy lies in educating others about the importance of stewardship.

If you are an easement landowner and do not know what this is—ask us!

We may need your new mailing address.

(OPPOSITE PAGE) KATE WILCOX; (THIS PAGE) GIL TALBOT, PLYMOUTH STATE UNIVERSITY

Easement landowners due for a ground monitoring visit this year should be expecting to hear from a Regional Stewardship manager soon (if you haven’t already) to set up a visit.

Not sure if your property is due for a visit?

Want to discuss any changes in management with your regional stewardship manager?

Find their contact info here: forestsociety.org/steward-contact ~ Naomi Brattlof Easement Stewardship Director

2023 SEASON STATS 364 Easement Ground Monitoring Visits Completed 14 Easement Violations Resolved 6 Reserved Rights Executed by Landowners

Spring 2024 FOREST NOTES | 5

THE WOODPILE—NEWS NOT SO NEATLY STACKED

North Country Artisans Featured at The Rocks Gift Shop Come out to The Rocks this summer and explore the newly renovated Carriage Barn and gift shop, open Tuesday–Saturday from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Our staff has focused on procuring quality goods made with natural materials and sustainable practices.

Here is a sampling of what’s for sale, with more to come: • Pottery by local legend Joan Hannah • Hand-knit 100 percent merino children’s hats

by Jan Johnston

Forest Society Receives Project of the Year Award

• Handmade ornaments by artist Lea Stone • Cards and prints by artist Kathy Shuster • Featured baskets by Maliseet basket maker Amanda Ennis • Local histories written by Daniel Heyduk • Framed poetry by Doug Grella • Handmade chocolate from Winnipesaukee Chocolates (including our favorite bar—The Rocks!)

If you are a maker and think you might be a good fit for The Rocks, reach out to us at info@therocks.org.

Senior Philanthropy Advisor Susanne Kibler-Hacker (left) and Vice President for Development Anne Truslow accept the 2024 Project of the Year award presented by Clean Energy NH in recognition of the Forest Society’s Carriage Barn restoration project at The Rocks in Bethlehem. The annual award recognizes and honors the individuals and entities that make exceptional contributions that champion the Granite State’s energy future. The renovation retained the historic exterior of the building and converted the interior into a net-zero, energy-efficient structure powered by geothermal and solar photovoltaic systems.

Bid Anytime, Anywhere Never Miss a Chance to Win!

Ends June 7

nhpbs.org/auction

6 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2024

IN THE FIELD

Spring Events JUNE 8 | 7:30 a.m.–10:30 a.m.

Birding Walk

JUNE 7 | 9 a.m.–1 p.m.

(OPPOSITE PAGE) RYAN SMITH; (THIS PAGE) FOREST SOCIETY FILES, KATE WILCOX, FON.TEPSODA/SHUTTERSTOCK

Forest Field Camp for Adults Session 1: Backyard Birding The Rocks, Bethlehem Join us for a special new series at The Rocks in Bethlehem that’s sure to offer fun, interactive, and hands-on learning experiences designed for beginner naturalists and forest landowners alike.

In this introductory session, you’ll learn how to identify common New Hampshire breeding birds by sight and sound, how to attract birds to your property, and how to improve habitat for them.

We’ll start with an introduction to common breeding birds, followed by a 90-minute birding walk around the beautiful grounds at The Rocks led by local birding expert Jack Swatt. After lunch, there will be time to construct your own own bird house.

We’ll wrap up the day with social time and complimentary beverages and snacks in our beautiful newly renovated Carriage Barn Program Center. For information, visit forestsociety.org/events.

Ashuelot Headwaters Forest, Lempster Good forest management practices can be a tremendous benefit to wildlife, especially birds. A sustainable timber harvest at the Ashuelot River Headwaters Forest in 2017 has led to increased diversity and numbers of birds using this young forest habitat. This walk, led by land steward Jack Swatt, will compare the diversity of birds on the Yellow Trail as it leads to the Silver Mountain summit with the trail that runs alongside the young forest habitat.

The hike will be about 3 miles in length with a short break in the middle and will involve a moderately strenuous uphill climb with a great view from the top. Wear sturdy hiking shoes and layered clothing and pack water, snacks, and binoculars if you have them. For more information, visit forestsociety.org/events.

Save the Date!

SEPTEMBER 5–9

Monadnock Trails Week For more information, visit forestsociety.org/monadnock-trails-week.

SEPTEMBER 21

Forest Society’s 123rd Annual Meeting Monadnock Country Club, Peterborough The Forest Society’s Annual Meeting is an opportunity to connect, engage, and celebrate the accomplishments of the many people who make our mission possible. The meeting will include field trips to explore our Monadnock region properties, lunch, and a keynote address by Annie Proulx, author of Fen, Bog & Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis.

Proulx received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for The Shipping News. Registration opens August 1, 2024. Check our website for updates at forestsociety.org.

SEPTEMBER 28

2024 New Hampshire Tree Farm Field Day Eli’s Woods, Epping For more information, visit nhtreefarm.org/news-events.

JUNE–DECEMBER | 6–8 p.m.

Meditative Drawing Session Series with Valeria Rienzi, CZT Creek Farm, Portsmouth

June 10: Strawberry Moon | July 22: Buck Moon | August 19: Sturgeon Moon | September 16: Harvest Moon October 21: Frost on Grass Moon | November 18: Beaver Moon | December 16: Cold Moon The power of the full moon observed from Creek Farm, where the trees meet the tides, is an exceptional experience. Now, you can have a transformative Full Moon Zentangle experience with Valeria! Tap into the lunar energy and unlock your creative potential. Let go of stress and anxiety with each stroke of your pen. Register for this community event and enjoy a wonderful and relaxing experience. Cost: $35.

To register, email Valeria at valeriaczt38@gmail.com Spring 2024 FOREST NOTES | 7

Lulu Fichter’s “Water Fired” River Pods

Story by Dennis McFadden | Photos by Ryan Smith

8 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2024

G

limpsed on a worktable in her Peterborough studio, one of Lulu Fichter’s river pods suggests something natural, the bleached carapace of a long dead sea creature or the spent husk of a weed.

