Then and NowUSVLT Turns 20 Peter Benson Interviewed by Meghan Moody

Upper Saco Valley Land Trust (and recently rejoined Board member) the side of the road, and everyone knew achieved its 20th anniversary on Peter Benson. where it was. It was fantastic. There September 15th, 2020, a remarkable “When you are in the start of was no way that a larger organization milestone. Over the past two decades, something, you don’t know what the was going to take on a project of its size the organization has conserved more future holds,” Peter said. “We were very at the time. Everything really took off than 12,000 acres. No one, including intentional in developing the Land from there.” USVLT’s founders, could have predicted Trust, but I don’t think anyone could USVLT has continued to fill this how those conservation victories have have guessed where this was going local void within the conservation added up, nor the upheaval 2020 has to go.” Peter used the organization’s community ever since. Some projects delivered. Especially with this year’s first project, the Harding Easement that Peter helped start in the 90’s have increased demand for trails and open in Jackson, as an example of how the only been finalized since he returned to space, for recreational and spiritual group had a much more organic and the Board. Peter smiled and said, “The purposes alike, USVLT’s achievements home-grown approach to conservation. seeds that you plant sometimes can seem more important than ever. To “We just went there, it was 12 acres, saw take a while to germinate, but they do honor the occasion, we asked new that it was beautiful and had a ski trail come up.” He added that there has been Board member Meghan Moody to on it, and said, ‘Sure, why not?’” Peter a shift over the past two decades, as interview Land Trust founding member continued, “It was high-profile, right on some land owners have become much —continued on page 3 Photo: Mike Dana Mike Photo:

“Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.” gary snyder 1 USVLT President’s Message Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

months (outside visitors are welcome, by appointment). Uncertainty is the new “rule of thumb,” from stock market swerves and job losses to tentative school reopening P.O. Box 2233 (and re-closing) plans. USVLT has Conway NH 03818 not been immune: the unfortunate (603) 662-0008 cancelations of Art Celebrates Place [email protected] • www.usvlt.org and Fields on the Saco gatherings have resulted in anticipated revenue losses of more than $50,000. Monetary support from caring long-time funders as well as government programs – namely, Doug Burnell the federal Payroll Protection Program and ’s Nonprofit In spite of far-reaching and long- Emergency Relief Fund – have helped lasting disruptions and delays caused us bridge this dramatic gap. We have Board of Directors by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Upper also changed work priorities to meet Saco Valley Land Trust is still turning 20 our communities’ needs. Prompted President years old this fall, and we are busier than by unprecedented demand on our Doug Burnell, Conway ever with great conservation projects, region’s high-quality outdoor-recreation Vice-President promising significant public benefit. opportunities, we have been promoting Hart’s Location Mark Dindorf, The coronavirus struck while we the enjoyment of USVLT’s existing Treasurer were adjusting to our wonderful new preserves and accessible easements, and Rebecca Reynolds, Conway office location in the old firehouse are working on more trail networks and Secretary in downtown Conway Village, access points. Rick Jenkinson, Kearsarge transitioning in new Outreach & Office Learning new perspectives from the Manager Aimee St. Germain, working Black Lives Matter movement and how Ann Bennett, Jackson toward reaccreditation with the Land we can better support our work with the Peter Benson, Jackson Trust Alliance, and shepherding along pillars of justice, equity, diversity and Alex Drummond, East Conway nine new land-conservation projects. inclusion are ongoing initiatives. And We adapted nimbly and by March 20th with hope that our collective virus-fight- Lindsay Kafka, South Conway had transitioned to an entirely remote ing efforts may continue toward success, Meghan Moody, North Conway workforce (with the help of Zoom and we value your unwavering support, and Google). Our work has continued Sue Nichols, Center Conway look forward to your helping us prop- apace since then, and we have gradually erly celebrate another landmark: the Anne Pillion, Intervale re-opened the office during the summer Land Trust turning 21, next year! Daniel Stepanauskas, Silver Lake Staff Executive Director William Abbott Land Steward Peter Howe Conservation Lands Manager Abby King Outreach & Office Manager Aimee St.Germain USVLT’s Board met in-person (and masked) for the first time in six months in late summer. Pictured L to R: Rebecca McReynolds, Alex Drummond, Dan Stepanauskas, Anne Pillion, Peter Benson, Sue Nichols, Ann Bennett, Rick Jenkinson, Meghan Moody, Mark Dindorf, Doug Burnell (Not pictured: Lindsay Kafka) 2 “Adopt the pace of nature: its secret is patience.” ralph waldo emerson Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

