Join Us for a Nature Walk!
For more information and to RSVP:
Dee Robbins, Monadnock Conservancy,
603-357-0600
Walpole Educational Hikes
co-sponsored by the Monadnock Conservancy's
Community Conservation Partnership and the
Walpole Conservation Commission
9:00 to 11:00 am (more or less) unless otherwise noted
Meet at the Walpole Common
15 minutes prior for carpooling.
August 30, High Blue
September 7, Sawyer Farm (see below)
September 20, Fanny Mason
October 11, Fall Mountain from N. Walpole
For more information, contact Mel Schupack, Walpole Conservation Commission; RSVP to Dee Robbins.
September 7: Sawyer Farm, Walpole (easy walk)
2:00 to 4:00 pm
(rain date: September 14, 2:00 to 4:00 pm)
In 2000, the Walpole Conservation Commission, the Committee to Save River Meadow Farm, the Monadnock Conservancy, and the Trust forPublic Land worked with the Sawyer family to protect the family farm from development. As a result, 92 acres of the farm’s terraced riverfront land were transferred to Boggy Meadow Farm for continued farming, while 44 acres were added to the Fanny Mason Town Forest. The Monadnock Conservancy and the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture now co-hold a conservation easement on this property, ensuring that the land’s rich agricultural soils, scenic values, and public footpath forever benefit the residents of Walpole.
Hear the stories behind this farmland conservation project from some of the people who made it happen: family member, Joseph Sawyer; forester, Swift Corwin; and former Walpole Conservation Commission chair, Harold Putnam. Monadnock Conservancy staff will answer questions about protecting land with conservation easements.
Meet at the Walpole Common 15 minutes before the start for carpooling.
September 13: Lost Pond, Alstead (easy)
9 to 11 am
Join biologist Gretchen Stevens for a nature walk to Lost Pond, an acidic bog on protected family lands.
Peg Squibb Stevens, grew up on a 122-acre farm in Alstead. Her husband, John Stevens, grew up on a 130-acre farm in Walpole. In 2006, with encouragement from their daughter Gretchen and funding assistance from the Alstead and Walpole Conservation Commissions, Peg and John Stevens put conservation easements on their family properties in both towns.
For this outing, Gretchen Stevens will lead a walk featuring the natural history and ecology of ledges, forests, bogs, intermittent streams, and plants and animals of conservation importance on her family’s conservation easement near Alstead Center. The bog has leatherleaf, rhodora, extensive floating mats of Sphagnum mosses, and the insectivorous plants round-leaved sundew and pitcher-plant. Be prepared for wet areas if there has been recent rain.
Space is limited; please contact
Dee Robbins to RSVP and for directions.
Temple Mountain
State Reservation Dedicated
August 14, 2008
An historic effort to protect one of southern New Hampshire’s most beloved mountains was completed when the State of New Hampshire bought the former Temple Mountain ski area.
Governor John Lynch cut the ribbon to the main trail, dedicating
Temple Mountain State Reservation in a ceremony
at the base of the mountain on the afternoon of
August 14.
Participating from left to right are Matt Leahy from U.S. Senator
Judd Gregg's office; Lisa Levine representing U.S. Congressman Paul Hodes;
Tedd Petro of the Temple Selectboard; NH Senator Peter Bragdon;
NH Representative Anne-Marie Irwin; Governor Lynch; Jenna Kieley Teeson with son Chase; Connie Kieley (partially obscured); Richard Ober, former Executive Director of the Monadnock Conservancy and now with the NH Charitable Foundation; Phil Bryce, Director of the Division of Forests and Lands, DRED; Executive Councilor Debora Pignatelli; Michael Beebe, former owner of Temple Mountain ski area; Ryan Owens, Executive Director of the Monadnock Conservancy; and Sheridan Brown from the Office of U.S. Senator John Sununu.
The Monadnock Conservancy's
19th Annual Meeting
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Chesterfield Town Hall
Pearl Street Quartet from the Keene Community Music Center
Attendees study maps of 2008 projects, the Temple-to-Crotched Conservation Corridor, and conservation lands in Chesterfield.
Guest Speaker Ernest Hebert, award-winning novelist and
Dartmouth College writing professor
spoke about mentors—both past and present—with his talk, “Ghosts Who Haunt my Woods.” Hebert is the author of The Dogs of March, the first of his series about Darby, a fictitious Cheshire County town, among other works of fiction and non-fiction.
Mr. Hebert has graciously allowed us to make available his remarks.
Click here for a copy of his manuscript.
Charlie Koch, shown here with his mother Mary Koch and his wife Barbara Jatkola, received the Abe Wolfe Land Protection Award.
Buck and Ike, Swanzey's biggest rural characters proudly wear their medals, which were presented in conjunction with the Town of Swanzey and the Swanzey Open Space Committee receiving the Philip Faulkner Award.
Special thanks are due to the following organizations, merchants, and individuals for their contributions to the meeting: Chesterfield Conservation Commission; Town of Chesterfield; the Works Bakery and Café, Keene; Starbucks Coffee Company, Keene; Cheshire Gardens, Winchester; Alyson’s Orchard, Walpole; United Natural Foods, Inc., Chesterfield; Homestead Farm, Walpole; Perpetual Perennials, Sullivan; High Hopes Orchard, Westmoreland; Antioch New England Institute, Keene; William and Jonah Erikson, Keene; and the Pearl Street Quartet from the Keene Community Music Center. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Monadnock Tomorrow Meets Goal
More than $3M pledged to campaign
Campaign co-chairs Rick Church and Jennie Norman announced the $3M Monadnock Tomorrow capital campaign has reached its goal. Money raised by the campaign will enable the Conservancy to accelerate the pace of land conservation in the 35 towns of the Monadnock Region and to use conservation easements to protect land valued at over $20 million over the next five years. Additional contacts have been made, and several donors are still in the process of deciding their gifts. Final numbers will be announced at a reception later this fall.
Thanks to all of you for making this possible.
Rick Church and Jennie Norman
Monadnock Tomorrow campaign co-chairs
