December 18, 2024 – Five Rivers Conservation Trust is pleased to announce the permanent conservation of the Joseph and Barbara Colby Conservation Area in Boscawen. The conservation area comprises three separate parcels totaling 309 acres along High Street (Rte. 4) in Boscawen.
Joe Colby is the third generation of the Colby family to live and work on this land. His grandfather, Joseph G. Colby, began a successful cattle, wood, and lumber business in the 1920s. Joseph G. eagerly acquired land as it became available and was a significant Boscawen landowner. Joe’s father, James F. Colby, founded the well-known Colby Lumber Company in Boscawen in the early 1950s and Joe and his brother Jim ran the business after their father retired. Sadly, the Colby Lumber sawmill was destroyed by fire in June 2024, just days before Joe and Jim planned to retire.
The Colby family has a long record of giving back to the community. Joe’s father served on many Boscawen town boards and committees and Joe served on the board of the NH Timberland Owners Association for 7 years. He has now given the Boscawen community a lasting gift of land conservation.
The Joseph and Barbara Colby Conservation Area protects 309 acres of agricultural fields, forests, and wetlands along Tannery Brook. The area is also an important bridge between two other large areas of public and conservation lands: more than 950 acres to the south, including the Gold Star Sod Farm (protected by the Forest Society) and the Merrimack River State Forest; and over 1,800 acres to the north, including the Merrimack County Farm, State Forest nursery lands, and the Stillhouse Forest Preserve (owned by the Forest Society).
The Joseph and Barbara Colby Conservation Area is Five Rivers’ third conservation project in Boscawen, following the 81-acre Keegan property conserved in 2016 with John and Barbara Keegan, and the 90-acre Foster Meadow Farm conserved fall 2024 with Pam Goodrich.
Growing up in a family with a long history in the forestry and lumber business and now living in the quintessentially New England Colby family farmhouse on rural High Street, Joe appreciates the value of working forest, agricultural lands, and the recreational opportunities available. His generous donation of a conservation easement in memory of his wife Barbara ensures that future generations will benefit from the same values and opportunities that both Joe and Barbara have enjoyed.
Transaction funding for this project was provided, in part, by the Merrimack Conservation Partnership, a public/private effort for land conservation in the Merrimack River Watershed. To learn more, visit merrimackconservationpartnership.org.
November 17, 2024 – A heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined us in Hopkinton on Sunday, November 17th, for a walk from Bohanan Farm (conserved in 2010) to the Dustin Woods (conservation in progress). We were joined by new and old friends alike, as well as Dave Dustin, landowner and avid historian. Our group was regaled by stories of the Dustin family’s history in Hopkinton, and we learned about the conservation process.
The sunshine was an added bonus as we wound our way through farm fields and forest. Thanks again for coming out to hike with Five Rivers! We loved spending time with you and your many furry friends. Stay tuned for more opportunities to get out on the land…
October, 2024 – Five Rivers Conservation Trust is pleased to announce the permanent conservation of the 90-acre Foster Meadow Farm on Water Street in Boscawen. Foster Meadow Farm is a well-known equestrian facility that specializes in training horses and riders in dressage.
The 90-acre conservation easement was donated to Five Rivers by Pam Goodrich, who purchased the property in 1996 and built the equestrian facility. She has been a noted instructor and trainer of dressage for almost 40 years and has been long- and short-listed for the United States Equestrian Team.
Having no children or relatives interested in owning the farm, Pam began thinking about donating it to conservation. “I didn’t know much about land trusts,” says Pam. ” But a good friend’s son who is an expert in conservation easements introduced me to the concept, and my attorney recommended that I get to know Five Rivers. My idea simmered for many years, and when I contacted them, everything went very smoothly. Ken (Stern, volunteer project manager) and Jeff (Evans, Director of Conservation) were great to work with.”
Pam was particularly keen on preserving the scenic road frontage with a stone wall running along Water Street. Behind the stone wall are beautiful open fields lined by mature trees, and beyond the fields a distant wooded hillside can be seen. Across the road is an unobstructed view of Mount Kearsarge.
The land beyond the equestrian center and fields is forested, and beyond the forested area is a large wetland complex and a portion of Tannery Brook, a stream that winds into the Merrimack River. The open fields, vast wetlands, and mixed forest provide a wide diversity of habitat that supports most of the animal species known to be present in the area. Observed species include coyote, deer, moose, bear, beaver, weasel, skunk, racoon, porcupine, turkey, songbirds, numerous hawks, and an occasional bald eagle.
Pam loves the farm, with its beautiful fields and forest and views of hills and mountains. For her there is great satisfaction in knowing that this land will be protected forever. A hundred years from now people walking, biking, or driving along Water Street in Boscawen may see the same historic stone wall and all manner of wildlife will call the same fields, forest, and wetlands home.
August 12, 2024 – Five Rivers Conservation Trust is pleased to announce the permanent conservation of the 90-acre Potter Farm on Oak Hill Road in Concord.
Cynthia Potter Johnson led the family effort to sell the conservation easement for the Potter Farm to Five Rivers. She has fond memories of growing up on the farm and succinctly sums up her reason for seeking a conservation easement: “For my father.” During America’s Bicentennial celebration in 1976, Cynthia’s parents, Pete and Regina Potter, were recognized as a Bicentennial Farm Family, honoring their ownership of a “farm which has been retained in the same family for at least 200 years.” Proud of her father and the more than 200-year Potter farming legacy, Cynthia hopes the easement will give future generations the opportunity to farm the land as well.
When Cynthia looked for a way to preserve her family’s farm, Beth Fenstermacher, Director of Special Projects & Strategic Initiatives for the City of Concord, understood the importance of the Potter property for Concord and, working as the staff liaison for the Conservation Commission, helped design the conservation easement with Five Rivers.
Upon finalizing the easement today, Beth states, “Conserving the Potter Farm has been a priority for the City of Concord for many years. In addition to supporting the family’s desire to continue the agricultural use, this easement will protect shoreland habitat, forested habitat, and protect the scenic vistas to Turtle Pond.”
About 56 acres of the farm are forested and used for maple sugaring and timber; an additional 27 acres, which abut Turtle Pond (also known as Turtletown Pond), are open fields used for cultivating hay and produce. Dave Potter, Cynthia’s nephew, grows vegetables and berries for retail sale in the Potter farm stand, which offers cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, summer and winter squash, pumpkins and potatoes from his expansive gardens. Dave also produces maple sugar products, including a bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup.
Today’s announcement is the culmination of a multi-year effort by Five Rivers to raise the necessary funds and finalize the purchase of the conservation easement. Five Rivers’ executive director Liz Short has helped guide the project over the last three years with assistance from current staff and numerous volunteers. “Conserving Potter Farm has been a long time in coming through the efforts of many individuals,” said Liz. “Through it all, Cynthia was really the driving force that got us across the finish line. Her vision and determination to see her family’s farm permanently protected underlies everything we’ve done.”
The project was made possible by several critical national, state, and community funding partners. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Agricultural Land Easement Program and the City of Concord each paid 50% of the easement’s purchase price. In addition, the City of Concord paid for the survey and required appraisals, two important elements of the project. Other funding partners include: the New Hampshire State Conservation Committee “Moose Plate” Conservation Grant Program; and the Merrimack Conservation Partnership.
Beth Fenstermacher concludes: “I am so pleased that we were able to partner with Five Rivers Conservation Trust, NRCS, and most importantly, the Potter Family, to protect this historic agricultural property.”
August 7, 2024 – Five Rivers staff and volunteers joined Project S.T.O.R.Y. for a walk at Winant Park. We spent an hour and a half exploring trails near the heart of Concord, enjoying our lunches while taking in the view from the top.
While the walk began with a healthy fear of bugs, it ended with a more enthusiastic approach to frog catching and investigating the stream that runs nearby to the parking lot on Fisk Road. The woods were filled with laughter and chatter while the group spent time outside—perhaps frightening away some of New Hampshire’s more skittish wildlife. There were, however, plenty of interesting bugs and birds, as well as the edible wintergreen plant for the group to taste.
A highlight from the walk included reaching the top of hill when all complaints of tired legs were replaced by simultaneous exclamations of “Wow! The view!” and a hush fell over the group, for the first time. By all accounts, this first Five Rivers-Project STORY outing was a resounding success. Experiencing the woods with twenty energetic and engaged kids, including some first-time hikers, lifted everyone’s spirits.
In 2009, conservation of Winant Park was made possible through collaboration among Rivington and Joan Winant, the City of Concord, St. Paul’s School, and Five Rivers Conservation Trust. Project S.T.O.R.Y. is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to assisting and empowering youth from diverse communities in Concord.
August 1, 2024 – Five Rivers Conservation Trust is pleased to announce the permanent conservation of the 134-acre Kathryn Layne property near the center of Dunbarton.
Kathryn’s brother, Ken Koerber, is a longtime Dunbarton resident who owns a 131-acre farm in the center of town that he conserved with Five Rivers in 2021. The latest in the family’s generous contributions to land conservation was made by Kathryn, who, on August 1, 2024, donated a conservation easement on her 134 acres to Five Rivers Conservation Trust.
“From a Dunbarton Conservation Commission perspective, it is wonderful that so much of Mrs. Layne’s property has been conserved,” said Brett St. Clair, chair of the Dunbarton Conservation Commission. “Now two large abutting farms, owned by a brother and sister, are permanently conserved and help maintain the rural character of our town.”
The 134 acres that Kathryn Layne conserved contributes to a large block of over 750 mostly contiguous acres protected by Five Rivers in Dunbarton, including the Koerber Family Forest (conserved 2021), Stone Farm (conserved 2017), and the Farley property (conserved 2013).
The property is mostly wooded, but three open fields remain, remnants of the Ryder farm in the late 1880s. The land includes uplands, fields, shrublands, forest, young forest, pond, brook, and wetlands. In addition to protecting the land and important wildlife habitat, conservation of the Layne property allows the Dunbarton Conservation Commission to extend walking trails from the Dunbarton Elementary School parking lot and loop through both the Koerber and Layne properties.
The Dunbarton Conservation Commission funded $30,000 of transaction costs, including a survey, to finalize the easement.
July 23, 2024 – Thank you to everyone who joined us for the farm-to-table benefit dinner, hosted by Contoocook Creamery. Jamie Robertson of Contoocook Creamery at Bohanan Farm held this event at the farm, which helped raise money for Five Rivers’ critical mission – to conserve land in New Hampshire’s Capital region.
We were joined by so many of our friends, new and old! We spent the night laughing and eating in excellent company and enjoyed celebrating local land conservation! Click here to see photos of the event.
June 23, 2024 – Thank you to everyone who joined us at the Guided Forest Immersion event on June 23rd. Despite the summer mosquitoes and stormy weather, the group enjoyed spending time at Ransmeier Woods.
The experience culminated in a tea ceremony led by Kirke Olson, to whom we are especially grateful for donating his time and expertise! Thank you to all who made this a successful excursion.
All over the country this past May 4th, people spent their afternoons celebrating the Derby – wearing outlandish hats, singing “My Old Kentucky Home,” rooting for racehorses at Churchill Downs, maybe even enjoying a mint julep or two. But in Warner, NH, the Derby fun and games on May 4th began right after sunrise, with kids of all ages lining up to register for the town’s annual Children’s Fishing Derby.
For over 60 years, Warner Fish & Game Club has hosted a fishing derby at Children’s Brook, a half mile stretch of Willow Brook along Pumpkin Hill Road where only kids under the age of 16 are allowed to fish. Thanks to the Warren family and the Town of Warner, Five Rivers holds a conservation easement on this lovely stretch of forested brook, thereby helping to maintain this longtime town tradition. Generous local businesses also help the club buy hundreds of fish to stock the stream. NH Fish & Game then contributes a matching number of trout from state hatcheries, thereby doubling a young angler’s chance of catching a fish at the derby.
“Yay, I’m happy!” exclaimed Sophia Heine after reeling in her first fish. As one of the older anglers, Sophia had traipsed upstream to cast her worm-baited hook in slower-moving waters above a beaver dam. Fifteen-year-old Ryan Dabrowski also had good luck in that section of stream, happily catching his five-fish limit before his brother Chris did. Nostalgic about his last year of eligibility, Ryan enthusiastically shared what he has learned from derby fishing: “Patience!”
Downstream from the dam, the brook riffles between banks of moss-covered rocks and overarching trees, which keep the water cool for trout. A good number of the 88 children competing this year found lucky fishing spots along the shaded streambanks. As Kevin, the NH Fish & Game warden on site, noted, “The Warner Derby takes place on an actual brook, which makes this one cool and different.”
Further downstream, beneath the bridge by the Warner Fish & Game clubhouse is Charlie’s Pool, reserved for the youngest children. According to a club member, “The bridge is the best place to watch.” And, sure enough, just ten minutes after the derby started, witnesses cheered as a young tyke, with a little help from his father, caught the first fish.
Many of the onlookers were once contestants themselves. Tim Foley remembered winning a red tackle box at a derby in the 1980s. “I still have it,” he said. As one of the club directors, Tim also observed that the derby enhances the sense of community in Warner. “No matter what their political leanings are, people come together…the whole town comes together for it.”
Older generations rally to provide an opportunity for children to appreciate the outdoors, to enjoy fishing with friends and family, and to feel pride in developing a new skill. Sometimes it was hard to tell who was having more fun, the kids grinning while holding up the fish they caught or the adults happily handing out prizes and, in the words of club president Dennis Gilman, “watching the look on the kids’ faces when they catch one.”
March 3, 2024 – Thank you to everyone who joined us on March 3rd as we explored the 477-acre Janeway property, our largest conserved property. This year our walk expanded to new areas of the property, including venturing through the woods down to the Blackwater River.
Although this walk was advertised as a “snowshoe,” no snowshoes were needed! We enjoyed bright sun, warm weather, and great conversation as we wandered around the property.
A huge thank you to our dedicated volunteers, without whom this event wouldn’t have been possible. We thoroughly enjoyed learning about the history of the property and the area’s natural landscape!