Held, it demands another explanation. It is not a shell, its surface worn thin by the constant buffing of saltwater. Nor is it a fragile, paper-like vessel that had burst at summer’s end, releasing a cloud of downy seeds. Rather, it is solid, substantial, with a slightly uncanny presence. Skillfully formed, with a matt surface and uniform texture, it is white save for some gray blotches and lines.

Examining it, a naturalist might agree that it resembles a shell but rule out a marine provenance. A botanist, acknowledging that its shape suggests a seed casing, would assert that its dense body is totally unlike one. Fichter would concur and, since she made the object, drawing its shape from her imagination, forming it in porcelain, and then exposing it to the whims of nature in a process she calls “water firing,” she knows its secrets.

Spring 2024 FOREST NOTES | 9

Knee deep in the Nubanusit Brook, Lulu Fichter checks on a group of her river pods.

T

he impulse to create something that reflects its maker’s creativity and meets a need, historically a defining characteristic of craft, thrives in contemporary practice and inspires many New Hampshire craftspeople today. Some seek a balance, using their skills and knowledge to create singular useful objects. There is the tiger maple chair shaped by its author to both provide a comfortable perch and celebrate the patterned graining unique to the slab of wood from which it was carved.

Other makers allow the utilitarian or the aesthetic to dominate.

A pitcher in which the potter’s expertise lies hidden, but for the fact that it never drips, is an example of the former. One that captures the wildly expressive potential of clay in the artisan’s hands at the cost of a poorly functioning, if visually dramatic, spout is an example of the latter.

Where some see a sharp boundary between craft and art, others find a liminal space to explore. Working with materials traditional in craft practice and referencing familiar forms, they create objects to make a statement, not serve a utilitarian need. Today, when the impact of human activities on the climate and natural communities is widely acknowledged, our relationship with the environment is inspiring a growing number of craftspeople to work in this place. Lulu Fichter’s porcelain river pods demonstrate how one member of New Hampshire’s craft community is doing so.

Fichter came to clay as a reticent nine-year-old who found shaping wet earth satisfying. In elementary and high school, she

10 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2024

sought opportunities to work with it and, guided by a supportive mentor, learned to throw vessels on a wheel. After college, she worked in a production pottery copying a set repertoire of forms again and again. Some view this kind of work as a creative dead end but Fichter says it was essential to her development as a potter. It was here that she learned technique, the importance of consistency, and how to work quickly.

Fichter subsequently started making her own pottery, producing utilitarian ceramics that she sold at craft fairs. It was exhausting work and Fichter admits that had it not been for the satisfaction she found in teaching, she might have abandoned clay at this point. Instead, encouraged by a colleague, she began to explore line and form in white porcelain pieces that alluded to functional vessels but were not utilitarian. Unable to resist the temptation to cut holes into some of them, she created bowls that would not hold water, for example, leading one observer to playfully identify Fichter as, “…the lady with holes in her bowls.”

Working in porcelain, producing satisfying work, and testing limits, her own as well as the medium’s, rekindled Fichter’s passion for clay. This and the fact that her work found an audience gave her confidence to move forward, teaching and creating unique works. Then a back condition forced her from the wheel.

Refusing to give up the craft around which she had now developed her artistic identity, she turned to handbuilding, employing techniques she had taught others and understood well.

The impulse to create something that reflects its maker’s creativity and meets a need, historically a defining characteristic of craft, thrives in contemporary practice and inspires many New Hampshire craftspeople today.

Forming a handful of clay into a ball, pinching it to define an interior and an exterior, and shaping a vessel is one the simplest handbuilding practices. Working in this way, a potter can create objects that can be glazed and fired as a thrown piece can. Transitioning from the wheel to handbuilding, Fichter continued to explore ideas that she had started to investigate on the wheel. Then, sensing that handbuilding offered still other opportunities, she ventured further.

Pinching and other handbuilding techniques like slab construction and coiling have a storied past. With experience and practice, potters have used them to create sophisticated works, subtly varying the thickness of the clay, distorting a vessel’s form, sculpting its walls, and defining surfaces that flow between the interior and exterior of a shape. Exploring its potential, Fichter began shaping porcelain into expressive biomorphic forms.

These evolved into her pods.

“I love old bones!” Fichter says but then quickly adds that while intrigued by what she finds in the wild, she does not imitate it in her pods. Nor does she look to museum collections or field guides for models. Rather, as she has throughout her career, she takes inspiration from an eclectic range of sources. In addition to natural forms, these include yard sale and secondhand shop finds. Machine forms and worn tools hold a special appeal for her and Fichter delights in her button collection, stored like pickled beets in canning jars in her studio. At first glance Fichter’s pods may recall bones, shells, or plants. But on closer examination, it is apparent that they are something different.

Rather than models, natural objects play a suggestive role in her creative process.

For Fichter, shifting focus from useful forms to non-functional objects, moving from the known to the unfamiliar, posed a risk. But Fichter has never avoided risks. She chooses to work exclusively in porcelain, a demanding material. And earlier in her career she developed expertise in raku firing, an inherently dangerous process in which a pot is taken from the kiln when red hot and put into a container of combustible material that ignites, causing unpredictable surface effects. Fichter says that she finds the “participatory” aspect of raku especially appealing, and she continues to fire some of her work that way. She also experiments with processes like Obvara firing, a technique developed

Fichter starts her smaller pods with a ball of porcelain clay that she shapes entirely with her hands. When making a large pod, she sometimes defines its basic shape on a pottery wheel before articulating its final form and surface with them.

Spring 2024 FOREST NOTES | 11

The Nubanusit Brook, a source inspiration and an adjunct to Fichter’s studio, as it winds through her West Peterborough neighborhood. in Belarus in which, to produce unpredictable surface features, pots are wrapped with dough before they are fired.

Fire is one of the four elements the ancients identified as comprising the foundation of the physical world and it is interesting to relate Fichter’s work to that intellectual construct. Clay is, after all, earth; air dries it as it is worked and then feeds the flames that fix a clay shape in a wood or gas kiln. As for water, it makes clay malleable. While continuing to explore pods, Fichter began to look for other ways that water might figure water more prominently in her work.

Fichter’s desire to engage more deeply with water as she continued to develop her pods sprang from several sources. In raku and Obvara firing, a pot is sometimes submerged in water while hot either to produce certain surface effects or to arrest their development. She recalls being intrigued by an entirely different way water might mark a ceramic form when she learned about an English potter who submerged large ceramic forms in the ocean and then retrieved them when they had been stained by marine organisms that had colonized them.

