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Moose Mountains panorama (photo: J.Morris)

One of our newest land stewards, Jason Morris of Farmington, has a blog that describes his adventures hiking in NH and beyond. He's been posting some about Moose Mountains Reservation in Middleton, where he is a land steward along with Scott Lavoice. You can find it here, and I've also listed Jason's blog under the Links/Documents section in the sidebar of this blog. Moose Mountains is a fairly large reservation, over 1000 acres, with lots of great hiking potential and interesting cultural and natural features. Unfortunately, there's also some issues with motorized wheeled vehicle use (trucks and ATVs) which pre-dated our ownership of the property and which we'd like to get under control to protect the natural resources and road/trail infrastructure there. Check in on Jason's blog every so often if you'd like to know how things are progressing...

Starflower (photo: J.Morris)

Photo: J.Morris

Northern Leopard Frog (photo: J.Morris)

Lady Slipper at Moose Mtns (photo: J.Morris)

North and South Workdays

Earlier in May two workdays occurred on Forest Society properties at opposite ends of the state. On May 12th, a group of 20+ land stewards and other volunteers gathered at Lost River Reservation in Woodstock, NH to assist with trail maintenance and assorted spring cleaning tasks that needed to be accomplished in order to get the property ready for the Gorge's opening weekend. Lost River is the Forest Society's oldest reservation, protected in 1912. The portion of the property that contains the spectacular gorge and boulder caves is leased by SPNHF to White Mountain Attractions (WMA), which operates the Lost River Gorge. The funds from our lease agreement go directly towards stewardship of Forest Society reservations, as well as new land protection projects, so it's a win-win situation for both parties. Every spring we assist WMA with preparing for opening day, and also conduct maintenance on the other parts of the Lost River property that are not under lease agreement. Included in this area are two great trails- the 1/2 mile Kinsman's Notch Ecology Trail loop, and the much more strenuous Dilly Cliffs Trail.

There is always chainsaw work at Lost River

Volunteers spruce up the paint near the entrance

BBQ lunch after the Lost River workday

A second workday was held on May 14th at Gap Mountain Reservation in Jaffrey and Troy, NH. A group of volunteers led by Frank Bequaert of the Metacomet-Mondadnock Trail group built several new rock waterbars on the north trail up Gap Mountain and improved some stone staircases. Gap Mountain Reservation is also under lease agreement, to the NH State Parks, and is managed as a part of Monadnock State Park. The trails on both Mount Monadnock and Gap Mountain see very heavy use over the hiking season, so constant vigilance is needed and trail maintenance projects are never-ending! Just ask our land stewards at these properties....

Installing waterbars at Gap Mountain (photo: H.Lindquist)

photo: H. Lindquist

New Class of Land Stewards!

Sorry for the hiatus in posting- I've got some catching up to do! I've been very busy the last month or so planning for the 2011 Land Steward CORE Training, which just finished up this past weekend. Twenty seven newly minted Land Stewards now join the ranks of the roughly 85 of you already out there and active on your reservations. Join me in welcoming them please!

We had a great class this year, with folks from all corners of the state... from Wilton to Somersworth to Cornish to Milan and everywhere in between. The training was held at Geneva Point Center in Moultonborough- a lovely setting right on Lake Winnipesaukee with lots of trails and acres of woods for outdoor learning activities. And most importantly, there was a huge screened in porch with a fireplace (no rain! no bugs!) to get to know each other around in the evenings.

As it has the previous few years, the curriculum included forest management, trail maintenance, map/compass/boundary monitoring, community engagement, and recreation management. This year we were able to visit a few recently harvested forests as well to round out the training and give people a better idea of how and why the Forest Society conducts timber harvets on its lands. We are really excited for the new steward class to get started and hope they have been energized by the training weekend!