February 21, 2024 – A huge Five Rivers thank you to everyone who attended Pint Night and Trivia at Feathered Friend on the 21st. Not only did we benefit from every draft bought over the course of the evening, we also connected with new members of our community! We loved seeing folks’ reactions to the questions (and answers!) and we’re grateful to everyone who stopped by.
Congratulations to the winning team, Swamp and Circumstance. We were impressed by the immense environmental knowledge that all the teams displayed. Check out our social media for more photos from the night.
A huge thank you to Kacie (for running the trivia) and Feathered Friend Brewing (for partnering with us!). This event wouldn’t have been possible without their support.
If you couldn’t make it, take a stab at the bonus question. Can you list the five rivers that our name refers to?
Scott joined the Five Rivers’ Board of Trustees in September 2023! He brings a wealth of experience in carpentry and an enthusiasm for conservation. Scott is a part of the Signage Subcommittee, helping to expand public awareness of Five Rivers conserved lands.
Why do you value Five Rivers? The thing I value most about Five Rivers is the work they have done through the years to help farmers conserve their farmland. New Hampshire has lost so many of its farms in recent decades for varying reasons. The options that Five Rivers provides gives hope to these stewards of the land of maintaining their way of life, or at minimum, knowing the land will remain open for similar uses for generations to come.
What’s the best part of your volunteer role? Since I am new to the board, I have enjoyed meeting all of the people past and present that drive Five Rivers forward. I hope my contributions will help us achieve some of our goals and the goals of many landowners.
What’s your favorite Five Rivers property and why? The Bohanan property in Hopkinton is my favorite for many reasons. Living just up the road is an obvious one, but also, I have spent countless hours hunting and exploring its many acres with family and friends. This vast property and its diverse landscapes have provided me with so many great memories and picture-perfect moments, winter, spring, summer, and fall.
What’s your favorite thing about living in the greater Capital Region? Concord and its surrounding towns offer so many opportunities for recreation, both indoors and out. Rivers, ponds, and lots of public land to roam and enjoy. Maybe that’s why I have lived here all my life.
What’s your favorite thing to do outdoors? Hard to narrow it down to just one, fishing, hunting, kayaking, and hiking to name a few. I suppose in the end, they are all just a means of observing wildlife.
Finally, what does Five Rivers mean to you? Five Rivers means there will be open spaces for wildlife to flourish and for people and their pets to discover for generations to come.
January 2024 – Thank you to the Rotary Club of Concord for a generous gift of $5,000 to support Five Rivers’ efforts to create and install signs on our key conserved properties in Concord. Strategically sited, attractive, and informative signs with Five Rivers’ logo and additional information, will emphasize our role in conserving key properties and facilitate further engagement with community members who may not even realize that they are stepping foot on locally conserved lands!
This grant from the Rotary Club supports the very first signs we install and is specifically targeted for properties with public access land and trails in Concord. Later stages of the project will include installation of signs on conserved Five Rivers properties across our 17-town service area.
Five Rivers would also like to thank Russ Aubertin at Advantage Signs in Concord for working with us. Advantage Signs is a staunch supporter of local nonprofits, and we are grateful for the support of community minded organizations! Thank you, Advantage Signs.
Be on the lookout this summer for our new and beautiful signs at Carter Hill Orchard, Winant and Swope Parks, and Dimond Hill Farm!
January 2024 – In 2004, The Nature Conservancy donated an easement on 79 acres of highly productive forest in Loudon to ensure the property will be protected in perpetuity. Subsequently, Jack and Mary Bronnenberg purchased the property with the intention of practicing sustainable forestry and habitat conservation on this spectacular pine lot, becoming long-time and conscientious stewards of the land.
In 2023, the property was purchased by Michael R. Boisvert and Jon D. Normand for active public outdoor recreation, for the study and wonder of nature, and for the conservation of open spaces, particularly the conservation of productive forest land, wildlife habitat and ground water quality. They have turned this spectacular lot into a nature preserve. Mike and Jon have generously funded construction of an official entrance on Currier Road with an off-road parking area, informational kiosk, trails network that includes trail map, signage, and foot bridge.
You will soon also see our new Five Rivers signs here, as part of our Building Community Connections to Conserved Lands project.
The trails at Boisvert & Normand Preserve are open for public use, and we invite you to explore the beautiful land off NH 106 and Currier Road. Intended for non-motorized recreational uses such as hiking, skiing, and mountain biking, there are several different options for scenic exploration.
2023 was another action-packed year for Five Rivers, including several significant organizational milestones in our 35th year. We hope many of you were able to join us at an event or activity this past year. Your support made these highlights possible, so we want to reflect on the milestones of 2023 together:
MARCH – In honor of Women’s History Month, Five Rivers chose to spotlight local conservation champion Carolyn Baldwin. Carolyn is a former Five Rivers board member and is known for her longtime work as a lawyer specializing in environmental law, growth management, and municipal planning. She was the first woman lawyer in Belknap County, and one of the first 100 women lawyers in the state! Click here to read the spotlight on Carolyn.
MARCH – Also in March we held our annual winter snowshoe trek through the Janeway Conservation Area in Webster. Rich Cook and Rob Knight prepped the trail and Rich Cook and Tim Fleury served as naturalist guides. We were delighted to have one of Betsy and Harold Janeway’s sons, Willie Janeway, spend the afternoon with us.
APRIL – For Earth Day 2023, we collaborated with the Concord Young Professionals Network to tackle roadside and trail cleanup in and around the Armstrong Forest Preserve in Concord. We also learned about some of the land’s interesting natural and geologic features thanks to our naturalist guide Sarah Thorne.
JUNE – We hosted a Regional Conservation Planning Workshop with an enthusiastic group of 50 volunteers, community members, and partner organizations from across our 17 towns, facilitated by Resilience Planning & Design. This Conservation Plan initiative will help Five Rivers strategically plan for the protection of the most important natural landscapes in our region!
JULY – We published our 2023-2026 Strategic Plan and rolled out our new logo! The Strategic Plan is the result of a seven-month planning process that engaged Five Rivers’ community members, volunteers, board members, and staff to shape our future. Click here to read the plan. In conjunction with our new Strategic Plan, we refreshed our logo to better reflect who we are today, our mission and values, and what we will bring to the future.
AUGUST – Jam Mutschler joined the Five Rivers team as our Development and Communications Manager. Jam has an undergraduate degree in Sustainable Development and a Masters in International Environmental Policy. At Five Rivers, she works with staff, board, and volunteers to achieve fundraising goals, builds strong community connections through communications and events, keeps our office systems humming, and has been a great addition to the team!
AUGUST – During blueberry season, Five Rivers visited Blue Moon Berry Farm in Warner to highlight a fundraising effort to conserve the farm, which has been in continuous operation as a u-pick berry farm since the 1960s. It is a treasured local resource, well-known and loved by residents and surrounding communities. Click here to support the farm’s conservation.
SEPTEMBER – Gearing up for the annual conservation easement monitoring season, Five Rivers conducted a training for our volunteer conserved property monitors. This annual training brings together dedicated volunteers who help us steward the lands entrusted to our care in perpetuity. Thank you, Five Rivers’ conservation easement monitors!
SEPTEMBER – Five Rivers hosted our 2023 Annual Celebration, this year at the Lavender Fields at Pumpkin Blossom Farm in Warner. We enjoyed beautiful sunny weather, an update from Five Rivers, music by the HydroGeo Trio, and lavender cookies provided by Pumpkin Blossom Farm.
SEPTEMBER – Five Rivers held another Evening Yoga event at Dimond Hill Farm. This popular event for people of all levels of ability again had great turnout. Thank you, David Breen and Laurie Farmer of Sharing Yoga in Concord for leading the group.
NOVEMBER – Five Rivers released our Regional Conservation Plan after engaging with expert volunteers, community members, and partner organizations throughout 2023. This first-ever Regional Conservation Plan will guide our work in the strategic protection of natural resources, productive forests and farmlands, and recreation opportunities for years to come. Click here to read more and explore the interactive maps.
NOVEMBER – Our 4.5-mile fall hike between Dimond Hill and Carter Hill had nearly 50 spirited participants! We enjoyed good company and beautiful scenery as we walked along the West End Farm Trail, concluding with cider donuts provided by Carter Hill Orchard.
DECEMBER – The Town of Hopkinton and Five Rivers were awarded a $88,250 grant from the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP) to support the David and Kathleen Dustin Warner River Conservation Easement project. The 36-acre parcel has been in the Dustin family for approximately 200 years, featuring a promontory overlooking the Warner River and a silver maple flood plain forest.
We thank you for your support, participation, and your committed dedication to helping us in our vision of productive farms and forests, clean water, thriving wildlife habitats, and climate-resilient landscapes throughout our region. We envision communities where people access the outdoors near home, feel connected to nature, and understand and advocate for the benefits of land conservation.
Thank you to everyone who made gifts of support to Five Rivers in 2023. Gifts to our annual fund help us cultivate new projects, steward conserved properties, and engage the community in conservation. If you haven’t yet given, there is still time to help us start 2024 strong. We’re sincerely grateful to every member of our growing Five Rivers community!
December 2023 – Jamie Robertson stepped into the role of Board Chair in June of 2023. As we close out the year, we’re excited to share this piece from Jamie, reflecting on his role as a Trustee, the role of Five Rivers, and the role of local land conservation.
I would like to introduce myself to those of you who don’t know me. I’m Jamie Robertson and I have the privilege of being the new Chair of the Trustees for this year.
Who am I? I’m a NH native growing up in the Lakes Region. My family owned a commercial chicken farm in Gilford. Some of you who have been in NH over 40 years may remember our eggs. Our family farm was Sunny Slope Farm and we delivered eggs all over central NH. I grew up hiking in the Whites, canoeing most any where that would float an old aluminum canoe, cross country ski racing, ski jumping, downhill skiing, hunting, and fishing. Our family was very active outdoors. I was also very involved in 4-H. I had cows, sheep, and pigs that I showed at fairs around the state. I am one of the endangered (but not extinct) native NH farm kids!
Today my wife, three children, and I own and operate Bohanan Farm and Contoocook Creamery. Our children are the fifth generation of my wife’s family to farm here. Our farm lies on the banks of three rivers in Contoocook. The Warner, Contoocook, and Blackwater rivers make up our farm’s boundaries. We have a modern dairy farm where we milk around 100 cows, have a beef herd of about 40 animals, raise and sell vegetables, and process and distribute milk around southern NH.
My first involvement with Five Rivers was when we conserved our farm in 2009. Five Rivers holds the easement on the over 400 acres that make up Bohanan Farm. I have been a Trustee for three years and I am excited to help lead the organization as we implement our new strategic and conservation plan. I would encourage you to be involved with Five Rivers through donating, volunteering, and attending our events. Being involved with Five Rivers gives you the unique opportunity to have a role in shaping the Capital Region’s landscape forever. Very few things we do in our lives outlive us. Land conservation easements are forever, lasting in perpetuity. Not many other organizations can offer that.
December 2023 – Last month we welcomed Bob Dawkins to the Board of Trustees as Five Rivers’ Treasurer. Bob steps into the very big shoes of his predecessor, Cathy Menard. Cathy served as Trustee and Treasurer for more than three years, and we will miss her. Thank you, Cathy! Welcome, Bob!
Name: Bob Dawkins, Five Rivers’ Treasurer
Town: Bow
Why you value Five Rivers: I value Five Rivers because of all the land protection work that they do in the capital region. I’ve watched Five Rivers grow over the years, even being familiar with them when they were the Concord Conservation Trust, and I’m impressed by their consistent success in safeguarding valuable landscapes.
The best part of your volunteer role: I enjoy assisting other Trustees with understanding Five Rivers’ finances. This is integral to ensuring the organization’s long-term success. It’s also what I used to do with my corporate clients—help them to understand their financial statements.
Favorite Five Rivers property and why: I’d have to say the Hallinan property in Bow, which holds a special place in my heart, especially since I played a role in Stan Hallinan’s generous donation of the conservation easement on the property to Five Rivers in 2007! Also, Lewis Putney Pond and the trails Stan built around the pond are beautiful. It feels like you are in northern NH when standing on the edge of the pond.
Favorite thing about living in the Greater Capital Region: Living in this area is a joy due to the easy access to diverse outdoor activities within the capital region and the proximity to both the White Mountains and the Seacoast. The convenience of being just an hour away from various attractions like Boston, the mountains, and the coast is one of the best parts of living here!
Favorite thing to do outdoors: I’m an avid hiker, summer and winter, and I take great pleasure in exploring the trails. My favorite hike is Mt. Moosilauke and I enjoy the 360-degree views from the top.
December 2023 – The Town of Hopkinton, in collaboration with Five Rivers Conservation Trust, has been awarded a $88,250 grant to support the David and Kathleen Dustin Warner River Conservation Easement project. The 36-acre parcel has been in the Dustin family for approximately 200 years, featuring a promontory overlooking the Warner River and silver maple flood plain forest.
“We are grateful for LCHIP’s support of this important project,” said Jeff Evans, Five Rivers’ Director of Conservation. “This award from LCHIP will allow Five Rivers to protect the City of Concord’s public drinking water supply, conserve important floodplain forest habitat, and ensure public access through expanded trails that connect to neighbouring conserved lands.”
Governor Sununu joined the New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP) on December 12th in announcing $3.7 million in matching grants to support twenty-five land conservation and historic preservation projects across the state. The grants will support efforts to rehabilitate 12 historic buildings and permanently conserve more than 4,300 acres of farm, timber, and ecologically significant land in all 10 counties of the state.
The David and Kathleen Dustin Warner River Conservation Easement project is part of a focus area upstream of the City of Concord’s water supply intake on the Contoocook River. A few former farming and logging access roads provide walking access on the property and connect seamlessly to trails on the abutting conservation easement protected Bohanan Farm (413 acres) and D&B Dustin (36 acres) properties, both previously conserved by Five Rivers. Not only do trails link the three properties, but years of friendship and neighbourly cooperation connect the Dustin and Bohanan families. The landowners currently allow recreational use, including hunting in season. Once conserved, the easement will guarantee public access to the land for hunting, fishing, and low-impact recreation in perpetuity. These projects, among others, are part of an intentional effort by Hopkinton’s Open Space Committee and Conservation Commission to protect riverfront land in a town where the Warner, Contoocook, and Blackwater Rivers are significant and valuable resources.