More important than either of these, however, was Nubanusit Brook, a tributary of the Contoocook River, that flows past the house Fichter and her husband, Robert “Woody” Wood, share.

The possibility of incorporating nature into her work as she experienced it in this personally meaningful place was irresistible for Fichter. Living along the Nubanusit also inspired Fichter and Wood to explore its past. They did this by retrieving artifacts 12 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2024

they found in it and learning about the mills that once lined its banks. The Nubanusit did double duty for early industry in Peterborough, both powering machines and washing away the wastes they generated.

Wood, who had been a watershed steward for Lake Sunapee, brought scientific expertise to their investigations. In conversation, he is likely to touch on the makeup of wetlands in the Nubanusit’s watershed, chemical residues found in its streambed, and the composition of fill that was used when a sewer line was installed alongside it. He and Fichter also mused about organisms that might be in its water. Fichter’s curiosity led her to wonder what would happen if she exposed her pods to those chemicals and organisms.

To find out, Fichter decided to add a step to the production of her pods. After sculpting them in porcelain, she would kiln fire them unglazed. This would produce objects with a dense body and a hard white matte surface. Then, when the pods had cooled, she would put them in the Nubanusit at several sandy locations in the riverbed and see what happened. She called this “water firing” and the pods it produced, “river pods.” While Wood had suggested that chemicals and organisms in the water might stain the porcelain, he and Fichter understood that the results could not be predicted.

It was not clear whether what was in the water would, indeed, mark the pods. And if it did, it was uncertain what that would look like and how long it might take to happen. There were other uncertain elements in the project as well. Just as a pot might

explode in the intense heat of a kiln, might an extreme weather event trigger a rush of water that would wash pods away or smash them against stones downstream? The possibilities were intriguing; but despite the unknowns, and maybe even because of them, Fichter wagered that the results would be worth the risks.

The initial trials proved her instincts right. Pods emerged from the Nubanusit intact and stained in any number of ways. Despite a crawfish slipping into one pod almost as soon as it was put in the river at the start of one of the first “water firings,” evidence suggested, as Wood had anticipated, that microscopic organic

flows produced deeper and more extensive staining than lower water flows had in previous summers.

Another unknown has been how seasonal fluctuations in ambient temperature might affect the staining process. The most recent “water firing” suggests that the answer is: significantly. Over two days in early March 2024, Fichter and Wood placed pods she had made over the winter in the river. The water was running high at the time; and areas where sand had been plentiful in the past were found to be bare. Without enough space to accommodate all the pods at the near bank, Fichter and Wood had to ferry many across the Nubanusit to a spot where a sandy bed had formed.

In the six weeks that followed, significant storms raised the level of the Nubanusit until it nearly spilled over its banks and into Fichter and Wood’s yard.

When levels dropped it was clear that, despite the large volume of water that had roared down the Nubanusit, the pods had remained where they had been placed.

But it was also apparent that none of them had been stained. On a bright Monday afternoon, Fichter pulled on waders and stepped into the Nubanusit to examine them. Nearly all had a thin light greenish coating, but disappointingly none were marked with the dark blotches and lines she had anticipated. Over the next few days, Fichter returned the pods to the Nubanusit where she will monitor them through the spring, retrieving them when this slow “water firing” is complete.

The results were discouraging. Fichter had been invited to exhibit at the prestigious Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington, D.C. in May and had hoped to show river pods from this “water firing” alongside other examples of her work. That would no longer be possible. Instead, she will unveil them at the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen’s Annual Fair at Sunapee in August and exhibit them at some of the League galleries around the state.

Fichter evidences a certain equanimity when talking about this most recent experience. “It’s just part of the deal when you incorporate nature into your creative process,” she says. This is an acceptance and self-awareness that she has been acquiring over time. Fichter remembers once looking out to see a deer walking across the Nubanusit at the exact spot where a group of pods lay carefully nestled in the streambed. Her first impulse was to move them. Then she realized that collaborating with the environment meant letting go of control of some aspects of her work. Who was she to worry that a deer finding a path through the environment might crush some of the pods she had put in its way?

The possibility of incorporating nature into her work as she experienced it in this personally meaningful place was irresistible for Fichter. life would be the primary agent at work. Thin reddish and brown lines on a couple of pods hinted that iron and manganese in the sand had marked them.

Fichter continues to refine “water firing,” but the process remains imprecise, and every “water firing” is different. After putting pods in the river, she monitors the staining which helps her decide when to take them out. The results sometimes confound her expectations. Assuming that a large volume of water washing rapidly over the pods would produce lighter staining than would lower volumes of slow-moving water that could pool around them, Fichter was surprised to find that the opposite was the case. Over a comparable length of time, 2023’s high water

Held in the hand, Fichter’s river pods capture a tension between the artist’s aspirations and nature’s will.

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

Spring 2024 FOREST NOTES | 13

One hundred women from across New Hampshire gathered on March 8 at the Geneva Point Center in Marlborough for the inaugural Womens Landowner Summit.

100 Landowners, 8,600 Acres: Connecting a Community of Women in the Woods Photos and story by Sophie Oehler Author’s note: While the following story uses the term “women” to describe the audience present at the Womens Landowner Summit, the team behind the event would like to emphasize that Women in the Woods programming is intended for all marginalized genders, including women, women-identifying individuals, and non-binary/gender non-conforming people who are comfortable in a space that centers the learning experiences of women.

T

he energy in the main conference room at the Geneva Point Center in Marlborough, N.H., feels like it might be able to, at the very least, register on the Richter scale, if not lift the building out of its foundation and into the sky.

It’s March 8, International Women’s Day and—coincidentally, though appropriately—the inaugural Womens Landowner Summit, a gathering hosted by the Women in the Woods program and organized by UNH Cooperative Extension, NH Timberland Owners Association (NHTOA), Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), and the Forest Society.

The Summit aims to connect women landowners with educational opportunities and with one another in the hope of fostering continuing relationships and support systems for female stewards. “Here in New Hampshire, we rely on private landowners to manage the vast majority of our forests,” says Hayley Andreozzi, wildlife conservation state specialist with UNH Extension. “It’s important to make sure we’re supporting that audience, specifically women landowners as they become more proportionally present in that landowner base.”

