Dragonfly Walk

Twenty adventurous people joined me and my husband Andy Deegan (Ausbon-Sargent Land Preservation Trust) on a dragonfly walk at the Forest Society’s Langenau Forest in Wilmot last week. In our spare time we volunteer for the New Hampshire Dragonfly Survey (NHDS), an effort coordinated by NH Audubon, UNH Cooperative Extension, and NH Fish & Game that seeks to catalog as many of the dragonfly species that exist in NH within a 5-year time period. One of the sites where we collect data is SPNHF's Langenau Forest in Wilmot (a little known and underappreciated little gem of a forest with plenty of well-maintained hiking trails (thanks to steward Dave Cook) and a small wildlife pond). We decided to host a dragonfly walk for the public at Langenau Forest, partly because we're very familiar with what's there, and partly to acquaint local residents with this conservation property! Participants in the walk learned about dragonfly identification, biology and behavior, as well as why conservation of land and aquatic habitats is important for the perpetuation of the state’s dragonfly populations. Many aerial nets were passed around during the walk to allow people the opportunity to try catching and releasing “dragons” in the field. More than a dozen species were caught, inspected, and released by the group... including several not before identified in the town of Wilmot! Very cool!