In addition to the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program grant award, this project is made possible by funding from the NH DES Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund, NH DES Local Source Water Protection Grant, the Hopkinton Conservation Commission, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation‘s Local Land Conservation Fund, and community support.
Thank you to everyone who joined us on November 12th for our fall hike between Dimond Hill Farm and Carter Hill Orchard. We would like to thank our volunteers who helped organize and lead our nearly 50 spirited hikers!
We enjoyed good company and beautiful scenery as we walked along the West End Farm Trail, and savored fresh cider donuts thanks to Carter Hill Orchard’s Rob Larocque at the end of our 4.5 miles! Thank you to all who attended for choosing to spend your Sunday afternoon with Five Rivers.
Couldn’t join us? Feel free to check out the hike route here and visit our Facebook or Instagram for more photos and updates on upcoming Five Rivers events.
Thank you to the City of Concord Conservation Commission for making available excellent maps the Concord trail system, including the West End Farm Trail. You can explore all the extraordinary options for hiking in Concord in the in the Concord Trail System Guidebook & Maps publication available here and here. Many of these public trails cross land that has been conserved through partnerships with conservation-minded landowners, the City of Concord, and Five Rivers Conservation Trust, including the Carter Hill Orchard Trail, Winant Park Trail, Dimond Hill Farm Trail, Marjory Swope Park Trail, and the West End Farm Trail.
November 2023 – Following years of preparation, Five Rivers is pleased to release our Regional Conservation Plan after engaging with expert volunteers, community members, and partner organizations throughout 2023. This first-ever Regional Conservation Plan will guide our work in the strategic protection of natural resources, productive forests and farmlands, and recreation opportunities for years to come.
We invite you to learn more about our process and explore the interactive maps here. This online presentation allows conservation commissions, community members, and other interested parties to understand our conservation priorities across three themes: Natural Resources & Resilience, Working Farms & Forests, and Inclusion & Access.
We hope the interactive maps will invite conversations with partners – existing and new – and help us strengthen and build partnerships to accomplish more community-centered conservation work. Please let us know what you think and reach out with any questions.
In addition to Five Rivers’ supporters, this project was made possible by grant funding from the NH State Conservation Commission “Moose Plate” Conservation Grant Program, the Land Trust Alliance’s Land and Climate Grant Program, and an Anonymous Foundation.
September 2023 – Thank you to everyone who joined us on September 17th for our Annual Celebration hosted at the Lavender Fields at Pumpkin Blossom Farm. We would like to thank our host, Pumpkin Blossom Farm, as well as those who volunteered their time to help organize and set up.
We enjoyed beautiful sunny weather, music by the HydroGeo Trio, and lavender cookies provided by Pumpkin Blossom Farm. Five Rivers’ work would not be possible without our community of support! We are so glad that we could celebrate with you all.
For more photos and updates on upcoming Five Rivers events, please visit our Facebook or Instagram.
We are pleased to present our 2023-2026 Strategic Plan! This plan sets a clear course for Five Rivers over the next three years. It is the result of a seven-month strategic planning process that engaged Five Rivers’ community members, volunteers, board members, and staff to shape our future.
We have revised our mission and crafted a vision statement and organizational values which will collectively inspire and guide our efforts in the years to come.
Our conservation work takes many hands, and everyone can play a role in implementing our new plan. We invite you to volunteer in the field or on a committee, join us for an event, and make new conservation projects possible through your charitable donations. Thank you for being part of the Five Rivers community of support!
Five Rivers has grown and evolved over the last three decades, and we wanted to refresh our logo to better reflect who we are today, our mission and values, and what we will bring to the future.
The previous Five Rivers logo was created in the early days of the organization’s 35-year history and presents several challenges for modern day use. To create a simple, straightforward, yet distinctive logo, we engaged with professional graphic designers to target our key audience of all people between the ages of 9 and 90 who love being outside, enjoy nature, and want it protected forever.
After careful consideration, we have chosen a unique new logo that presents an opportunity for Five Rivers’ board, staff, volunteers, and supporters to connect with the visual representation of our conservation work and to expand our marketing and outreach efforts with signage and a more recognizable digital presence.
You will begin to see our new logo on our website, social media, and various marketing materials beginning today.
Jamie Robertson (left) with Five Rivers easement monitors Ken Stern and Jeanne Herrick
June 2023 – Jamie Robertson has been on the Five Rivers board since November 2020 and stepped into the role of Board Chair in June of 2023. He is a New Hampshire native who grew up on his parents’ chicken farm in Gilford, where they delivered eggs all over central New Hampshire. Today Jamie, his wife Heather, and their three children own and operate Bohanan Farm and Contoocook Creamery. His children are the fifth generation of the Bohanan family to farm there.
Town of residence: Contoocook, New Hampshire.
Lived in New Hampshire since: Several generations.
On the board of Five Rivers since: November 2020.
How did you first become aware of Five Rivers? Through the Sunny Crest/Carter Hill Orchard conservation.
What goals do you hope to achieve during your time as Five Rivers board chair? To expand Five Rivers’ story throughout our 17 towns and to continue to expand conserved properties within the region.
Where does your career and Five Rivers intersect? My family owns and operates Bohanan Farm and Contoocook Creamery, which is one of Five Rivers’ preserved properties.
Of all the organizations you could volunteer for or give money to, why this one? I have volunteered with many organizations that I believe in. I support Five Rivers’ mission and vision. I believe that Five Rivers is doing noble work and I enjoy being part of an organization that is building lasting legacy of conserved properties that will be available for future generations.
What’s your favorite way to spend a free day? A survey was done of 100 farmers asking what they did in their free time. 95 didn’t understand the question, and 5 didn’t know what day of the week it was. I enjoy working on the farm and delivering milk around the state.
What else do you think people would like to know about you or do you wish we’d asked? I believe strongly that as New Hampshire changes it is extremely important to protect working landscapes, land that provides food, timber, and recreation for the 17-town region.
Thank you for your generous support of Five Rivers Conservation Trust and our mission. Without the dedicated support of community members like you, our work wouldn’t be possible. Your enthusiasm for NH Gives and Five Rivers was momentous!
Together, 81 supporters, four business sponsors, and 9 Conservation Leaders Society Match participants raised over $33,000! Your gifts to Five Rivers are helping to ensure a future where the productive farms and forests, stunning landscapes, and rich natural resources of New Hampshire’s capital region are conserved through collaborative partnerships and community involvement.
Deep gratitude goes to Conservation Leadership Society Match contributors Ken & Ilene Stern, Mark & Susan Zankel, Maureen McCanty & Dennis Card, Mike & Patty Shearin, Lucia Kittredge & Cleve Kapala, Margaret Watkins, Sylvia Bates & Tom Masland, Kurt & Elaine Swenson, and an anonymous donor.
Thank you to our NH Gives business sponsors!
Contoocook Creamery at Bohanan Farm, a Five Rivers conserved property with frontage on the Contoocook River, is a fifth-generation, 440-acre dairy farm that is home to 200 milking cows. The farm produces over 23,000 servings of milk daily, which is for sale alongside cheese, butter, beef, and eggs.
The Works Café uses all-natural, consciously-sourced ingredients to make fresh and wholesome salads, sandwiches, coffee, bagels, and smoothies across their nine locations throughout New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York.
Sunny Day Home Solutions, owned and operated by Brian Adams, is built upon years of hands-on experience in residential energy efficiency, building science diagnostics, building systems commissioning, and project management. Combined with nearly 30 years of working on residential construction projects, Brian is ready to address your home improvement projects and updates.
S&W Sports is Concord’s locally owned, full-service ski, bike, and board shop with equipment for all ages and abilities. Their knowledgeable and passionate staff are eager to assist you in finding the best equipment for your activities, no matter the season or terrain.
Last night’s Regional Conservation Planning Workshop was a resounding success. Resilience Planning & Design presented a draft of our regional conservation planning framework to an engaged and enthusiastic crowd of 50 representatives from across our 17-town service region.
Thanks to the many expert volunteers, community members, and partner organizations who have contributed to this first-ever initiative for Five Rivers. There was a lot of great energy from old and new friends in the room.
We’re looking forward to building new and stronger partnerships across the Five Rivers region as we pursue important community-centered conservation work, together.
May 2023 – To honor his family’s legacy as longtime landowners in Hopkinton, David Dustin is pursuing a conservation easement with Five Rivers. On the first Friday in May, Dave leads me uphill toward one of his property’s special attractions – a high promontory overlooking the Warner River. Trailing Arbutrus is blooming amidst vibrant green moss on the bluff, but the small white mayflower is easy to overlook because of the captivating sight of the sunlit river flowing at the bottom of a steep, sandy embankment. The riverscape that Dave’s ancestors surveyed when they acquired this land over 200 years ago must have been stunning then, too.
One of Dave’s earliest childhood memories is of sitting in a horse drawn wagon driven by his grandfather, Daniel Herbert Dustin, as his father and cousins pitched hay into the bed. His grandfather managed the 250-acre family farm without a motorized tractor. Sheep and cattle and horses grazed in pastureland, and hayfields provided food for the farm animals in the winter. Much of the property was forested, too, and Dave can point to where his father, Eben Dustin, grew pines for a 4H project. According to Dave, a conservation easement would be consistent with his father’s wish to keep the land in its natural state and accessible to the public.
Dave says that protecting the land from development and opening the trails for recreation would also be “good to do for the town.” At his church’s 2020 Christmas cookie exchange, an outdoor event because of Covid, Dave approached Dijit Taylor, the Chair of Hopkinton’s Open Space Committee, about the possibility of conserving his property. Her committee advises the town’s Select Board about projects worth funding for open space protection, and Dave’s property, with its riverfront location, recreation possibilities, and proximity to other protected lands, easily meets the committee’s selection criteria. Also, as Dijit notes, “It’s beautiful!”
The Dustin property abuts Bohanan Farm as well as Dan and Missy Dustin’s land, both also conserved by Five Rivers. Not only do trails link the three properties, but years of friendship and neighborly cooperation connect the Dustin and Bohanan families. At one of the trail junctions, Dave points to “The Plain,” a meadow with knee-high grass blowing in the breeze, and tells me about the families’ historic land swap. Eager to keep “The Plain” cultivated even though they were no longer farming, the Dustins traded “The Plain” for an equivalent amount of Bohanan forest. The Bohanans now use this parcel for corn and hay to feed their cows while the Dustins enjoy the view of the open field, which also holds many family memories.
A history major in college, Dave values the story-rich landscape surrounding his home. He notes that his forebears built the stone walls on his property and tells me about the U.S. Consul who introduced Merino sheep to New England in the early 19th century. I also enjoy learning about the wooden bridge that his father, siblings and a “brood of cousins” would cross near the confluence of the Warner and Contoocook Rivers to get to and from school. A gifted storyteller, Dave ends his tale by noting “that it all happened right here in River City.”
Dave’s allusion to lyrics from the 1950s Broadway hit The Music Man is fitting for a trombone player who founded the Tall Granite Big Band, a seventeen-piece dance band that performs all over the state. And “River City” certainly suits the three-river town of Hopkinton. Dave’s wife Kathi designed the beautiful log home that they built on their property along the Warner River. Since most of their land is listed as highest ranked wildlife habitat in the Granite State, it’s not too surprising that the Dustins have spotted lots of wildlife – deer, bears, wild turkeys – from their riverside perch.
Looking ahead, Dave will count on the expertise of Five Rivers to help him maintain this lush wildlife habitat while also promoting community access to his trail network. The old logging road we follow tunnels through a mature stand of white pines and hemlocks. The woods are alive with chickadees and black-throated green warblers and family stories—and the hope that future generations will have the chance to hear all this music, too.
About the Project
Conserving Dave and Kathi Dustin’s land on the Warner River is an active collaboration between Five Rivers Conservation Trust and the Town of Hopkinton. To date, the project has secured funding from the Town of Hopkinton Conservation Commission, an anonymous private donor, and grants from the State of New Hampshire’s Drinking Water and Ground Water Trust Fund and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Local Source Water Protection Program. Five Rivers and the Hopkinton Open Space Committee are working on additional grant applications to secure the remaining funding needed to complete the project. If all goes well, this property will be conserved by late 2024!
April 22, 2023 – Thank you to the many friends and volunteers who joined us on Saturday, April 22, for our first-ever collaboration with the Concord Young Professionals Network.
Together we tackled roadside and trail cleanup in and around the Armstrong Forest Preserve. We also learned about some of the land’s interesting natural and geologic features thanks to our naturalist guide and board member, Sarah Thorne.
We can’t wait for our next event with this fun, dedicated group!
April 2023 – Five Rivers Conservation Trust is developing a Regional Conservation Plan to guide our work in the strategic protection of the natural resources, productive forests and farmlands, and recreation opportunities in our region. Building from our recent strategic planning activities, this project will chart a course for Five Rivers’ work over the coming years. The Regional Conservation Plan will combine data on natural resources and resiliency, working landscapes, and accessibility, as well as local expertise, to identify the places that are most critical for us to conserve. This initiative will help Five Rivers strategically plan for the protection of the most important natural landscapes in our region!
The Five Rivers Conservation Trust service area includes 17 municipalities, including Belmont, Boscawen, Bow, Canterbury, Chichester, Concord, Dunbarton, Gilmanton, Hillsborough, Henniker, Hopkinton, Loudon, Northfield, Pembroke, Salisbury, Warner, and Webster. We look forward to hearing from community members, representatives from local conservation commissions and planning boards, and local experts on the future of conservation in our region. We anticipate having an event to hear from all in June!
For more information on this project and to sign up to receive project updates by email, please visit 5RCT Regional Conservation Plan.