New Hampshire is 81 percent forested, the second most 14 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2024

forested state in the country, with 75 percent of that forestland managed by private landowners. And while historically private landowners have been men, the number of female landowners and stewards is growing. Between 2006 and 2013, the percentage of family-owned forests where women were the primary decision makers doubled from 11 to 22 percent.

At the Womens Landowner Summit alone, 8,626 acres of the state’s forestland is currently managed by the 100 women landowners who attended, all who acknowledged the importance of their work and the difference they can make. “My favorite part of being a landowner is having autonomy over the decisions that get made about our piece of land and having the power to make decisions that align with my values,” says Summit attendee Lucy Koup, a proud steward of a half-acre in Plymouth which she manages to support the growth of native plants and her seasonal vegetable garden. An important distinction to make about this Summit is that it wasn’t just for women managing hundreds or even tens of acres. Many women in attendance are operating with similar plot sizes to Koup. There were many women present who have yet to purchase land.

Valerie Connolly, who at 21 was one of the youngest attendees of the Summit, was using this opportunity to network to get her feet under her before she begins to look into buying land. “I was really passionate but really uneducated about the process of buying and owning land,” she says. “At the Summit, I was able to say ‘OK, slow down, you’re applying for these reasons.’ Attending this conference helped me to bridge the gap between fantasizing about owning and taking care of land and actually doing it.”

One of the ways in which the Summit aimed to inspire its attendees was through a women landowner panel: an hourlong conversation with four female land managers from a range of backgrounds, areas of interest, and experience with land management.

Rachel Dandenau, who owns 37 acres on her farmstead in Stark, served as one of these panelists. Her portion of the conversation was highlighted by her anecdotes about the Nigerian Dwarf Fairy goats she keeps on her farm and her two sons (7 and 4) who have both been wielding axes since they were 2. “Being a mom landowner allows me to really incorporate the boys in management and support their exploration and love of nature,” she says. “It’s important to me to raise boys into being men who see women as capable.”

Capability is at the heart of the mission of the Womens Landowner Summit. According to the Women in the Woods Needs Assessment completed by UNH Cooperative Extension in 2023, women are less likely to take management action on their land due either to feelings of inadequacy in land management or to feelings that land management hasn’t historically been “for us.”

As a result, 68 percent of the women who responded to the assessment survey were taking a passive approach to managing their land (i.e., infrequent management activities or changes being made to the property). Twenty-four percent of the respondents stated that lack of training in best management practices was one of their biggest challenges in managing their forestland, while 22 percent attributed it to lack of resources and tools.

Another 20 percent noted lack of confidence or comfort in their ability to manage their land as a prime obstacle.

“Giving women the space to learn in an environment that is for them really allows them to flourish, explore and ask questions in a way that some don’t always feel comfortable doing,” Andreozzi of UNH Extension says. “I think a lot of women feel more comfortable learning in and from groups of other women.”

There were eight workshops at the Summit for women to choose, including Timber Harvesting 101 (led by Forest Society Managing Forester Wendy Weisiger), Inventorying and Monitoring Wildlife on Your Land, and Winter Tree and Shrub ID. The varied classes were intended to provide an all-encompassing look at what may be needed to successfully manage land, while providing resources that landowners can refer to when the time comes to apply their knowledge. Additionally, the Summit directors wanted to create opportunities for personal connections to form between the landowners so that they would have a network of people to rely on.

“There’s a lot of value to women connecting with and inspiring other women,” Dandenau says. “As women, we’re thinkers. We hold things in the back of our mind and think, ‘how can I apply this in my own life?’ It’s like a pebble creating a ripple in a pond. At the Summit, there were so many opportunities for those pebbles.”

Womens Landowner Summit participants take part in a land management workshop where they learned how to mark trees for harvest.

While circulating through the many rooms and sessions at the Summit, I was continuously struck by those rippling moments.

But what created the biggest one for me was the collective pride that filled each room. Pride in our state, in the work being done, in the knowledge being shared, and above all, pride in each other.

There’s a strange perception about identity-specific programming, whether focused around women or other affinity groups, that by designating it solely for one identity, it becomes about devaluing other non-identifying groups. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

There wasn’t a moment at the Womens Landowner Summit where I heard anyone complaining about men. There wasn’t time. And when we left at the end of the day, any thoughts disparaging men were far from my mind. Instead, all I could think about was how much I love women.

I love the woman who pointed out a bald eagle flying overhead while our group examined tree stands for suitable firewood timber, saying she hated to interrupt but she thought everyone might like to see it. I love the woman who stood up before the closing address and asked who the other landowner from her town was. I love the women who applauded for their classmate when she correctly identified which trees should be cut in a selective harvest.

But above all, I love that 125 women took time away from the many other roles that we hold as women to come together, to learn, and to celebrate one another, proving that even if the rest of the world doesn’t want to do so, we’re perfectly capable of doing it ourselves.

Sophie Oehler is the communications coordinator at the Forest Society.

Online: To learn more about Women in the Woods, and to sign up for future programming, visit forestsociety.org/events.

Spring 2024 FOREST NOTES | 15

ON OUR LAND

Left: The author holds the first chestnut bur grown in the Tom Rush Forest American Chestnut Orchard. Each spiky bur typically houses three nuts.

Right: As an orchard volunteer, Dave Heuss assists in annual weeding, mulching, mowing, and fertilizing in an effort to grow healthy American chestnut trees.

Beyond the Blight: Innovations in Chestnut Tree Breeding and Restoration

By Carrie Deegan

T

he American chestnut (Castanea dentata), once a stately and dominant tree in deciduous forests of the Northeast, now rarely grows larger than an understory sapling. At fault is the invasive blight fungus (Cryphonectria parasitica), which causes cankers on the cambium tissue under the chestnut bark that quickly girdle and kill infected trees.

Restoration of the American chestnut to any semblance of its former grandeur on our landscape is a complex and arduous challenge, but one that The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) has embraced fully and has been working toward for more than four decades.