The year 2020 has been intense and monthly Zoom calls facilitated by the memorable. In June, after months of Maine Environmental Education Asso- locked-down pandemic living, the ciation and Change makers, a forum for USVLT Turns 20 country was confronted with the brutal organizations like ours to do precisely murder of George Floyd. Mr. Floyd’s those things. Participants range from —continued from page one death – one among so many – has been land trusts from around New England, more involved with both the crafting a tipping point, sparking widespread to environmental education groups and and management of their easements in protests, and prompting soul-searching consultancies, to larger non-profits such partnership with the Land Trust. by those in positions of power on every as the Appalachian Mountain Club and For Peter, the future holds more level: individual, community, and The Nature Conservancy. The ongoing opportunities than ever before. The national. conversation is rich and exciting. evolution of land trust movements in The outdoor conservation and recre- In conjunction with the Land Trust’s general has shifted, not only in strategy, ation world, including USVLT, is not Executive Committee, a near-term prior- but also in focus. “Two decades ago, our immune. As board member Lindsay ity is the crafting of a values statement for focus was solely forestry and responsible Kafka wrote in a June statement, which USVLT. We have aspired to develop such ecology. That was very cutting-edge and was endorsed by the Board and shared a statement for some time, but the for- innovative at the time. More recently, with members, “the work that we do mation of the JEDI committee has been we have worked on farm easements, very much intersects with issues of racial a catalyst to make this project a priority. establishing community forests, and justice, although it might not seem so at improving public access. The lesson first blush.” The intersections are multi- . . . a committee of Board here is that the land-conservation ple: the outdoor conservation movement members, staff, and volunteers community needed to continue to adapt in which our work is grounded has a has convened to tackle the and be responsive to the needs of our legacy of racist practices (Jim Crow laws community at large. Some of the things kept the national parks segregated when project of integrating principles that I would like to see the Land Trust they first opened) and attitudes (the leg- of Justice, Equity, Diversity tackle in the future relate to affordable endary John Muir is known to have held and Inclusion (JEDI) into our housing solutions – we need to be racist views); European settlers wrested creating sustainable communities where the very land we now work to conserve work. The committee’s initial people can afford to live and also enjoy and protect from the local Abenaki na- mandate is to partner with peer the great outdoors.” tive population and imposed a foreign organizations also engaged in “I don’t think you could say this system of private land ownership upon this work to share best practices, everywhere, but here, it is the essence it; outdoor spaces are not equally acces- of where we live,” Peter reflected. “In sible or welcoming to all; and adverse resources and lessons. that sense, we are spoiled because we are environmental practices have a disparate surrounded by more than a million acres impact on Black, Indigenous and People The committee has also created a of conservation land in an atmosphere of Color (BIPOC) communities. page on the USVLT website for JEDI where it’s accessible,” he continued. In this moment of reckoning, how learning resources. This dynamic page is “I think that sometimes we wake up is USVLT responding, beyond the updated regularly, and includes resourc- in the morning and take for granted statement shared in June? Since then, es that are specific to the intersection that we have this amazing legacy of a committee of Board members, staff, of JEDI principles and conservation, as land conservation, whether it be by and volunteers has convened to tackle well as resources for individual learning federal and state governments or by the project of integrating principles of on the broader issues of ally-ship, anti- conservations groups, big and small. It Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion racism, and privilege. is ingrained in our psyche. I don’t know (JEDI) into our work. The committee’s The Land Trust’s JEDI endeavor will how we as a community would function initial mandate is to partner with peer suggest other necessary, concrete steps as without it.” organizations also engaged in this work we learn more and lean into this work. to share best practices, resources and We pledge to keep you updated along lessons. Toward this end, we have joined the way.

“Adopt the pace of nature: its secret is patience.” ralph waldo emerson “Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.” stephen r. covey 3 Gary Snyder Conservation Project Updates

Old Blake Farm— Brownfield, ME The Old Blake Farm in Brownfield, Maine is an historic 95-acre farm that was conserved by USVLT in July 2020. The farm has been jointly owned by four separate families for nearly 50 years. Over the decades, the woodlands onsite have been managed sustainably; now, the new conservation easement held by USVLT allows for continued well-managed forestry. The easement also supports continued agricultural use of the land and maintenance of fields, affording expansive views from Old