March 19, 2023 – Thanks to everyone who came out for our Sunday, March 19th, snowshoe at the Janeway Conservation Area! Special thanks to: Rich Cook and Rob Knight for prepping the trail; Rich Cook and Tim Fleury for being our naturalist guides; and Aaron Baker for taking these great photos.
We are grateful to Betsy and Harold Janeway for their extraordinary gift of land to Five Rivers in 2020, and we look forward to continuing their careful stewardship for years to come. We were delighted to have one of their sons, Willie Janeway, trek with us.
March 2023 – You may know Carolyn Baldwin’s name from her time as a Five Rivers board member (2008 – 2014), or from her longtime work as a lawyer specializing in environmental law, growth management, and municipal planning. Or from her time on the boards of the NH Historic Preservation Task Force, the NH Historic Resources Council, NH Public Radio, and the New Hampshire Mainstreet Center. But did you know that she was the first woman lawyer in Belknap County, and one of the first 100 women lawyers in the state? For Women’s History Month, here’s a little more about one of our local conservation champions.
Carolyn, her husband Peter, and their three children came to New Hampshire in 1973 from Chicago, where Carolyn had earned a library degree and worked in “special collections” at the University of Chicago library, and Peter taught at U. Chicago’s Meadville Lombard School of Theology. They settled in Gilmanton, on a property on Pancake Hill that Peter’s parents had bought in the 1930s as a summer place.
Peter went to work at New England College, and Carolyn began to look for work. At the University of New Hampshire’s library, she was told that they’d never have a special collections department (six months later she was introduced to the man they hired). So she worked briefly at New Hampshire Historical Society’s library before deciding on a change: “Franklin Pierce Law School was looking for a librarian,” she says, “so I managed to pass the LSAT and went to law school. I had the best of both worlds, working in the library to pay my tuition.”
She graduated and passed the bar in 1977, but getting a law-firm job was another story. “I can’t tell you how many law firms in 1977 said ‘oh we’ll never hire a woman lawyer,’” she notes, about her job search. “I worked with a small firm in Belknap County for a couple of years and did a lot of domestic relations legal work, which I really didn’t like.” But she’d also found her calling—during law school, she’d interned at Lakes Region Planning Commission, and realized that she wanted to work in municipal planning, conservation, and historic preservation—and in 1978 she returned to Franklin Pierce to direct their Environmental Law Clinic.
Four years later, she hung out a shingle, but in the early 1980s, making one’s way as a woman lawyer and solo practitioner was a struggle.
Carolyn remembers the woman banker who took a chance on a young woman lawyer in 1983: “Because I was going out on my own, I had to go to the bank and get a line of credit. The woman at the bank was wonderful, and when I got home, Mr. Philodendron (her now 40-year-old philodendron plant) was there waiting for me, sent by that woman,” Carolyn says. “Whenever I look at this plant, I think of the woman who made it possible for me to get started. Banks back then always asked for a husband’s signature. But this woman didn’t do that, and somehow she was able to take a chance on me.”
For the next 30+ years, Carolyn worked in the Concord area on her own and with several partners, ultimately retiring from BCM Environmental & Land Law (she’s the B in BCM), becoming “of counsel” around 2000.
Even with her full work schedule, Carolyn found time for extensive volunteer work over the decades, primarily in Gilmanton (to name just a few examples, she served on the town’s Select Board from 1995 to 1998, Planning Board from 1982 to 1994, chaired the town’s Conservation Commission from 1974 to 1980, and served on its Zoning Board of Adjustment from 1998 to 2010). She also volunteered with the Gilmanton Land Trust. Founded by fellow Gilmanton resident Tom Howe, the Gilmanton Land Trust’s most visible project is one done in conjunction with Five Rivers – conserving several properties to preserve the iconic views of the Belknap range seen from Frisky Hill on Route 107.
Given Carolyn’s deep involvement with Gilmanton, it’s no wonder that two of her three children chose to live and raise their own children there. (One daughter and her family live in Concord.) “I’m so lucky for someone of my age to have all three of my kids close by,” Carolyn says. “If anyone had told me 50 years ago that my kids would be raising their kids here, I’d never have believed it. My eldest daughter raises pigs and chickens on our Pancake Hill property. My daughter-in-law runs the Gilmanton Historical Society museum and helped create the museum at the Tom Howe barn on Meetinghouse Road. That was a big project of Tom’s, preserving that side of Meetinghouse Pond,” she says. “The retting pond (a pond used by farmers in the 18th century to soak flax straw in order to separate the fibers prior to weaving) there is an example of the connection between history and land conservation.”
“I’ve been very, very lucky, with great people to work with,” she modestly adds. “And I’ve enjoyed it. Great satisfaction in being involved. It takes a community.”
What is your connection to Five Rivers? I served on the Board of The Concord Conservation Trust at its inception and monitored several of its original easements. (Concord Conservation Trust was founded in 1988 and became Five Rivers Conservation Trust in 2001, eventually expanding to cover 17 towns in our region.)
You volunteer as an easement monitor for Five Rivers. Can you explain what an easement monitor does and why it is such an important responsibility? Easements are the product of an individual’s commitment to preserving land far beyond their ownership. As an easement monitor, I work to ensure that this mission of conservation is honored and the land remains in compliance with the terms of their original grants. In this role, I regularly monitor the easements and identify any encroachments or violations of the easement’s purposes. Five Rivers’ commitment to routine observation is essential to upholding agreements and maintaining an easement’s continued existence.
What motivates you to volunteer for Five Rivers? Volunteering for Five Rivers reminds me of its humble beginnings while allowing me to participate in the organization’s ongoing mission of balancing development and preservation. As a native of Concord, I inherited a passionate appreciation of the beauty of New England and have long aspired to commit my time and experience to the protection of the land surrounding Concord.
What do you see as Five Rivers’ greatest assets? Five Rivers offers lasting benefits to its donors, landowners, and residents of the larger Concord area. Its emphasis on community support has been a pillar principle for the organization and has served them well. Generating community support for conservation projects propels Five Rivers’ mission, ensures public access, and ultimately drives a unifying vision for Board action going forward. Recognition of the need to preserve important agricultural and unique scenic areas encourages a vibrant and livable community.
Why you value Five Rivers: Five Rivers has an enormous role to play in what the greater capital region will look and feel like in the future. I'm thrilled to support Five Rivers because we are committed to conserving a landscape that adds richness to the lives of both residents and visitors.
Best part of your volunteer role: I love being a part of protecting our most valuable natural landscapes in the greater capital region – especially as it relates to agriculture and local food. I get excited about making sure we protect land while finding opportunities to support responsibly developed resources, like affordable housing.
Favorite Five Rivers property, and why: Marjorie Swope Park is minutes down the road from my downtown Concord home. I love zipping out for a quick walk in the woods with my dog. It's such a nice lunch break activity, especially since I work remotely.
Favorite thing about living in the greater capital region: I love the downtown Concord walkable lifestyle and how close we are to incredible recreation opportunities and conserved land! Concord's central location means that it's easy to get down to Boston, too.
Favorite thing to do outdoors: Anything with my mini-Aussie, Pete!
2022 was another exciting and fulfilling year for Five Rivers. We hope many of you were able to join us at an event or activity this past year. Your support made these highlights possible, so we want to reflect on the milestones of 2022 together:
JANUARY – Sloping Acres Farm in Canterbury was conserved. The Canterbury community has a long history of conservation and interest in agriculture, and the town’s Conservation Commission strongly supported this project. With the farm conserved, brothers Peter and Eric Glines, the fifth generation of Glines farmers, can continue to raise their cattle, provide milk wholesale to Hood in Concord, and sell their sustainably raised beef directly to customers and through the Canterbury Country Store.
FEBRUARY – Jeff Evans transitioned from a Five Rivers board member to our Director of Conservation. Jeff earned his Ph.D. in Entomology and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Michigan State University. His research on the biology and management of invasive species and agricultural weeds gives him a valuable perspective on the conservation challenges and opportunities on Five Rivers’ conserved lands.
MARCH – On a beautiful day in March, members of Five Rivers’ Events and Land Protection and Stewardship Committees strapped on their snowshoes to lead a group on a trek through the Janeway Conservation Area in Webster. Thank you to Betsy Janeway for welcoming our group onto her property.
APRIL – Conservationist Chris Kane completed an ecological inventory of the Armstrong Family Forest in Concord, identifying flora, fauna, natural habitats, and cultural features. Having this report will help us plan how to manage the property in the future—where to site potential trails and identify the many features we may highlight for education.
AUGUST – Wyman Farm in Loudon was conserved. Judith Wyman Merrow was the sixth generation of the family to have owned the property since the original King’s grant in 1780. It was Judy’s wish that the farm be conserved, and following her passing in January, her son Jim Polley worked with Five Rivers to honor his family’s stewardship of the land and ensure its integrity is upheld in perpetuity.
AUGUST – Five Rivers achieved renewed accreditation from the Land Trust Accreditation Commission through August 2027. This distinction from the national accrediting body for land trusts affirms that our organization has sound finances, practices ethical conduct and responsible governance, and can ensure lasting stewardship.
SEPTEMBER – Five Rivers hosted our 2022 Annual Celebration at the unique, beautiful, and historic Sanborn Mills Farm in Loudon. The afternoon featured updates from Five Rivers, live music by Celtic fiddler Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki, and tours of the grounds, sawmill, grist mill, and blacksmith shop.
SEPTEMBER – After a multi-month rain delay, Five Rivers held another installment of Evening Yoga at Dimond Hill Farm. About 40 people at various levels of experience and ability experienced an evening of gentle flow yoga taught by David Breen and Laurie Farmer of Sharing Yoga in Concord.
NOVEMBER – At the end of the month, the 121-acre Vegetable Ranch in Warner was conserved. It consists of agricultural fields, wildlife habitats, and water resources along scenic Kearsarge Mountain Road. The farmers of Vegetable Ranch grow organic vegetables and livestock products for Concord Farmers’ Market, Concord Food Co‐op, Warner Public Market, and more.
DECEMBER – Five Rivers was awarded a $118,000 grant from LCHIP to help conserve Blue Moon Berry Farm. This property, perched on Waldron Hill in Warner, has been in continuous operation as a u-pick berry farm since the 1960s. It is a treasured local resource, well-known and loved by residents and surrounding communities.
We thank you for your support, participation, and your committed dedication to preserving vital farms, forests, wildlife habitats, and water resources in the greater Capital region Here’s to more conservation successes and time in the great outdoors throughout 2023!
November 30, 2022 – Five Rivers Conservation Trust announced the conservation of The Vegetable Ranch in Warner, perpetually protecting 121 acres of land with productive agricultural fields, wildlife habitat, and water resources along scenic Kearsarge Mountain Road.
“The Vegetable Ranch grows high‐quality New England produce for local markets, and its conservation helps keep a working farm growing food while protecting critical wildlife habitat and conserving water quality,” said Liz Short, Executive Director of Five Rivers. “We’re honored to have worked with Larry Pletcher and have been nothing short of amazed by his daughter Jenn’s commitment to carrying forward her father’s deep respect for the land after his passing last year.”
The predominantly forested land is part of a 10,000+ acre expanse of unfragmented habitat that stretches to Mt. Kearsarge. This conservation easement will buffer four headwater streams of the Willow Brook and Stevens Brook watersheds, valued by the Warner Conservation Commission. The farmers of Vegetable Ranch grow organic vegetables and livestock products for Concord Farmers’ Market, Concord Food Co‐op, Warner Public Market, and more.
The Vegetable Ranch has become a local legacy for the Pletchers continuing Larry’s vision for easy access to nutritious, organic produce. Five Rivers and the Pletcher family have been working together in pursuit of an easement since 2019. The conservation easement will ensure that the land is not subdivided or developed and will make it available for habitat, farming, and forest management for generations to come.
“My father created a space where his organic practices and conservation‐mindedness could live on,” remembers Jenn, “and it’s with these values the farm continues today in his physical absence, but always with his spirit.”
This project is the culmination of several years of work with the Pletcher family and our partners to raise the funds and finalize purchase of the conservation easement after the Pletcher’s offer to donate part of its value. Grant funding for this project was awarded from NH Land & Community Heritage Investment Program, the Thomas W. Haas Fund of the NH Charitable Foundation, NH State Conservation Commission Moose Plate Conservation Grant Program, the Davis Conservation Foundation, the Quabbin‐to‐Cardigan Partnership, and the NH Farm Future Fund. The community also rallied in support of conserving the Vegetable Ranch, raising $5,000 from the Warner Conservation Commission and over $35,000 in private donations.
December 14, 2022 – Five Rivers Conservation Trust has been awarded a $118,000 grant from the New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP) to support the conservation of Blue Moon Berry Farm. This property, perched on Waldron Hill in Warner, has been in continuous operation as a u-pick berry farm since the 1960s. It is a treasured local resource, well-known and loved by residents and surrounding communities.
“We are thrilled that LCHIP funded Five Rivers for the conservation of Blue Moon Berry Farm,” said Jeff Evans, Director of Conservation, about the vital step toward the project’s success. “This land has been a conservation priority for many years. We’re grateful to our funding partners at LCHIP, the Warner Conservation Commission, NH Farm Future Fund, and the property owners for helping make this a reality.”
Governor Sununu today announced projects being funded by $4.3 million in matching grants from LCHIP to support 34 land conservation and historic preservation projects. The grants will assist municipalities, nonprofits, and community groups in rehabilitating 17 historic structures and permanently conserving more than 2,700 acres of farm, timber, and ecologically significant land in all ten counties of the state.
The project will conserve 109 acres, including approximately 5 acres of highbush blueberry, 7.5 acres of other crop and hay fields and agricultural buildings, and 90 acres of mixed hardwood forest. With 95% of the funding to purchase a conservation easement now committed, including the landowners’ offer to donate part of the easement’s value, funding for this project is nearly complete.
Landowners Jan Gugliotti and Barbara Dieckman purchased the farm in 2000 to preserve its agricultural resources and ensure it would remain a working farm. The farm also has livestock, a small orchard, crop fields for vegetable production, and a space to sell farm products and crafts. Five Rivers is now accepting donations from the community to bring this project to fruition and protect this local treasure from future development.