Since 2019, the Forest Society has worked collaboratively with the Vermont/ New Hampshire Chapter of TACF to maintain an American chestnut seed orchard at the Tom Rush Forest in Deering, N.H. To establish the orchard, we enclosed one acre of an existing field with 8-foot-tall

16 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2024

deer fencing and, with the help of volunteers, planted 600 nuts in May 2019.

These chestnuts were hybrid backcrosses with Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima), which is resistant to the chestnut blight fungus. The hope was that a few of these hybrid trees (which are 15/16th American chestnut and 1/16th Chinese chestnut) might end up resistant to the blight. Nearly all the 600 nuts sprouted, and, thanks to careful watering, weeding, fertilizing, and mowing by orchard volunteers, most grew and thrived for the first four years. “The survival and subsequent care of the trees at the Tom Rush Forest chestnut orchard has been exemplary,” notes TACF Director of Regional Programs Kendra Collins. “It’s so wonderful to see the trees thrive through the implementation of best management practices and regular care by the volunteers.”

The Forest Society’s original plan in spring 2023 was to inoculate all the trees

with the blight fungus when they reached 5 years of age, kicking off a sort of sylvan Hunger Games to hasten the process of determining which individuals were blight resistant. But the interesting thing about scientific research is that it is always evolving and changing based on the latest available data and protocols. Hence, TACF’s new directive later that summer which was to not prematurely infect the trees with the hope that a few end up significantly resistant to blight, but rather do everything we can to keep a select subset of the trees healthy as long as possible and help them reach breeding maturity.

This was welcome news for our chestnut volunteers, who weren’t looking forward to infecting the trees after spending countless hours tending to them. In fall 2023, volunteers found a spiny chestnut bur housing up to 3 chestnut seeds. This exciting discovery tells the Forest Society that the trees are very close to breeding maturity.

RETOOLING CHESTNUT TREE RESTORATION EFFORTS Forest Notes readers may be familiar with the recent news about The American Chestnut Foundation’s (TACF) retraction of support for the genetically engineered chestnut variety Darling 58 (D58) that the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry developed, and which is currently under review for de-regulation by the USDA and EPA. D58 contains a wheat gene scientists hoped would convey blight resistance, but TACF ultimately rejected it due to poor performance issues in successive generations.

Routed signs greet visitors to the Tom Rush Forest American Chestnut Orchard, a partnership between the Forest Society and The American Chestnut Foundation.

(OPPOSITE PAGE, FROM LEFT) LAUREL SWOPE-BRUSH, CARRIE DEEGAN; (THIS PAGE) CARRIE DEEGAN

Moving forward, the orchard’s trees will be used essentially as “breeding stock” and will be pollinated with pollen from the most blight-resistant trees TACF has developed or identified, resulting in nuts that will have increased genetic diversity.

Of the original 600 chestnuts planted in 2019, 60 trees remain in the orchard.

This drop-off occurred in summer 2023, not because of the chestnut blight, but because the orchard was deliberately thinned to keep only the largest and healthiest looking trees and ensure they have ample room to grow. These trees are growing and thriving, with many measuring more than nine feet tall!

The next exciting chapter for the Tom Rush orchard involves planting more chestnut trees later this year. The VT/ NH chapter of TACF, in partnership with other similar chapters in the Northeast, has several hundred chestnuts available that were produced in New England by crossing their most resistant varieties to date. Tools to uncover blight resistance,

such as genetic sequencing, have become much more sophisticated since the 2019 planting, so these nuts will be started in pots in greenhouses and their DNA will be analyzed for genetic markers known to convey at least some blight resistance.

“This is an exciting evolution of our process,” Collins says. “It allows us to select promising trees without the added stress of stem inoculations.” Only the most promising seedlings, likely fewer than 30, will be chosen for planting at Tom Rush Forest in fall 2024. Orchard volunteers, including Kay Hartnett of Deering, will be ready to plant when the time comes.

“It gives me hope the work we are doing might bring back the chestnut tree,” she says. “I’m pretty sure I won’t be around to see the real fruits of our work, but I am proud to be a part of the beginning of this experiment, and hope it ends with repopulating the forests with these trees.”

Carrie Deegan is the Reservation Stewardship & Engagement Director for the Forest Society.

Learn More:

Visitors are welcome at the Tom Rush Forest Chestnut Orchard. To learn more, visit forestsociety.org/tom-rush-forest.

More detailed information about Darling 58 can be found at tacf.org/darling-58.

Forest Society chestnut trees at the Tom Rush Forest orchard are not D58 or genetically engineered plants; neither are the trees slated for planting in fall 2024. TACF still believes that genetic engineering holds promise as one approach in their goal of restoring the American chestnut, but it is only one strategic avenue out of many. The Tom Rush Forest orchard and other seed and stock orchards like it represent another key approach to working toward blight resistance.

“The new planting at Tom Rush Forest is part of the next evolution of breeding at TACF and we’re really excited to push forward with better selection tools and modeling capabilities,” TACF Director of Regional Programs Kendra Collins says. “I’m thrilled to have the Forest Society team supporting this revamped effort on such a successful site. Organizations like the Forest Society understand working on ‘tree time,’ as well as the need to pivot when science presents us with better tools or solutions. We really appreciate their partnership in our work to restore the American chestnut.” As staff and volunteers have already experienced in their few short years of tending the orchard, management plans will continue to evolve and change in the future with new and improving science, which is all part of the fun!

Spring 2024 FOREST NOTES | 17

CONSERVATION SUCCESS STORY

A Legacy of Forest Conservation Continues as the Jennings Forest in New Durham Expands

By Kelly Whalen

T

he Forest Society is excited to announce that due to a very generous donation of land, the Jennings Forest in New Durham has nearly doubled in size. In the 1980s, Ellen Jennings donated the Jennings Forest to the Forest Society. Now, more than 40 years later, her daughter, Elisabeth Maley, continued the family’s legacy of protecting land by gifting an additional 314 acres directly across from the original 385-acre Jennings Forest Reservation donated by her mother. Referred to as the Jennings Forest Maley Tract, it was never a question of whether Elisabeth’s land was going to be conserved, it was just a matter of when. “Conservation of this land is so meaningful to me,” Elisabeth told Forest Notes. “To be able to add to the forest my mom started brings me great joy. We grew up with a strong value of conserving land, the environment, and wildlife, and this addition to Jennings Forest accomplishes it all.”