County Road to the White Mountains Meghan Moody by Farm at Old Blake Fields in the west. The donor families’ generosity ensures that this corner of Funding for the World Fellowship Center project and Brownfield will remain bucolic for the Lucy Brook Farm Easement was provided by: The NH Land and Community Heritage Investment generations to come. Program (LCHIP) The NH State Conservation Commission “Moose Lucy Brook Farm— Plate” Grant The NH Aquatic Resource Mitigation Program Conway, NH The New Hampshire Drinking Water and Ground- water Trust Fund USVLT purchased a conservation The Davis Conservation Foundation easement on the Lucy Brook Farm The William P. Wharton Trust in October 2020. Near the foot of Donor Advised Funds of the NH Charitable Cathedral Ledge, this conservation Foundation USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service easement includes frontage along Lucy Pictured L to R: Abby King, USVLT Conservation (NRCS) Agricultural Conservation Easement Brook and the . The farm also Lands Manager; Andrea Walsh, WFC Co-Director; Program (ACEP) and Doug Burnell, USVLT President boasts a high-yield aquifer, important The Town of Conway The World Fellowship Center Board of Trustees agricultural soils, and connectivity to tion easements to USVLT in order to The Gaudette Family other conserved lands. This area was And many, many generous community members. settled by the John Lucy family in the permanently protect nearly 400 acres of early 1800’s, and many descendants its campus. A socially-distanced closing — (including the Gaudettes) still occupy took place on June 3rd outside the of- Hill Family Lands and farm the land. This conservation fices of Cooper Cargill Chant in North Eaton, NH easement will allow the farm to remain Conway. The easements permanently The Hill family gifted 221 acres of intact for future generations. We thank protect a diversity of natural resources, pristine forest land to USVLT in August the Gaudette family for their vision, including shorefront on Whitton Pond, 2020. The property, located on Paul Hill passion, and stewardship of the land. frontage, wetlands, and nesting sites for the Common Loon. The Road in Eaton, abuts other conservation World Fellowship World Fellowship Center has been an properties owned by the Land Trust and exemplary steward of these lands for the the Town of Eaton. We are delighted that Center— Albany, NH past 77 years. If these properties should this conservation project, highlighted in ever change hands, the easements held last year’s fall newsletter, has now crossed In June 2020, the World Fellowship by USVLT will ensure that their natural the finish line! A sincere thank you to the Center granted three separate conserva- resources are preserved forever. Hill family for ensuring the permanent preservation of these lands. 4 “There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” rachel carson Looking Ahead to 2021

Dundee Community Forest USVLT has partnered with The Trust for Public Land to conserve one of the largest unprotected properties in our 11-town service area, the 1,172-acre Dundee Community Forest project in Bartlett and Jackson. The land, which will be managed for sustainable forestry, recreation, and the protection of rare natural communities, also

Photo: Mike Dana Photo: Mike serves as a buffer for the headwaters of Wildcat Brook, a federally designated Pine Hill Community funding sources. Applications have Wild and Scenic River. been submitted to the NH Land and Consisting of 16 parcels, the Forest Forest Expansion Community Heritage Investment has been assembled and stewarded program (LCHIP), the “Moose by a local family over the last 60 Much has been accomplished in 20 Plate” program, and several private years. USVLT intends to manage this years, but some of the Land Trust’s most foundations. In addition, an application remarkable land in partnership with significant projects lie ahead, including will be submitted to the Forest Service’s stakeholders in the towns of Bartlett the Dundee Community Forest initiative Community Forest Program in early and Jackson. The property will be and the Pine Hill Community Forest 2021. If those grants are successful, the further protected by a Conservation Expansion. project will be completed in late 2021. Easement held by the NH Division USVLT is working to purchase of Forests and Lands. The Dundee 134 acres to add to the existing 460- Community Forest will be open for acre Pine Hill Community Forest in public access, while also maintained as Conway. This project will improve a working forest, continuing to supply access and trail networks and expand logs to local mills and forest products the Forest’s size by 30%. sector jobs, with revenues for the towns The potential acquisition is forested from timber yield tax. and undeveloped, and it fills in a This project is among USVLT’s most missing “puzzle piece” of land on the ambitious, both in terms of acreage, existing Community Forest. It will as well as dollars needed to conserve enhance habitat for plant and animal the land and achieve management species, while widening opportunities goals. This summer, the project ranked for outdoor education and recreation. twelfth nationwide for funding from Situated in the heart of the Valley, the Forest Legacy Program, grounds expansion of the Forest has great for optimism that the full request significance for a region under high for $2.3M in federal money will be development pressure. The Pine Hill awarded in early 2021. These dollars Community Forest is already managed will also need to be matched by other to balance ecological and recreational state and local funding sources, as well values by a multi-stakeholder group. as gifts from our generous community Complex projects in daunting times of supporters.

depend on the abiding support of Photo: Jerry Monkman, courtesy for Public Land of The Trust USVLT members, as well as other

“There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” rachel carson 5 Joining the Board Committee “Shout Out”