Five Rivers is excited to be the December recipient of the Concord Food Co-op’s “Round-It-Up at the Register” program. Each month, the Co-op’s Board of Directors selects a different beneficiary for this program from local nonprofit organizations whose work aligns with the Co-op’s mission and values.
Round-It-Up gives Co-op shoppers the opportunity to round their purchase up to the nearest dollar and donate the difference to that month’s partnered organization. For example, in December, if a shopper’s total transaction is $4.51, they have the option of rounding their purchase up to $5.00 and donating $0.49 to Five Rivers.
So, head on over to the Co-op for your December holiday shopping and Round-it-Up for Five Rivers!
August 12, 2022 – Five Rivers Conservation Trust announces the conservation of the Wyman Farm in Loudon.
Jim Polley grew up on the fields of Wyman Farm in Loudon. His mother, Judith Wyman Merrow, was the sixth generation of their family to own the property since the original King’s grant in 1780. The fields have outstanding farmland soils, which have been rid of rocks over years of cultivation. Farming has taken place here in various forms for centuries.
“When I was growing up,” Jim reminisced, “we had horses, took care of an occasional calf to keep the pastures well mowed, and a garden which provided us with fresh vegetables. The fields have been hayed for as long as I can remember.” Previous generations raised cows, chickens, sheep, turkeys, and more. Jim’s third great-grandfather’s diary stated that he supplied Shaker Village with oats.
Judy ran a bed and breakfast out of the 1790s farmhouse as her ancestors had in the late 1800s. Complete with hand-hewn beams, the house and barn speak volumes about the property’s history, accompanied by sweeping views across the fields to distant hills in the south. This 48-acre property has over 4,500 feet of undeveloped scenic frontage on three different town roads. About 10 acres of the property is in fields, and the remainder is forests of red oak, hemlock, and pine, plus a forested wetland in the center of the property.
“There has always been abundant wildlife here, from turkeys and foxes to bobcats and bears,” Jim recalled. It’s a combination of habitat types that makes the property a haven for wildlife. The nearby “hunting swamp,” which is partially conserved by the Town of Loudon, affirms the historic abundance of wildlife in the area.
Conservation runs deep in the family: having been a cultivated value handed down to Jim, it was Judy’s wish that the farm be conserved. Bidding a final farewell to the land is certainly bittersweet, though Jim’s family is hopeful that the next owners will continue the tradition of farming the land as they so diligently have. After Judy’s passing in early January, conserving Wyman Farm was a natural way for Jim to honor his family’s longtime stewardship for the land and ensure its integrity is upheld in perpetuity.
March is Women’s History Month. Five Rivers has a long history of empowering women in important roles, and so in honor of Women’s History Month we are focusing on three women – Jan McClure, Melinda Gehris, and Maura Adams.
Jan McClure: Five Rivers Beginning
Jan McClure
“In the 1980’s, the importance of land conservation was not in the forefront as it is now,” says Jan McClure, one of the founders of Concord Conservation Trust (Five Rivers’ original name). But the prospect of losing a big chunk of Concord’s undeveloped land led to the beginning of Five Rivers, as well as a new era for conservation in the Capital region. That’s because in 1986, Vermont developer Barry Stem bought 800 acres of undeveloped land in East Concord called Broken Ground, planning to build a resort-like destination, including an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus golf course, clubhouse, tennis courts, and 420 housing units.
“The idea that someone could come in and develop one of our prime Concord conservation priorities was a wake-up call,” Jan says. “We realized that we needed a private entity to be able to step in and act quickly, a vital land trust presence that could partner with the City’s Conservation Commission and Planning Board.”
A small group banded together to create a land trust (along with Jan, other early organizers included Suzanne Smith Meyer, Sylvia Bates, Tom Masland, Steve Blackmer, Randy Raymond, and Mary Susan Leahy). Their first efforts were a leap of faith, Jan notes, because there was much less general knowledge about land trusts in the ‘80s.
By the next year, this group had formed a legal entity, Concord Conservation Trust, and was working on outreach and education. “We had two or three projects that were perking along, and the City referred other projects to us,” Jan says. “Right away we tried to publicize our work and build our membership.”
Jan, whose background prior to the formation of Concord Conservation Trust had been working as conservation trust director at the Forest Society, brought her skills to the trust’s board. She served on the board for its first nine years, helping to hire its first part-time executive director and later expanding the organization’s geographical footprint and changing its name to Five Rivers Conservation Trust. When asked to reflect on the growth and success of Five Rivers over these past 30-plus years, she says, “It all tells me is that it was a good idea! Obviously other people thought it was a great idea, too, and joined the effort and made Five Rivers bigger and better.”
Melinda Gehris: Five Rivers Growth
Melinda with fellow board members Rob Knight (left) and Tim Britain (right)
During her tenure as board chair (2011-2013), Melinda Gehris oversaw Five Rivers’ next phase of growth. When Melinda, a lawyer living in Hillsborough, joined the board, the number of Five Rivers-conserved properties was expanding dramatically, thanks to the leadership of Mark Zankel, Tom Irwin, Ken Stern, and Rob Knight. “We were conserving a lot more acres and we were starting to be very methodical about how we did it,” Melinda says. “We became much more proactive in looking at where we wanted to conserve, and how we wanted to spend our resources and energy doing it.”
Five Rivers had also grown to the point where it needed a full-time executive director, Melinda says. “We needed to raise the money for that. Robyn Cotton joined the board, which was fantastic because she’s a development specialist.” With Robyn’s help, Five Rivers created a development plan, built the Conservation Leaders Society, and hosted two well-attended fundraisers at Dimond Hill. “Those fundraisers were a lot of work, but were also a lot of fun and raised a lot of money. And they gave us visibility in a way that nothing else did,” Melinda says.
Under Melinda’s leadership, Five Rivers began the process of gaining accreditation from the Land Trust Accreditation Alliance. (Accreditation is a lengthy, rigorous process, awarded to land trusts that meet the highest national standards for excellence and conservation permanence.) She credits other board members like Ken Stern and Rob Knight for their expertise and hard work on accreditation. “It was a great accomplishment, and it left the organization in a much better place,” she says.
Maura Adams: Five Rivers Today
Maura Adams
Five Rivers’ current board chair is Maura Adams, who in her day job leads Northern Forest Center’s community investment program. Maura joined the Five Rivers board in 2017. After a year on the board, then-chair Richard Head asked Maura to serve as vice chair. “So I agreed. I didn’t entirely know what the role would entail, but I’m glad I said yes, even though it has been challenging at times.”
One of those challenges came during Maura’s third year on the board (and first year as board chair), when Beth McGuinn stepped down as executive director. Maura notes that “sometimes a big change can be disruptive to an organization and lead to setbacks, especially when the executive director is well-regarded and well known to donors. But it was a very smooth transition and that’s something I’m very proud of. And the Board feels thrilled that we found someone so talented and who is embracing the role so incredibly well (Liz Short, the current executive director).”
Five Rivers has had additional staff changes in the past year: Lily Evans was hired as the development and communications coordinator, and Jeff Evans (no relationship) as director of conservation. “Liz being able to assemble this team is just awesome,” says Maura.
Maura is also a trail runner, which has given her a good view of Five Rivers trails. The City of Concord recently added a trail on a Five Rivers property (Backwoods) near Winant Park and Swope Park, she notes. “I was running on the Backwoods trail just the other day, and felt excited and proud to be part of an organization that makes possible having so much conserved land right next to downtown. In most places, that land would be long gone,” she says. “I’ve seen the partnership between the City and Five Rivers grow, and that is an incredible asset to the people around the Capital region and to the environment. That’s the reality of what we are doing. This is about land and people’s love for it.”
We had a fantastic time walking the trails of the Janeway Conservation Area on Sunday afternoon, March 13th! A huge thank-you goes out to members of our Events and Land Protection & Stewardship committees who helped plan the walk and to Betsy Janeway for welcoming our group onto her property. It was a beautiful day out in the fresh air taking time to connect with friends and nature.
Stay tuned for future Five Rivers trail walks and other events to come!
January 24, 2022 – Five Rivers Conservation Trust announced the conservation of Sloping Acres Farm located on West Road in Canterbury. The 37-acre property has been owned and operated by the Glines family for five generations and is currently run by Peter and Eric Glines. It is entirely in agricultural use, growing corn and hay while also providing pasture for the adjacent 140 cow dairy.
“Five Rivers Conservation Trust is grateful to the Glines family and Canterbury community for the conservation of this historic and scenic farm,” says Sarah Thorne, a Five Rivers board member and the organization’s primary point of contact during the conservation process. “We were convinced to become perpetual stewards of this conservation easement because of the highly productive agricultural soils, farming tradition, and strong community support.”
The completion of the Glines conservation easement is a long-awaited victory after spending four years working towards the project’s fruition. Sloping Acres Farm sells their milk wholesale, providing locally sourced dairy to communities across New England. They also sell their sustainably and ethically raised Angus beef directly from the farm to consumers.
“Conserving Canterbury’s best agricultural soils and working farms are high priorities for the town,” said Conservation Commission Chair Ken Stern. “The pandemic has reminded us just how critical it is to have local food sources, and the Glines easement protects a property that has been farmed for generations. The town is grateful to the Glines, to people who donated to the project, to Five Rivers Conservation Trust, and to everyone who made this project possible.”
The Town of Canterbury’s Conservation Commission made a significant contribution to fund long-term stewardship costs. This easement enables farming to continue under the Glines’ ownership, while protecting the land from future residential and commercial development. Five Rivers’ long-term role is to monitor the conservation easement annually to assure the perpetual conservation of the land.
Ken Koerber pauses frequently as he walks through the forest behind the family farm he and his wife, Susan, have nurtured for more than a half century near the center of Dunbarton.
He gazes at towering oak trees, marvels at huge boulders and small rocks left behind by the glaciers and listens to birds and running streams. He also ponders the toil of farmers who once cleared the forest and built stone walls that mark the fields and pastures of long ago.
Ken and Susan see the forest as a tribute to past generations who walked its trails, used its resources and preserved it to provide sustenance and solitude for their family. Now, they have ensured that future generations will have the same opportunity.
The Koerbers have conserved the forest through Five Rivers Conservation Trust — protecting three headwater streams, wildlife habitat and trails; adding to a block of approximately 650 acres of nearby conserved land; and continuing to provide an outdoor classroom for the neighboring Dunbarton Elementary School.
Though Ken and Susan became “owners” of the 113-acre forest and a 1786 farmhouse and fields in 1969, they are mindful that they have been walking in someone else’s footsteps.
“The land just is,” said Susan. “It’s here, and somehow we are allowed to be here.”
Ken and Susan raised three children on their farm, growing their own food and learning from the land.
Susan enjoys growing healthy, organic food right outside her door.
“Every night in the summer, I walk around the garden with a basket and say, ‘Hmmm what shall we eat today?’”
Ken’s view of the land underwent a long evolution from initially envisioning houses along a ridge with scenic views to now imagining how nice it would be to erect a small observation tower on the same ridge, offering the views to all.
“Over the years I started realizing building houses might be a good economic picture, but it wasn’t a good ecological one and it wasn’t a good social one,” he said.
Ken is a retired electrical and systems engineer. Susan is a retired educator who founded Concord’s Woodside School in 1978. At their home, they now own and operate Chanticleer Gardens, dedicated to producing organically-grown cut flowers for local florists and retailers. In addition to enjoying the forest, Ken and Susan hope future generations will use the farmland portion of their property to continue producing food and help others learn about farming.
Learning from the forest also is important to the Koebers. They envision generations of future school children exploring geology, history, nature and, well, just exploring.
Walking through the woods, Ken points out features at every turn and asks questions as if he is a school kid, or their teacher. “Why are these stone walls in the middle of the woods?”
“Why are all of these holes here,” he asks while passing a decaying tree that had been a target for woodpeckers or other creatures.
“Look at that,” he said, pointing to a new tree sprouting from the fallen trunk of another. “The will to live. A tree gets knocked over, but it’s not dead.”
Susan’s favorite spot in the woods is a quiet hemlock grove.
“It is very soft and very peaceful,” she said. “The tree itself is very feathery.”
Ken stops at his special spot — where a rushing stream crosses a wide path that doubles at a cross-country trail in the winter.
“The picture doesn’t change except that the water is continually moving,” he said. “I could spend a half hour here just watching and listening and thinking and meditating.
“I love it, other people will love it –that’s really my motivation for wanting to share this,” he said.
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Conservation of the Koerber Family Forest culminated a multi-year effort by Five Rivers to raise the funds to purchase the conservation easement, after the Koerbers’ initial offer to donate half of the value of the easement.
Partners included New Hampshire’s Land & Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP), the Dunbarton Conservation Commission, the Merrimack Conservation Partnership, the New Hampshire’s “Moose Plate” Conservation Grant Program, the New Hampshire Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund Grant and private donors.
November 24, 2021 – Five Rivers Conservation Trust announced today the conservation of the 131-acre Koerber Family Forest, located at 31 Stark Highway North, in the center of Dunbarton.
“Thanks to Ken and Susan Koerber’s great vision and generosity, the land they have stewarded for more than 50 years will be available for the enjoyment of people and wildlife for generations to come,” said Five Rivers Executive Director Liz Short.
The Koerber Family Forest contributes to a large block of approximately 650 acres of conserved land nearby, including the Stone Farm and the Farley property, which were conserved by Five Rivers in 2017 and 2013, respectively. In addition to protecting three headwater streams and providing important wildlife habitat, conserving the land creates opportunities for future pedestrian trails and use as an outdoor classroom for the neighboring Dunbarton Elementary School.
“I am thrilled that this land will remain a farm in perpetuity for the public to enjoy, and that wildlife will have a secure home here, thanks to Five Rivers and their many generous donors,” said Ken Koerber. Ken and his wife, Susan, raised their three children on the land, and the couple owns and operates Chanticleer Gardens, dedicated to producing organically-grown cut flowers for local florists and retailers.