The property mainly consists of working forest and more than 7,000 linear feet of the Hayes Brook, a perennial stream, running through the center of the property. There are also a few intermittent streams and wetlands on the property, totaling more than 7,100 linear feet, which all lead to the wetland complex on the existing Jennings Forest. By combining the additional 314 acres to the 385-acre Jennings Forest, it will increase the total conserved land area around Middleton

18 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2024

Road to more than 700 acres, creating a larger connected network of conservation lands to forever support wildlife habitat and passage along the river and wetlands.

“I’d like to thank Elisabeth and her family for her generosity and for expanding upon our Jennings Forest that her mother so generously donated to us long ago,” Forest Society Jack Savage said. “We know that maintaining unfragmented areas of protected land supports wildlife and water quality, and this addition will do just that.

Because of this, it has been a priority of the Forest Society to enlarge existing forest properties and build connections to a broader network of conservation land.”

The property contains high-quality wildlife habitat with more than 140 acres of

the property consisting of Tier 1 habitat according to the New Hampshire Fish and Game’s 2020 Wildlife Action Plan.

The New Hampshire Natural Heritage Bureau also states that within one mile of the property are recent records of both Common Loon, a threatened species, and Blanding’s Turtle, an endangered species.

The Maley Tract is in the larger Great Bay Watershed as Hayes Brook is a first order tributary to the Cocheco River.

More than 90 percent of the property is located within the 2021 coastal conservation focus area according to the Coastal Watershed Conservation Plan. Managed and owned by the Forest Society, the property will be open to the public for recreational activities, including hiking,

hunting, and fishing. A snowmobile trail currently exists on the land, serving the Powder Mill Snowmobile Club and other recreationists who utilize the trail system year-round. “I hope visitors are happy the Jennings Forest is protected and open to recreation,” Maley says. “There’s going to be less and less land available, and I think it’s important to have some land for people to explore. I made this donation because I love the land and I want it to stay that way, conserved and not developed. I’ve had many solicitors tell me how much I could get per acre, and I just ignored them all because I can’t imagine developing all that land.”

In a photo from winter 1964, Elisabeth’s grandfather, Irving E. Jennings, who was the original owner of the Jennings Forests, pulls a Christmas tree alongside Elisabeth’s brother, William B. Maley Jr.

The project was supported with grant funds from The Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership and The Adelard A. and Valeda Lea Roy Foundation to assist with the transaction and stewardship costs.

Consulting Foresters

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

The following are paid advertisers.

Calhoun & Corwin Forestry, LLC Realize what you value the most in your forest.

Serving individual, municipal, state, non-government, and industry forest owners.

41 Pine St., Peterborough, NH 03458 • 603-562-5620 Email: swiftcorwin@gmail.com

Full Circle Forestry, LLC Ehrhard Frost, NHLPF #103, Thetford Center, VT 802-785-4749 • efrost.fcf@gmail.com Eric Radlof, NHLPF #447, Antrim, NH 603-321-3482 • eradlof.fcf@gmail.com Jeffrey Snitkin, NHLPF #452, Newbury, NH 802-310-0292 • jsnitkin.fcf@gmail.com Benjamin Vicere, NHLPF #453, Springfield, VT 802-779-7021 • bvicere.fcf@gmail.com We specialize in creative, ecological approaches to forest management that are designed to provide longterm economic and intangible benefits to landowners and their forests. FCF partners are licensed foresters, NRCS Technical Service Providers, pesticide applicators, and Tree Farm Inspectors.

752 Rt. 103A Newbury, NH 03255 • 802-310-0292

Martin Forestry Consulting, LLC Offering complete forest management services, including timber sales, cruises, appraisals, and wildlife habitat management. Ask us about recreation trail planning, construction, Brontosaurus mowing, and forestry excavation services.

Join the Campaign!

We have raised over $7.5 million toward our $8.5 million goal

COURTESY OF ELISABETH MALEY

Make a gift today to help complete the Forest Society North at The Rocks Campaign.

You’ll enjoy your investment here for many years to come!

For more information, scan here: Visit forestsociety.org or contact atruslow@forestsociety.org

P.O. Box 89, New Hampton, NH 03256 • 603-744-9484 Email: martinforestry@gmail.com

Meadowsend Consulting Company

Quality Consulting Forestry with Integrity. Guaranteed.

Jeremy Turner, NHLPF #318 — Southern NH jturner@meadowsendco.com Matthias Nevins, NHLPF #518 — Central NH mnevins@meadowsendco.com Ryan Kilborn, NHLPF #442 — Northern NH rkilborn@meadowsendco.com Vast range of quality land management services.

Connect with us for a free site consultation!

meadowsendco.com • 603.526.8686 Licensed foresters should address inquiries about advertising to Anne Truslow by calling 603-224-9945 or emailing atruslow@forestsociety.org.

Spring 2024 FOREST NOTES | 19

NATURE’S VIEW

Fall colors illuminate the waters around a swimming beaver.

Busy Beavers: Fellow Foresters and Farmers

By Sarah Kern

D

espite their seemingly conflicting worlds, beavers and humans share surprising commonalities that extend beyond the mere cohabitation of ecosystems. Known for their dam-building and environmental engineering skills, beavers mirror certain aspects of human behavior, leading to a unique interplay between the two species in the delicate balance of coexistence.

One striking parallel lies in the fundamental importance of shelter. Beavers construct elaborate lodges and huts as a means of protection and survival. Similarly, since the beginning of time, humans have been building shelters, evolving from primitive caves to our modern-day homes. Both species understand the significance of creating secure structures to shield themselves from the elements and potential threats.

Moreover, the familial bonds exhibited by beavers mirror the social structures found within human communities.

20 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2024

Beavers live in family units, cooperating in the construction and maintenance of their habitats, food sources, and shelters.

The intricate division of labor among beaver family members reflects a communal effort similar to the collaborative spirit seen in our societies. From parenting responsibilities to resource gathering, both species display the advantages of teamwork for the betterment of their respective communities.