Committee and volunteer work, though it takes place in the background, keeps our projects moving forward. The Land Committee, chaired by Mark Dindorf, and Development Committee, chaired by Ann Bennett, meet monthly, USVLT’s newest board while myriad other working groups members pictured on convene as needed. These committees a Zoom call, include Strategic Action (SACo), Justice, clockwise from top left: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI), Meghan Moody, Sue Nichols, and Finance, Art Celebrates Place, Fields on Lindsay Kafka the Saco, special events and others. In the meantime, there are more than 40 easement monitors who keep a careful Upper Saco Valley Land Trust welcomed three new board members in 2020: eye on conserved land. Meghan Moody, Sue Nichols, and Lindsay Kafka. Together, they represent a USVLT sincerely thanks all of the diversity of backgrounds and talent, from native grown to a longtime seasonal volunteers who are not currently on resident who is now making Mount Washington Valley her home. At the same the Board of Directors, including time, USVLT would like to express sincere gratitude to five members who departed Ailie Byers, Marnie Cobbs, Linda the board in 2020, including Greg Cooper, Deborah Fauver, and USVLT veterans Comeau, Penny Deans, Tom Deans, Jim Burgess Smith, Jim Hastings, and Tom Gross. A heartfelt thank you from all of us. Doucette, Lucy Gatchell, Linda Gray, Here is a look at our new members: Jim Hastings, Lindsay Johnston, Jeff Lathrop, Julie Levine, Tricia Mattox- Meghan Moody is a proud native of Mount Washington Valley, who studied Larson, Amanda Peterson, Susan Ross- marketing, management, and art at Elmira College. She now utilizes those skills Parent, Tim Scott, Jeff Sires, Sasha Tracy, as the Marketing Coordinator at HEB Engineers in North Conway. Meghan is a David Wood, and James Wrigley. Your multi-tasker, social media maven, artist, and a wicked good hockey player. In addi- time is our greatest gift. tion to her keen sense of design, she has valuable service sector experience working for local restaurants, including Thompson House Eatery and The Oxford House Inn. Meghan and her partner, Dave, live in North Conway with their two pups, and enjoy all things outdoors. Sue Nichols grew up on her family’s dairy farm in Center Conway, where she now lives. For the past three decades, she held numerous executive positions in non-profit health-related and environmental organizations in Georgia and Florida. For over 20 years, Sue co-instructed a field course on the natural history of sub-Saharan Africa, alongside her husband, Jim Gore, a retired university dean and aquatic entomologist. A past member of the Conway Conservation Commission, and long-term volunteer for social service organizations, Sue has been a member of USVLT since 2009, and a member of USVLT’s Development Committee since 2017. Lindsay Kafka has a deep affinity for the landscape of the greater Mount Wash- ington Valley, having been first introduced to it as a child. Her professional career has been focused primarily around the greater Boston area. Initially a founding part- ner for the Concord Law Group, she later took positions with both Boston College and Harvard University in their philanthropy departments, focusing on planned giv- ing. She has also worked on fundraising campaigns and nonprofit governance as an independent consultant. Most recently, Lindsay completed her nursing degree, and she and her husband Steve will soon become full-time residents of South Conway. 6 “A healthy ecology is the basis for a healthy economy.” claudine schneider “All the diversity, all the charm, and all the beauty of life are made up of light and shade.” leo tolstoy Landowner Perspectives

“And so we have given away Paul Hill Road. Better said, we have given back Paul Hill Road. It has always stayed put, but legally it is now where it belongs, entrusted to a community of forest stewards who have offered to shoulder its safekeeping so that it can serve the community that it lies within and who know best how to draw from and contribute to it.” —George Hill and Sarah Hill

From the time we purchased our property 50 years ago, we intended to preserve and conserve the land for wildlife habitat, ecologically sound forest man- agement, and as a retreat and creative gathering place for family and friends. We now believe those long-term goals can best be realized by joining others in the Upper Saco Valley Land Trust. As Mary Oliver says in a verse from her poem Wild Geese: “Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting— over and over announcing your place in the family of things” Molly Mundy “My parents put that land together when I was —Wyatt Wade, on behalf of the owners of Old a little kid and it’s been a special place for me Blake Farm ever since. If I have a home, that’s it. I’ve lost count of the hours, days, weeks, months, I have spent working and just enjoying those woods. It’s a very special place.” —Jim Hill “A healthy ecology is the basis for a healthy economy.” claudine schneider “All the diversity, all the charm, and all the beauty of life are made up of light and shade.” leo tolstoy 7 Non-Profit Org. US POSTAGE PAID North Conway, NH PERMIT NO. 160 Preserving Land for Community Benefit P.O. Box 2233 Conway, NH 03818 (603) 662-0008 [email protected] www.usvlt.org

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