“The Koerber’s farm is located right in the center of Dunbarton and preserving it as open space is crucial in maintaining the rural character of our town,” said Brett St. Clair, chair of the Dunbarton Conservation Commission.
Today’s announcement is the culmination of a multi-year effort by Five Rivers to raise the necessary funds and finalize the purchase of the conservation easement, after the Koerbers’ initial offer to donate half of the value of the easement. The project was made possible by several critical state and community funding partners, including New Hampshire’s Land & Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP), which awarded a $100,000 grant to the project; the Dunbarton Conservation Commission; the Merrimack Conservation Partnership; the New Hampshire State Conservation Commission “Moose Plate” Conservation Grant Program; the New Hampshire Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund Grant; as well as over $19,000 in private donations.
October 2021 – The land trust accreditation program recognizes land conservation organizations that meet national quality standards for protecting important natural places and working lands forever.
Five Rivers Conservation Trust first became Accredited in February 2017 after undergoing a rigorous review process to prove the organization meets the highest national standards for fiscal accountability, strong organizational leadership, sound land transactions, and lasting stewardship of the lands we conserve. Five years later, the organization is applying for renewal of accreditation. A public comment period is now open.
The Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance, conducts an extensive review of each applicant’s policies and programs. “Being accredited means that we have proven we’re a strong organization you can trust,” comments Five Rivers’ Executive Director Liz Short.
The Commission invites public input and accepts signed, written comments on pending applications. Comments must relate to how Five Rivers complies with national quality standards. These standards address the ethical and technical operation of a land trust. For the complete list of standards, see https://www.landtrustaccreditation.org/help-and-resources/indicator-elements.
To learn more about the accreditation program and to submit a comment, visit www.landtrustaccreditation.org, or email your comment to info@landtrustaccreditation.org. Comments may also be faxed or mailed to the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, Attn: Public Comments: (fax) 518-587-3183; (mail) 36 Phila Street, Suite 2, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.
Steve Blackmer of Canterbury is one of the founders of the Concord Conservation Trust, which became Five Rivers Conservation Trust in 2001. Steve recognized the importance of land conservation in the 1980s, when the city of Concord was at a development crossroads. He recognizes the growing importance of conservation now, when the world is at an environmental crossroads. As an environmentalist and now as chaplain at the Church of the Woods near his home, Steve says Five Rivers and other conservation organizations need everyone’s help, in big and small ways, to maintain our habitat.
The Concord Conservation Trust was founded in 1988. Steve was one of the founding members, with Concord Mayor Elizabeth Hager and Stephen Henninger of Concord Planning Department. Others were deeply involved, including Douglas Woodward of the Concord Planning Department, Jan McClure of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, Herbert Little of Merrimack County Savings Bank and Raymond D’Amante, whose family owned large tracts of land on Concord Heights.
5R – Why was The Concord Conservation Trust (later Five Rivers) formed?
SB – A developer’s plan to build a golf course and many homes on 1,350 acres in Concord’s Broken Ground area wasn’t the specific reason, but it’s a great illustration that large-scale development was coming to Concord and the city was not ready. We formed a small group called Friends of Concord’s Open Space to specifically fight that development, and, in some ways, Five Rivers did grow out of that effort, so let’s just use that for the sake of telling the story.
It’s one thing to just stop bad ideas and it’s another thing to say ‘What do we want to protect up front?’ not just being in a negative place but being in a place of saying ‘What are the places we really care about?’ and creating capacity to identify, protect and respond to opportunities to protect important areas that really matter, in concert with the development at that point in the city of Concord. In a nutshell that was the impetus.
At the same time, I also ran for City Council and was elected to try to get private sector (conservation) activities going through what became Five Rivers, but also to begin to shift the city toward more attention toward conservation. I would bring the capabilities of municipal government toward this. Both of those things really made a difference. With Doug (Woodward) and Randy Raymond at the Concord Planning Department and Liz Hager became mayor, things really changed in the city’s capacity as well. It was really not just how do we stop bad things, but how do we affirmatively do right things.
5R – What were the hurdles?
SB – First, land trusts themselves were still pretty new at that time. There was not a lot of knowledge or capacity anywhere in the country, and for that matter, anywhere in the world. Aside from the venerable ones like the Forest Society, small-scale land trusts were a very new thing. As the lead policy person at the Forest Society, I needed to learn about small-scale land trusts and got permission from Paul Bofinger, my boss, to take Forest Society time and travel to a meeting of the newly forming Land Trust Alliance just to learn what is this and how do we do this.
Second, we had to find a group of people to put their names to it, and, for some of them, to put their time and effort into it.
We also had to become incorporated. How do we do this?
So, we just started. In that situation, you learn what you can, then you just begin, so we did.
Oh, and there was no money, nothing.
5R – What were the first properties the organization conserved?
SB – The only early one that sticks in my mind was a little piece of land in East Concord called the Bois de Brodeur (Brodeur’s Woods) off Hoit Road. We were completely being responsive to the interests of the landowners. They wanted to preserve this property that had significance to their family. We didn’t have criteria for saying what kinds of properties to protect at that point – most land trusts didn’t at that point — but it was a place to begin. Without knowing much of anything, we said ‘Yes, sure we’ll take it’ and that began the learning.
My piece of it was not so much doing the actual land conservation, but creating the capacity. That’s what I am good at. I am not an expert in land conservation, but I’m really good at getting people organized to do something. Now, there is much more expertise, and that took a while to develop.
5R – Why did the Trust change its name to Five Rivers?
SB – I was not on the board then, but it was for two reasons.
1. There was a recognition that there was land worthy of protection and opportunities beyond the boundaries of Concord.
2. There were supporters and potential funding from a much bigger area and that the population base of Concord and the interest base wasn’t sufficient to make a viable organization.
5R – Why was the Conservation Trust (Five Rivers) important in 1988?
SB – One of the things that I, as a relative newcomer to Concord, loved about it was that it could be a capital city with all of the benefits of that while still having this pretty remarkable open space around it — to be a small city with a lot of nature right in and around the city. And that was going to change and it was going to change for the worse if there wasn’t very intentional action and attention to maintaining that. Not everything that I might have wished has been maintained, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse. It’s still, after 35 years now, a remarkable, pleasant place with a remarkable amount of open space in and around the city.
Then, all of the downtown improvements happened that were a perfect complement to the open space. If there is an attractive and interesting downtown and open space around it, those are the kinds of communities that are thriving, where people want to come to, particularly young people.
I look at the two of those together as being really instrumental in helping Concord become the very pleasant and attractive community it is now. All of the opportunities were there, they just needed that attention.
5R – Why is Five Rivers important now?
SB – The why hasn’t changed. What’s changed is probably greater ecological threats. Those have really escalated the awareness of climate change, and all of the factors that say ‘How do people live well on this Earth right now, given what human beings are doing to it?’ It has to do with habitat for wildlife and agriculture, and people being able to have the spiritual and emotional and physical opportunities to live in the natural setting. Those things have only gotten more important and it’s going to take even more attention to maintain them.
We are not going to be able to keep things the way they are. Nature may change in frightening ways, but maintaining that open space is one of the handful of important things we can do to make sure this still is a place where human beings can live well and all the other creatures that are made for here can live as well. I’d say it’s only gotten more important.
5R – Why is conserving land important to you, personally?
SB – It is so embedded in who I am.
The natural world has always been the place where primarily I find beauty and peace, restoration, physical renewal and bodily well-being, spiritual well-being. All of those things remain true and, in nature, I find the source of all being, which we call God. It’s where all life comes from. Why would one not want to everything one possibly could to conserve the source of all life? Human beings have an extraordinary capacity to destroy it. The stakes are pretty high. There is nothing more important in the world right now. There are other things that also are important, but there is nothing else more important.
5R – Why should conserving land be important to everyone?
SB – It’s not enough to say somebody else will do it. All life depends on insuring there is a healthy, vibrant Earth. There is no other way to maintain life. Human beings are doing such extraordinary things to change Earth that are damaging it. We are the ones who are causing all of the problems. It’s our responsibility, as well as our opportunity and our privilege to do what we can to restore, to renew, to save, to conserve.
Climate change didn’t just happen. Extinction of species doesn’t just happen. These are things that human beings are doing and this (conserving land) is a piece of acknowledging that and doing what we can to respond to it. It doesn’t matter how small or big it is, because it is necessary at every scale.
June 2021 – The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, Five Rivers Conservation Trust, Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust, and the Merrimack River Watershed Council, announced a two-state Merrimack Paddle Challenge this summer.
The do-it-yourself challenge runs from June 15 through September 30, 2021 along the Merrimack River and its tributaries. The four sponsoring groups have mapped out a collection of five paddling adventures in the Merrimack River watershed, specially chosen to maximize fun and opportunities to learn more about the ecosystem of the Merrimack watershed that stretches from Franklin, New Hampshire to Newburyport, Massachusetts.
“The Merrimack Paddle Challenge will be great inspiration for outdoor adventurers to experience the beauty of the Merrimack River and its watershed,” states Jack Savage, president of the Forest Society. “As many may recall, we premiered a documentary, The Merrimack: River at Risk, in 2020, in collaboration with Jerry Monkman and Ecophotography. The film explores the threats to the Merrimack River and its watershed, the health of which is critical to communities in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts. We hope by getting people out paddling in the watershed they’ll more fully appreciate what is at stake in one of the region’s largest and most important watersheds, and see why land protection along the Merrimack and its tributaries is so vitally important.”
Adventurers participating in the challenge will receive a laminated paddle guide for each excursion, complete with maps, locations of put-ins and take-outs, important details about the paddle (length, difficulty, and time), and information about points of interest along the way. Participants will also be entered into a raffle to win prizes at the end of the challenge period.
One paddle excursion, the Contoocook River paddle, is of particular importance to Five Rivers. “The Contoocook River Paddle offers an option for experienced and novice paddlers alike and showcases what this challenge is all about,” states Liz Short, executive director of Five Rivers Conservation Trust. “Conserving land along our waterways makes for healthier communities – providing clean water, access to nature, and fun outdoor adventures.”
Hop in the water with your family or friends for a do-it-yourself paddling adventure this summer! Register your party for $25 and we’ll provide laminated paddle guides for each excursion, complete with maps, locations of put-ins and take-outs, important details about the paddle (length, difficulty, and time) and information about what you’ll see along the way.
A tremendous thank you for your generosity during this year’s NH Gives! Together, 80 donors and 4 businesses contributed a total of $26,544, including some amazing matching funds.
A special and final shout-out to the four local businesses (Grappone Automotive Group, The Works Cafe, S&W Sports, and Contoocook Creamery) and the following members of our Conservation Leaders Society who provided generous matching gifts: Ken & Ilene Stern, Mike & Patty Shearin, Maureen McCanty & Dennis Card, Beth Moore & Rick Murphy, Lucia Kittredge & Cleve Kapala, Carolyn Koegler Miller & Rob Miller, Maura & Brian Adams, and two anonymous donors. Thank you also to Steve and Patrice Rasche, also Conservation Leaders Society members, for their generous $5,000 gift.
We are excited to welcome 15 new supporters to the Five Rivers conservation community who made their first gifts during this year’s NH Gives.
Your support has given this lean organization bolstered by volunteers a welcome boost! We look forward to bringing you news of our conservation work and upcoming events in future newsletters.
Imagine how many open spaces, wild places and working lands we could protect – forever – with double or triple the funding. On June 8 and 9, 2021, you can help us achieve this through NH Gives, the annual 24-hour fundraising event for New Hampshire nonprofits.
Click the image below to watch Five Rivers’ NH Gives Profile Video.
Countdown to June 8th – Double or Triple Your Impact!
Your donation will have an even greater impact thanks to over $15,000 in matching gifts by generous Five Rivers business supporters and members of our Conservation Leaders Society (CLS). Visit our NH Gives profile to see the match details from four local businesses and members of our Conservation Leaders Society, a dedicated group of sustaining Five Rivers supporters.
Timeline of Five Rivers Dollar-for-Dollar Matches:
Tuesday 5pm to midnight – up to $11,750 matched by Five Rivers’ Conservation Leaders Society (CLS) Wednesday midnight to 9am – up to $500 matched by Contoocook Creamery Wednesday 9am to Noon – up to $1,000 matched by The Works Cafe Wednesday Noon to 5pm – up to $1,000 matched by Grappone Automotive Group Wednesday Noon to 5pm – up to $1,000 matched by S & W Sports
NH Charitable Foundation Matches
On top of Five Rivers sponsor matches, your gift – if made online during any of the 10 timeframes of NH Gives Site Wide Match Schedule – may be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $250 by the $300,000 site-wide matching pool made possible by the NH Charitable Foundation and its donors. Below is the NH Gives Site Wide Match Schedule.
June 8: $100,000 at 5pm, and $20,000 at 6pm, 7pm, 8pm, and 9pm.
June 9: $20,000 at 8am, 9am, noon, and 3pm, and $40,000 at 4pm.
How to Double, Triple, or Even Quadruple Your Donation!
The many match opportunities you have when donating to Five Rivers means that you can double, triple, and even quadruple your donation!
Example 1: If you donate to Five Rivers at exactly 5pm on Tuesday, your donation will be matched dollar for dollar with our Conservation Leaders Society (CLS) match AND dollar for dollar match with the NH Charitable Foundation match. So if you donated $100, that means $300 for Five Rivers (your donation, the CLS match, plus the Charitable Foundation match)
Example 2 – Five Rivers has two sponsor matches on Wednesday June 9th from Noon to 5pm. So if you donated $100 at Noon on Wednesday, that means $400 for Five Rivers (your donation, the Grappone match, the S&W match, plus the Charitable Foundation match)
Tip for NH Charitable Foundation Matches – The NH Charitable Foundation matches will be in high demand and will be depleted quickly. To have the best chance of getting their match, open Five Rivers’ NH Gives Profile just before any specified match start time, have your donor info and credit card info ready, and then stand by to click “submit” at exactly the appointed hour.
GET READY, SET AND GO FOR NH GIVES!