Resource utilization forms another intriguing parallel between beavers and humans. Beavers are renowned for their adept manipulation of natural resources from felling trees and building lodges to constructing dams that regulate water levels. “One of the most common misconceptions about beavers is people think they are little loggers who cut trees for building structures,” says Senior Director of Education Dave Anderson. “The reality is they are more like little farmers. Yes,

the impoundments they create provide protection, but they are also gardens that grow the starchy emergent aquatic vegetation with tasty thick roots—think arrow arum, cattail reeds, and water lilies—that are the beaver’s summer and early autumn food staples. Beavers don’t tend to cut trees in spring and summer if they have ample aquatic plants to feed on.”

The coexistence narrative shifts, however, when the use of resources leads to potential conflicts. As human activities encroach upon beaver habitats, conflicts arise. The beavers’ penchant for dam building may clash with human interests, too, especially when it results in flooding of agricultural areas or human homes and infrastructure, such as roads or driveways.

Striking a balance between human development and the preservation of beaver habitats becomes crucial for fostering peaceful coexistence and ensuring the beavers continued positive influence on

(OPPOSITE PAGE) A G EVANS PHOTOGRAPHY; (THIS PAGE) RYAN SMITH (X2)

ecosystems. Efforts to mitigate conflicts involve adopting innovative solutions that accommodate the needs of both species. In some regions, wildlife specialists implement beaver-friendly practices, including the installation of flow devices, cleverly named “beaver deceivers,” to regulate water levels without entirely disrupting the beavers’ natural behavior.

Education also plays a pivotal role in facilitating harmony between humans and beavers. Understanding the ecological benefits that beavers provide, including water filtration and increased biodiversity, fosters a more tolerant attitude toward these rodents. Similarly, awareness about responsible land use and the potential consequences of encroachment helps humans make informed decisions that consider the broader ecosystem. Despite the challenges, success stories of coexistence between beavers and humans abound. Communities that embrace sustainable practices and prioritize conservation efforts find that these industrious creatures contribute to the overall health of ecosystems. The key lies in recognizing the interconnectedness of all living beings and acknowledging the role each species plays in maintaining ecological balance.

And if you need even more reasons to believe in supporting beavers, it is also important to note that, in a changing climate which is affecting every living thing on the planet, beaver can actually help mitigate some of the effects. They create wetlands which act as carbon sinks, storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Additionally, their dams can slow down the flow of water, reduce erosion, and help maintain water levels, which can be beneficial during periods of drought.

Beaver ponds also create diverse habitats that support a plethora of plant and animal species. “The resurgence of beavers created a rebound in populations of nearly 40 species, including great blue herons, wood ducks, hooded mergansers, spotted salamanders, spotted turtles, Blanding’s turtles, muskrats, mink, otters, and moose,” Anderson says. Biodiverse

The floodplain forest of the Merrimack River Outdoor Education and Conservation area in Concord, N.H., is a great spot to see beaver activity, including beaver-made trails (top) and felled trees (bottom). ecosystems are resilient in the face of challenges and impacts of climate change and can help buffer against extreme weather events. Beavers are a keystone species because of the many ecological services they provide to other species. The NH Wildlife Action Plan often mentions beaver-created habitat as habitat needed for many native species, including some of those having the “greatest conservation need,” including the spotted turtle and the New England cottontail rabbit.

The commonalities between beavers and humans extend far beyond the surface, revealing shared values, resources, and skills. The challenges faced in

coexistence underscore the importance of adopting sustainable practices, fostering understanding, and finding innovative solutions. As we navigate the delicate dance between progress and preservation, the story of beavers and humans serves as a poignant reminder of the interconnected web of life and the necessity of harmonious coexistence.

Sarah Kern is the former Creek Farm Education Program Coordinator for the Forest Society.

Learn More:

For more information about beavers, visit beaverinstitute.org.

Spring 2024 FOREST NOTES | 21

PUBLIC POLICY

Over the last several years, government officials and stakeholders have spent significant time debating the hierarchy of waste management methods, including landfilling and incineration.

Landfills vs. Greenspace

By Matt Leahy

O

nce a landfill, always a landfill.

That admittedly simplistic statement reflects the reality that once a solid waste landfill is closed, the trash that had been dumped there during its operations will continue to exist below the surface of the property long after it has ceased operations.

This fact is noted in the state’s Recycling & Solid Waste Study Committee’s 2019 report: “While there is some decomposition of solid waste once it is landfilled (testimony indicated the volume of a landfill will decrease about 20 percent only), most solid waste, including much plastic, construction and demolition debris and innumerable other types of waste, remain entombed in perpetuity, requiring ongoing maintenance and always a potential threat without proper monitoring.”

Yes, it is true that some closed landfills are now being used for other purposes such as community parks, wildlife habitats and, in some cases, the conversion of landfill gas to energy. What they will not 22 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2024

be are forests, a point noted on the New Hampshire Municipal Association’s website: “Tree growth must be prevented on landfills because the shallow cover soils will not support trees as they mature, making them susceptible to being blown over.

Blown over trees will damage the cover soils and can expose waste. Tree roots also provide a pathway for water to enter the waste, increasing leachate generation.”

Of course, our society continues to generate significant waste each year. The Environmental Protection Agency says the total generation of municipal solid waste in 2018 was 292.4 million tons or 4.9 pounds per person per day. These figures leave us to question what to do with all this waste and whether landfills are the best way to dispose of it.

New Hampshire’s solid waste management statute (RSA 149-M) actually provides a guide to help answer these questions. It puts in place a hierarchy of waste management methods. Landfilling trash is the least preferred method to

dispose of trash. Source reduction is the most preferred way followed by recycling and reuse, composting, waste-to-energy technologies (including incineration), incineration without resource recovery, and finally, burying the trash.

Over the last several years, government officials and stakeholders have spent significant time trying to find a consensus approach on this topic. For example, the NH Department of Environmental Services (DES) updated the state’s solid waste management plan in 2022. The plan seeks to achieve the state’s overarching disposal reduction goal of reducing disposal of municipal solid waste and construction and demolition debris by 25 percent by 2030 and by 45 percent by 2050. In the Legislature, elected leaders have debated several waste management–related bills, while the New Hampshire Solid Waste Working Group has been considering planning and policy initiatives.

