APB: Hike Leaders Wanted!!

Have you ever thought about leading a walk or hike on the property you monitor for the Forest Society?  Or another conservation property in your area?  This is a very important way that stewards and other volunteers can help advance the Forest Society's greater mission, as well as promote land and habitat conservation in the state and in your community.  As SPNHF land stewards, you all understand the value of conservation land in our state.  Provision of wildlife habitat, protection of water quality, improved air quality, recreational access, source of renewable energy and sustainable forest products, and the list goes on.  Unfortunately, however, not everyone understands these benefits.  One of the best ways to convince people that having conservation lands in their community is a good thing is to show them the direct benefit available to them in visiting and enjoying a local forest.  And many people really need a guide on that first visit to a property in order to take the "leap" and make a connection with a local piece of land.  You can help with this!  All of you are quite expert enough to lead a walk, and if you don't believe me (or want to feel a bit more confident), please consider coming to an upcoming workshop this June entitled "Field Trip 101: You Can Lead a Guided Hike!"

This workshop, sponsored by SPNHF and UNH Cooperative Extension, was first run last summer with a group of 25 participants.  We provide you with all the tips and tricks you'll ever need to plan, advertise, and implement an outstanding hike or nature walk in your own community.  In the 6 months following our last workshop, the participants led over 16 hikes involving more than 250 people from their local communities.  If they can do it, YOU can too!  And even better, we promise it's fun!  Please join us!

Field Trip 101: You Can Lead a Guided Hike
When:  Wednesday, June 20th, 9AM-2PM
Where:  SPNHF Conservation Center, Concord
How to Register:  email Tina Ripley at signup@forestsociety.org or register online HERE.

Apple Tree Pruning Workshop

Nigel Manly demonstrates a pruning cut at Welch Family Farm & Forest

Did you know that apples are not actually native to New England, or even the United States?  Aside from some varieties of crabappble, which are native to the U.S., the many varieties of "wild apple" that you can find growing in New Hampshire's woods are all trees or descendants of trees originally brought to North America by European settlers.  Often when you find apple trees in the woods in NH, there is an old cellar hole or other evidence of a long-abandoned homestead nearby.  Despite the fact that they are exotic, wild apple trees are an important year-round food source for many wildlife species including deer, bear, turkey, porcupine, moose, and a variety of rodents and birds.  It is for this reason that we advocate "releasing" and pruning wild apples where they exist on Forest Society properties, to improve their fruit production for wildlife.

Land Stewards Walter Weeks (Dickenson Forest) and Hiel Lindquist (Gap Mountain) try their hand at pruning a gnarly old apple tree

Nigel Manly, Director of the Forest Society's Rocks Estate in Bethlehem, NH, recently led a workshop for land stewards and other interested individuals on how to release and prune wild apple trees.  "Releasing" a wild apple simply means removing any competing vegetation or trees that have grown up around the tree and are shading it out.  The workshop was sponsored jointly by SPNHF and the Harris Center for Conservation Education (HCCE), and it included a field practice session at the Forest Society's Welch Family Farm and Forest in Hancock.  Nigel covered the basics of apple pruning with the group of about 30 participants, including essential tools, timing of pruning, making proper pruning cuts, reducing tree height, choosing what and how much to cut, liming and fertlizing, and reducing the spread of apple diseases like fire blight.  Six land stewards and three prospective land stewards attended the class, and I know many of them are excited to try out their newfound knowledge on the reservations they monitor for SPNHF.  In fact, two of them (Jason Morris and Scott Lavoice at Moose Mountains) have already begun... see their recent post about pruning some of the many old apples near the old Burrows Farm site HERE.  As everyone at the workshop learned on Saturday: Every apple tree is different, and there's not one "correct" way to tackle pruning one - pruning wild apples is more art than science!