We are so grateful to our business sponsors and CLS members who are giving Five Rivers such potential for fundraising during NH Gives. And thank you, all our supporters, for your help to preserve open spaces, wild places and working landscapes throughout New Hampshire’s greater capital region!
If you have any questions or would like more information, please reach out to Liz Short, Executive Director, at liz@5rct.org or 603-225-7225 x203
Member Margaret Watkins of Dunbarton has been a supporter of Five Rivers almost from the beginning, back when it was known as Concord Conservation Trust. “I know I still have one of the original Concord Conservation Trust t-shirts,” she says.
As a longtime conservation professional and former director of the Piscataquog Land Conservancy, Watkins put her skills to work for Five Rivers, monitoring conservation easements, overseeing conservation projects in Henniker and Dunbarton, and serving as vice-chair and chair of Five Rivers’ board, as well as on all of Five Rivers’ committees. Watkins says that as board chair, she enjoyed the challenging questions related to land conservation. “It was totally worthwhile work,” she says.
Watkins also helped hire Beth McGuinn, Five Rivers’ first full-time executive director. McGuinn (now a former executive director) notes “Margaret really does have the land in her DNA, so to speak. And she has a really nice blend of understanding conservation, but also the details of how to run a nonprofit, including the development and outreach side of things. She was really important to Five Rivers’ growth.”
Watkins’ favorite Five Rivers property: “The one I visit most often is the Sweatt Preserve in Hopkinton. I go to the Contoocook farmers market and stop at the Sweatt trail on the way home, and go for a walk.” She’s been happy to see that the Sweatt Preserve’s trails, like all of Five Rivers’ public trails, have gotten lots of use during the pandemic.
One thing she wishes everyone knew about Five Rivers: “Even though it’s called Five Rivers, the focus is on land.” She adds that she appreciates Five Rivers’ strategic vision in making the preservation of farmland in central New Hampshire a priority.
Mike and Ryan Hvizda have a deep love for the outdoors and for using the opportunities they find outdoors to recharge, ease stress and enjoy life. They especially love that they can step off their porch in downtown Concord for long hikes or bike rides on beautiful, nearby, protected land.
As owners of Hvizda Realty Group, Mike and Ryan do more than sell property. They have built a reputation for honesty and integrity in bringing landowners and land seekers together in a way that balances the need for development and the need to sustain agricultural land and conserve property for future generations.
As a member of the Five Rivers Board of Trustees since 2019, Mike works to help Five Rivers conserve property so more people can appreciate and benefit from sustainable farms and nature’s beauty.
Please introduce yourselves and explain your business.
Ryan – We have a couple of businesses. One is a real estate business called Hvizda Realty Group and we serve buyers and sellers all over New Hampshire. We also co-own Bona Fide Green Goods on Main Street in Concord that helps people with a zero-waste or low-waste life.
Mike – I run a coaching business for business owners in real estate who are looking to either grow teams or develop their team and develop leadership skills around sustaining that growth. That’s what I do day in and day out, which our real estate career has paved that path for me to do.
How did you first become aware of Five Rivers?
Ryan – It started when we first got into real estate. We had farmed for five years and in our journey of looking for property to farm, we had an experience with our traditional residential real estate agent and they really didn’t understand what we were looking for. Then we made the purchase and we got really entrenched in the farming community and realized there were a bunch of other beginning farmers who made similar decisions as we did. So, once we made the step into real estate, I personally felt compelled to make positive change and saw that there was a gap in that industry especially in New Hampshire around people who want to help beginning farmers make better decisions. We started the Land and Farm Access Info session where we collaborated with Five Rivers, NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire), Farm Credit East, and Land For Good.
Mike – Basically, we took the people looking to access farmland and we took the people who had the farmland and brought all the resources together, put them in the same room, and we just started to do information sessions and see what kind of organic conversation developed from that. Five Rivers was one of the resources we brought in to help.
Ryan – So that’s how we got started with Five Rivers. Then, we moved to Concord and realized there are amazing trail systems everywhere, walkable from our house. We just started to see how Five Rivers was so relevant to balancing conservation and development and supporting farmers. They are just a great organization, then we stepped up.
Mike – When I heard about an opportunity to serve within the organization, I jumped at it because of the agricultural connections, the working farmland, the rivers and all the outdoor recreation that we just love. It’s just a privilege to be able to work with the organization and continue to conserve land.
How does your day job intersect with your affiliation with Five Rivers?
Ryan – It’s a symbiotic relationship. I am a huge advocate for New Hampshire affordable housing, but in areas where there already is density and allowing for more housing in those areas, versus a beautiful hundred-acre open farm field, which is super rare in NH. There has to be recognition of what’s the appropriate land to protect and where is it appropriate to put the housing we need, because we do need housing.
I am definitely pro-development, but in the right places, and that’s why I love Five Rivers because Five Rivers is there to make sure the high priority natural resources are preserved, then when we do develop, we are doing it in appropriate places.
Mike – Because of what our passions are, some of the developments that we are putting a lot of our energy to are around agriculture, around community, around shared resources, around natural landscapes and just pushing the possibilities, while not compromising when it comes to development.
For you, what’s the most important function Five Rivers serves?
Ryan – I am a person who thinks generationally, so whenever I’m in a new landscape I think about all of the human manipulations or extraction or involvement in the landscape way back to indigenous times. I have a mindset that whatever I do in this place, I want seven generations forward for people to look back and think there were a group of people who were still holding the land sacred and making sure it’s in the state of protection, or reverence, seven generations forward. Five Rivers is one of the organizations that is thinking generationally and saying this land is worth being here seven generations from now, versus a concrete parking lot.
Mike – Five Rivers plays a really important role in the community of letting people know there are options, but also being that resource, that conduit that can help pave the path because the bigger picture, everything Ryan just said, is absolutely why everyone does it. That’s the goal, but breaking it down into a manageable systematic approach, that’s a really important role Five Rivers plays to kind of lock arms with people and get into step with helping them. Whether it’s a working landscape like Bohanan Farm (in Hopkinton) or a Swope-type property (Marjorie Swope Park in Concord) with trails that are very well maintained, the process is very important to get down to that practical side.
What is your favorite Five Rivers property right now? Why?
Ryan – Winant Park and Marjorie Swope Park. This last year was very stressful for everyone. Every single day last spring, the only way I was able to tap into reducing my stress was by going on 11-mile walks from our home all the way to Marjorie Swope and back and be able to do that all on trails. I was doing something like 50-60 miles a week pretty much in March and April. It was the only way to stay sane. I am so grateful these woods exist and are protected because as I walk through them, I always think the housing market in Concord is so tight, those woods would be the first place to build a ton of neighborhoods. I think there are lot of people who have a refuge in those woods.
Mike – I would agree. I love to mountain bike, and I can mountain bike the same area right from the front door.
What question do you wish people would ask you about Five Rivers?
Ryan – How do I get involved?
Mike – How can I have the greatest impact on continuing and perpetuating what the organization is doing? Everyone can do something. Once someone asks that question it’s easier for someone like myself as a Board Trustee to respond or to reach out to someone else on the Board and make that connection and really help carve our path. Whether it’s a land steward who monitors one of the properties, a volunteer on a committee or someone who donates.
What’s your favorite way to spend a free day?
Ryan and Mike – OUTSIDE!
Ryan – Being out in nature. For me, it’s hiking.
Mike – It’s always outside. I am always seeking out ways to maximum my opportunity to mountain bike, to surf, to ski, to hike. It’s what grounds me and gives me the capacity to deal with all of the other stuff lifve throws at us.
As a business coach, I have 40-plus clients that I talk to every week and coach them into growing their businesses. I’m probably underestimating, but 50 percent of that time or more is really into slowing people down and getting them to do the things outside of work that give them the capacity to thrive in the professional setting.
What else do you think people would like to know about you or do you wish we’d asked?
Mike – What it really comes down to is standards. I think that’s the most important thing I’d want people to know. One of my favorite sayings is: ‘Decisions are easy when standards are clear.’ That’s what it all stems from. We can have the higher level of conversation and fantasy, but when you put standards in front of what you tolerate in life, that’s when you start to get what you want. And it’s hard.
Ryan – Those standards — one of these is making sure we are part of organizations that protect what we love.
February 7, 2021 – Over 35 households joined Five Rivers in a fascinating and enlightening talk by Sy Montgomery based on her best selling book How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals.
Naturalist, author, and New Hampshire resident Sy Montgomery has traveled the world and encountered some of the planet’s rarest and most beautiful animals. From tarantulas to tigers, Sy’s life continually intersects with and is informed by the creatures she meets.
Sy believes that “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Sy talked about learning how to step inside an animal’s perspective from her childhood dog, Molly, a Scottish Terrier. Her pig, Christopher Hogwood, grew from a small, sickly runt to a 750 lb. giant, taught Sy how to build a family. A white coated ermine who killed one of Sy’s beloved hens taught Sy about fierceness and forgiveness. And a magnificent Giant Pacific Octopus at the New England Aquarium named Octavia taught her about animal intelligence and love.
A young viewer, Teddy, was mesmerized by Sy’s entire presentation and thrilled when she spoke so directly to him and answered his question about tigers. Sy told Teddy that “Being still is like a super power when it comes to animals!”
Click the Play button below to watch the book trailer for Sy Montgomery’s children’s book Becoming a Good Creature.
Thanks to two of our favorite local bookstores – Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord and MainStreet BookEnds of Warner – participants were able to purchase a copy of Sy’s hardcover book How To Be A Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals. If you were unable to participate in Sunday’s talk but are interested in Sy’s book, please consider purchasing it from one of these bookstores.
November 19, 2020 – Five Rivers Conservation Trust has received an anchoring grant of $215,000 from LCHIP (Land and Community Heritage Investment Program) towards the permanent protection of the 118-acre Pletcher Farm (Vegetable Ranch) in Warner.
Competition for LCHIP funding this year was intense, but the Pletcher Farm has great agricultural, wildlife, water and forestland features that made it a very competitive project. “We are grateful for LCHIP’s investment in conserving the Pletcher Farm” said Beth McGuinn, Five Rivers Executive Director. “The LCHIP award is a critical component in conserving this important local food system for generations to come.”
Larry Pletcher, owner of the Vegetable Ranch is a wizard at coaxing nutritious, appealing, tasty organic food from the soils on the side of Mt. Kearsarge. He’s improved the soil over decades through organic practices of building organic matter and nutrients in the soil. His farm products feed people throughout the Merrimack River Valley, from the Concord Farmer’s Market to Concord Hospital, Warner Local Market, and Whole Foods in Bedford and Nashua.
Conserving the Pletcher Farm, through sale of a conservation easement, will allow Larry to make the Vegetable Ranch more accessible to the next generation of farmers. The conservation easement, a perpetual legal restriction on the use of the land, will prevent future development of the property and ensure the land is always available for high quality farming and forestry.
This easement also protects:
The upper reaches of Stephens and Willow Brooks, prioritized for conservation by the Warner Conservation Commission.
70 acres of the highest ranked wildlife habitat in the state/biological region.
Forestland adjacent to the Warner Town Forest, and part of a 10,000 acre complex of conserved land.
Three house lots on North Road, subdivided by a former owner and ready to sell unless conserved.
You Can Help Conserve the Pletcher Farm
Larry has offered to conserve his land with Five Rivers at a deeply discounted price. To purchase the conservation easement, survey the property, and take care of all the details, we must raise $354,000. The anchoring LCHIP grant and several smaller grants cover most of the costs. As of today, we need to raise an additional $25,000 in private donations to finish the project.
Every private donation will be matched dollar for dollar, by the Thomas W. Haas Fund of the NH Charitable Foundation, doubling each donation!
Click here to make a donation today. If you prefer to donate by check, please print this form. We are also happy to accept your PLEDGE to make a gift to the project before March 31, 2021; accept your gift of appreciated stock or accept a Qualified Charitable Distribution from your IRA – just call the office at 225-7225 for details.
November 2020 – Five Rivers Conservation Trust’s Board of Trustees has selected Liz Short of Concord, NH as our new Executive Director. Liz brings a wealth of experience to this position. She formerly held senior positions at Stonyfield Farm and the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund and has a background in natural resources and business management. She also served for over a year as a Five Rivers trustee before applying for the position.
Our hiring committee evaluated numerous candidates from across the country before determining that Liz would be the best choice to move the organization forward. Her intelligence, intuition, and warmth will be invaluable assets for us.
Liz recognizes the importance of – and potential for – Five Rivers at this unique moment. She says: “Especially during these times when people are craving the outdoors, community connections, and local food, Five Rivers has a great opportunity to expand its reach and impact. I’m excited to get working with our energetic board, staff and committed core of volunteers and supporters to accomplish great things together.”
Liz will formally begin her tenure as Executive Director on December 1 and looks forward to meeting our members soon. She will be reaching out directly over the next several months.
As pleased as we are to be bringing on Liz, we are also grateful for outgoing director Beth McGuinn and her six years of service to the organization. Beth says, “I am pleased to turn Five Rivers’ leadership over to Liz, who is already familiar with the organization, our communities and our work. Five Rivers is my local land trust and I wish Liz, the board and staff of Five Rivers great success in the future!”
October 14, 2020 – Last December, Tom Armstrong donated his cherished 24-acre Concord forest to Five Rivers! Tom and his wife Rachel purchased the “woodlot” on Stickney Hill Road in 1953. The official celebration, scheduled for last spring, had to be cancelled like much in our lives. But, Covid-19 has taught us how precious Nature is for our bodies and souls, now more than ever.
This small group of celebrants (briefly unmasked) gathered on October 14th to celebrate the conservation of the Armstrong Forest Preserve. Left to right are three Armstrong children: Ann Armstrong Cram; Virginia Armstrong; and Tom Armstrong. Son CD Armstrong was unable to attend. Also shown are Five Rivers’ Executive Director Beth McGuinn and Land Conservation Specialist Alison Sheiderer.
October 1, 2020 – Yoga outdoors, on a glorious harvest moon day, in the beautiful setting of the Five Rivers-conserved Dimond Hill is the perfect way to end the day.