The Forest Society has been following these discussions. We’ve observed that

Together Making New Hampshire a Great Place to Live, Work, and Explore

PONTDEPIERRE (FLICKR)

supporters of modernizing the state’s waste practices have similar priorities as conservation organizations when undertaking a project, including protecting forest and water resources and spaces that have important scenic and recreation value to local communities. As such, the Forest Society’s advocacy team has an interest in how and where landfills are sited and how they are managed. We also recognize that the issues surrounding this topic are complex. Further complicating the question of how to manage the waste generated in New Hampshire is the fact that about 50 percent of the solid waste disposed of in New Hampshire comes from out of state.

The Interstate Commerce Clause limits the steps states can take to manage waste that comes from out of state.

In 2024, the Forest Society supported House Bill 1620, which proposed to suspend the issuance of new landfill permits until 2028. Our endorsement of the bill relates to the state’s solid waste management statute’s (RSA 149-M) statement of purpose to “protect human health, to preserve the natural environment, and to conserve precious and dwindling natural resources through the proper and integrated management of solid waste.”

Prior to permitting any additional facilities, we felt it was prudent and reasonable to put in place a short-term suspension of the approval process, as proposed in HB 1620, while the Legislature and state agencies determine the appropriate longterm policies for the management of solid waste here.

It is unfortunate the Senate found HB 1620 “Inexpedient to Legislate” and killed the bill. We do not know how future Legislatures will treat this issue; however, all of us need to remember: once a landfill, always a landfill. Let’s get it right before we convert the precious and dwindling natural resources noted in the management statute into another use that can never really be undone.

Matt Leahy is the 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. J and M Morse Trucking, LLC Mainstay Technologies Merrimack County Savings Bank Nathan Wechsler & Company Newburyport Bank Northland Forest Products, Inc. Seaboard International Forest Products, LLC St. Mary’s Bank 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

President’s Circle ($1,000 to $2,499)

Bangor Savings Bank BCM Environmental & Land Law, PLLC Bensonwood & Unity Homes Chinburg Properties EOS Research Ltd. Frog Hollow Forestry GMEC, Inc. 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 Target Corporation

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 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 Ballentine Partners 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 Spring 2024 FOREST NOTES | 23 your clients or employees, please contact Anne Truslow at (603) 224-9945 or atruslow@forestsociety.org.

PROJECT IN PROGRESS

Protecting Tinker Brook and other perennial streams is a priority of the Forest Society as part of a recent conservation project in Berlin.

Striking a Balance in Berlin

F

ollowing on the heels of the 3,700acre Mahoosuc Highlands Project in Shelburne, the Forest Society now seeks to acquire 730 acres of forestland in Berlin. This project builds on a legacy of conservation in the Upper Androscoggin River Valley and will accomplish working forest conservation, public recreational access, watershed protection, and enhanced conservation connectivity—all within the city limits of Berlin.

Accessed from the Cascade neighborhood on the Berlin and Gorham town line, this property rises up an easterlyfacing hillside toward Sugar Mountain and Jericho Mountain, surrounding stretches of Tinker Brook and other perennial streams.

Managed as a woodlot for decades, the property is a mixed northern hardwood conifer forest with a 30-acre peatland and wet meadow at higher elevations.

The wetlands offer habitat for wildlife as diverse as moose, white-tailed deer, black 24 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2024

bear, beaver, snowshoe hare, ruffed grouse, songbirds, and spotted salamanders.

Existing woods roads offer access by foot from the Cascade neighborhood and it is presently used lightly by dog walkers, hikers, and snowmobilers. Snowmobile Corridor #19 follows 1.75 miles of woods roads across the property, linking the Gorham Town Forest with Jericho Mountain State Park.

This property forms a bridge between the population center of Berlin on its east side and more than 100,000 acres of contiguous conserved forestland to the south, west, and north that has been protected as community forests in Randolph and Gorham, state parks, and the White Mountain National Forest. Now, Berlin will also benefit from conserved lands, open for passive public recreation, in close proximity to the city.

For the Forest Society, this project strikes a desired balance: conserving 730

acres of Northern New Hampshire’s wood basket near mills and transportation; providing public recreational access from local neighborhoods; linking and expanding large blocks of conserved forestland; and protecting streams like Tinker Brook that drain to the Androscoggin.

To acquire the property, the Forest Society must raise a total of $675,000, the majority of which is likely to be funded through grant programs. To demonstrate a broad base of support that will help secure those grants, we hope you will consider a gift to this project today. Our goal is to raise $50,000 from individual donors by June 30, which will support land acquisition, associated costs, and a long-term stewardship endowment for care and maintenance in perpetuity.

Please join us to conserve 730 acres of forestland in Berlin today!

The property forms a bridge between the population center of Berlin on its east side and more than 100,000 acres of contiguous conserved forestland to the south, west, and north.

YES, I’D LIKE TO HELP ACQUIRE AND CONSERVE 730 ACRES IN BERLIN. 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:

LEAH HART

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

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

Thank you for your help!

4104T137 Fund 160

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

Gary Newfield Randolph, N.H. Member since 2010

MEMBERS MAKE THE DIFFERENCE!

AL KAREVY

Gary is 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.

I

support the Forest Society because I believe in conserving and taking care of this planet we call Earth. When I was growing up, I spent quite a bit of time with my grandfather, who immigrated to America from Poland. He and my grandmother lived about a mile down a dirt road that my family called the ‘farm,’ a small home with a couple of acres of open space surrounded by 60 acres of woods and wetlands. He and I would take walks in the woods with his goats, and he told me tales of growing up in Poland and taught me the names of trees and plants he knew. It was the time spent with him in the woods and fields that opened my eyes to the beauty and mystery of the natural world.

This inspired me to work for organizations affiliated with the outdoors, including the U.S. Forest Service as a backcountry ranger, the Appalachian Mountain Club as a construction

crew member, and Outward Bound as an instructor on Hurricane Island in Maine. When I retired, I continued following my passion by volunteering as the chairman of the conservation commission in Randolph, N.H. Supporting the Forest Society is a no-brainer for me because I want youngsters to see and feel the awe of nature that I felt as I tramped in the woods with my grandfather. I also support the Forest Society because we face an existential threat to our planet due to global warming as evidenced by more frequent and stronger storms, heavier rain events, bleaching of coral reefs, severe droughts, and worsening forest fire seasons. By preserving working forests and farms and practicing sustainable logging, the Forest Society is having a positive impact on carbon capture and storage—an effort we all need to support.”