On October 1st, 40 participants joined Five Rivers for our Moonrise yoga. The fall colors were spectacular, the sunset colored the sky, and the moon came up over a bank of clouds, surprising everyone.
Thanks to David Breen and Laurie Farmer of Sharing Yoga for donating their time to lead the classes and to Northeast Dental Dental and the Hvizda Group of Keller Williams for sponsoring our event! Photos by Grace Dunklee Cohen
August 24, 2020 – Five Rivers Conservation Trust announces that Beth McGuinn, who has served as the organization’s first full time Executive Director since 2014, will step down from her role later this year. A search for a new Executive Director is now underway.
During Beth’s tenure as Executive Director, Five Rivers has conserved over 1,500 acres of farms, forests, wetlands, and wildlife habitat, bringing the total area conserved by the organization to more than 5,400 acres. Recently conserved land includes the Janeway Conservation Area in Webster and Hopkinton, Armstrong Forest Preserve in Concord, Stone Farm in Dunbarton, the Houston Intervale in Contoocook, and Children’s Brook in Warner. The 31-year old organization also achieved national accreditation by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission since Beth’s arrival. In addition, Beth has helped double the organization’s number of financial supporters, hire its first full-time conservation staff person, and begin creating its first conservation plan.
Sylvia Bates, an early board member, says: “Five Rivers has a long history of conserving land in the greater capital region. Beth has brought the organization to a new level of professionalism by achieving Accreditation and growth in professional staff. Our local land trust is vital to the quality of life for all residents, and I look forward to the next stage of development for Five Rivers.”
Beth says: “Five Rivers is very important to me – it’s my local land trust. I want to ensure a smooth transition that will help the organization achieve the next level of success under new leadership.” She has decided to leave her position to gain a better work-life balance and explore new opportunities for her career. Beth plans to serve as Executive Director until the Board has found a new leader, likely by the end of 2020.
Maura Adams, chairman of the Board of Trustees, says: “We are deeply grateful for Beth’s service to Five Rivers over the past six years. Five Rivers is a strong, confident organization thanks in large part to her leadership.”
Liz Durfee Hengen, a Five Rivers supporter since 1989, notes that, “Five Rivers has evolved into one of the region’s most prized organizations. Its conserved lands not only save special places, but also bring people together through trails, crops and programs. As a member from the outset, I’m excited to see how, under new leadership, it continues to evolve and make valuable contributions to the community.”
The Board of Trustees is currently accepting applications for the Executive Director position and aims to have a new leader in place by the end of 2020. The job announcement is available here: Executive Director Job Announcement. Questions and comments about the search should be directed to FiveRiversBoard@gmail.com.
Five Rivers Conservation Trust is a nonprofit organization that works with communities and landowners to protect land that will ensure future generations can experience, utilize, and benefit from the farms, forests, wetlands, and fields that define today’s landscape. The organization serves seventeen communities across the greater Capital Region and has conserved 80 properties, totaling over 5,400 acres.
The past 4 months have given many of us a new perspective on life and our world, as we navigate the reality of a global pandemic. I have been able to take more walks in the woods and spend more time with my wife Ruth at home and in our garden. These are joyful and important activities and I realize I have not taken enough time for them over the past six years. To restore that balance between work and home, I now recognize that it is time for me to transition out of my role with Five Rivers.
Five Rivers is my local land trust, and I want to see the organization succeed wildly beyond my time as Executive Director. I have given the board a flexible time frame for my departure to enable a smooth transition to Five Rivers’ next leader, probably near the end of 2020. The Board of Directors will be releasing its announcement for the Executive Director position in mid-August and will keep the community well-informed about the process as it unfolds. If you have questions for the Board about the position or this transition, please direct them to FiveRiversBoard@gmail.com.
In reflecting on my time with Five Rivers, I’m proud of how far we have come and where we are going. As Executive Director, I have seen the organization through its first Land Trust Accreditation, and a strategic plan that led us to hire our first full time conservation professional. We’ve doubled our number of supporters and received the largest donations of funds and land over our 30-year history. Hundreds of community members have enthusiastically attended our seasonal events. All of these accomplishments have helped us increase Five Rivers’ conserved acreage by 40% over six years – we have now conserved over 5400 acres in 17 towns.
I have greatly enjoyed getting to know our supporters – the people who make Five Rivers’ work possible. My encounters with members, landowners and volunteers have made all my efforts with the organization worthwhile. Thank you for your strong support of me and of the organization over these years.
What will I do next, you ask? In the new year, I will take a break for personal and professional growth – attending a class or two, reading, exploring forests, fields and streams and spending time with Ruth. Those explorations will lead me to the next phase of my career.
Thank you for your commitment to conservation and to Five Rivers. I look forward to working for you and with you through the transition period. I will remain a supporter of Five Rivers Conservation Trust, and I am eager to see how the organization will grow under new leadership.
June 15, 2020 – Each year brings changes, and it is no different with the Board of Five Rivers. This year we welcome three new Board members – meet each of them below.
Cathy Menard – Treasurer (Concord)
Cathy Menard is a retired CPA whose career was in nonprofit financial management. She served as CFO of NH Community Development Finance Authority and as Controller of Riverbend Community Mental Health. As a volunteer, she is President of the Concord Food Co-op.
Cathy welcomes the opportunity to support land conservation by joining the Fiver Rivers board and applauds the organization’s raised profile and visible success in recent years.
Cathy’s family owns conserved land and she and her spouse enjoy hiking area trails.
Tracey Boisvert (Concord)
Tracey has spent her entire career working in the field of natural resource protection. First in a regulatory capacity with the Department of Environmental Services and then working in land protection and stewardship with the NH Conservation Land Stewardship Program. She is currently the Land Management Bureau Administrator at the Dept. of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Tracey and her family have enjoyed exploring the trails and natural environments in and around the greater Concord area for many years and she’s very excited to take a more active role in Five Rivers’ land protection efforts.
She lives in Concord where she and her husband raised their two, now adult, daughters. She has been a member of the Concord Conservation Commission for the past 17 years and enjoys spending time outdoors hiking, kayaking, and tending Christmas trees at her family’s woodlot in northern Vermont.
Beth Moore (Hopkinton)
Beth Moore is a retired school social worker. After completing her graduate work in New York City, Beth, her husband and three children, moved to New Hampshire after living in Grenada, West Indies, Michigan and Rhode Island consecutively. They raised their three children in Hopkinton since 1993 because of the easy access to the mountains, lakes and ocean, and the quality of life New Hampshire provides.
Since retirement one of her areas of interest has been land and water preservation. Beth is fortunate to live in a home in Hopkinton which is on the Contoocook River and surrounded by land that was placed in conservation with the help of Five Rivers.
Beth has previously served on the boards of Womankind and The Friends Program and is excited to join the Five Rivers Board. She is currently sailing a forty foot sailboat from Florida to Maine with her husband, twin sister and brother-in-law. With internet access permitting, she will attend meetings remotely until she returns to New Hampshire this fall.
Five Rivers had almost 50 attendees for our 2020 Annual Gathering. This year we held our annual event via Zoom, and we began the evening with a lively Zoom happy hour with many friends and members.
The program began with Beth McGuinn’s Executive Director report of Five Rivers’ conservation successes in 2020, culminating with Harold and Betsy Janeway’s extraordinary gift of their home and 477 acres of land in Webster and Hopkinton to Five Rivers.
Our featured speaker was poet, writer, and editor Hannah Fries. Hannah is the author of the poetry collection Little Terrarium as well as the book Forest Bathing Retreat. She grew up in Bow, went to Dartmouth College, and later got an MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson College.
Her presentation illustrated how to find inspiration and refuge through forest bathing – a relaxing technique for letting the forest wash away some of the hard edges of this unusual time.
June 30, 2020 – Harold and Betsy Janeway have given an extraordinary gift of their home and 477 acres of land in Webster and Hopkinton to Five Rivers Conservation Trust.
The Janeway Conservation Area has many attributes that make it a conservation priority. The Blackwater River, one of the “Five Rivers,” flows along ¾ of a mile of the Conservation Area’s southern boundary. Rich Cook, Five Rivers Project Manager for the project says, “For paddlers, this part of the river feels like wilderness.”
On the north side of the property lies 1¼ miles of frontage on Deer Meadow Brook and its associated wetlands, an important water filtration system that slows frequent heavy rains. Included in the Conservation Area are hayfields managed by Bohanan Farm, producing Contoocook Creamery milk products locally and pastureland used by the Drown Farm’s heifers each summer. Combined with hundreds of acres of forestland and frontage on Chase Pond, the Conservation Area is a haven for wildlife – songbirds and hawks, foxes and bears, salamanders, snakes and fish all use the habitat provided by these 477 acres.
Harold and Betsy have retained a “life estate” which allows them to reside on and manage the property for as long as they wish, after which full ownership of the land will pass to Five Rivers to be used for conservation purposes. The Janeways have provided the future opportunity for Five Rivers to sell the house, buildings and an existing house lot to generate a stewardship fund so that Five Rivers can care for the land and make it available in the future for education and public recreation, as appropriate.
“I met the Janeway family over 30 years ago, and have admired their generosity and community engagement all along. Five Rivers is honored to be entrusted with the stewardship of this land for the future,” said Beth McGuinn, Executive Director of Five Rivers Conservation Trust. “We wish the Janeways many more years to live on and enjoy their property, after which we will be proud to care for the land they have loved.”
The donation of the Janeway Conservation Area ushers in a new era for Five Rivers, conserving land by ownership in addition to its use of the conservation easement as a conservation tool. This is the third and by far, the largest property where Five Rivers will own and manage conserved land. The others are the Sweatt Preserve in Hopkinton and the Armstrong Forest Preserve in Concord. The Janeways’ remarkable gift is the largest property conserved by Five Rivers Conservation Trust.
You have a chance to triple your donation to Five Rivers if you contribute through NH Gives during the 24 hours beginning Tuesday, June 9 at 6pm!
NH Gives is a statewide effort to raise funds for all NH non-profit organizations, sponsored by the NH Center for Non-Profits. This year, the John F. Swope Fund and Thomas W. Haas Fund have offered $250,000 of matching funds on a first come, first served basis for donations made through NH Gives.
In addition, Grappone Automotive Group will match the first $1,000 of donations made to Five Rivers!
We don’t know how long these matching funds will last, so if you’d like to turn $50 into $150 or $500 into $1500, give early! Set your alarm for 5:55 PM on Tuesday June 9 and go to https://www.nhgives.org/organizations/five-rivers-conservation-trust to make your donation.
Especially in this unusual time, we have come to realize that local conservation land is important for our physical and mental well being and to provide locally produced food. Contributions made through NH Gives will help Five Rivers conserve local farms for fresh food, places for paddling, walking and finding refuge, clean air, fresh water, and homes for wildlife.
Thank you so much for considering a donation to Five Rivers Conservation Trust!
If you like to get out and walk, you’ve probably noticed that popular Concord-area trails, like those in Winant Park and Marjorie Swope Park, are busier than ever. Normally that’s a good thing, but not so much with our current need for social distancing.
In honor of Earth Day, here is Five Rivers’ guide to a few of the trails less traveled in the greater Concord area. These trails thread their ways through properties conserved by Five Rivers, but they’re much quieter than Winant and Swope. To take the pressure of those busier trails, try one of these trails next time you head out.
We’ll offer more trail suggestions in additional towns in another post.
Happy Earth Day from Five Rivers, and happy spring hiking!
This past December, Thomas M. Armstrong and his family donated the 24-acre Armstrong Forest Preserve to Five Rivers Conservation Trust. This preserve, located on Stickney Hill Road in Concord, is our newest conserved property and our second owned property. The family dedicated this forest in memory of Tom’s wife Rachel, and in honor of Tom’s forestry mentors and friends Henry and Birgit Baldwin and Frances and Larry Rathbun.
“We are delighted Five Rivers will own this long-held property of 66 years for public benefit, young and old, a forever forest,” Tom Armstrong writes. “We wish to encourage active public observation, learning, and enjoyment. To be used by neighbors and a much wider circle for the study and wonder of nature—forests in particular—outdoor recreation, and the recharging of our minds, bodies, and spirits.”
Born in Pennsylvania in 1927, Tom studied forestry and agriculture at UNH after receiving a BA at Yale. One of his first jobs was at the Fox Research and Demonstration Forest in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, where he became part of the state’s small and tight-knit forestry and conservation community.
In 1951 Tom married Rachel Franck, living first in Durham and then in Concord. It was after working at Fox State Forest that the couple purchased the “woodlot,” as he called it then, on Stickney Hill Road in 1953. Tom has strong memories of walking through and around this forest, thinning hardwoods, pruning and releasing young pines, and blazing boundaries. With his trusty three-foot blue bucksaw from Fox Forest days, he harvested a total total of 22 cords of wood in 1954 and 1955.
Sarah Thorne, a Five Rivers board member who knows the Armstrongs from their conservation work together, relates a story that Tom told her. When Rachel was in Concord Hospital after delivering their daughter Anne, Tom went to the woodlot for a walk. He picked some mayflowers and brought the bouquet as a gift to his wife and new daughter in the hospital. “Imagine, he remembered that story 60-some years later,” Sarah Thorne notes.
As Tom and Rachel’s family grew, Tom began looking for new opportunities. The family soon found their way to coastal Maine, where Tom’s career was focused on operating the J.D. Deering Lumber Co. in Biddeford, Maine.
An ardent conservationist like her husband, Rachel Armstrong served on the boards of Maine Coast Heritage Trust and Squam Lakes Conservation Society in New Hampshire. Rachel was also the first female board member of the Maine National Bank and served as a leader in many Maine nonprofits.
The four Armstrong children, too, have all volunteered and served on boards for environmental organizations, including Hollis (NH) Land Trust, Maine Nature Conservancy, and Maine Coast Heritage Trust.
Through the years Tom and Rachel continued to watch their 24-acre woodlot in Concord grow and grow, making minimal log harvests to salvage dead and dying trees. The last harvest on the land was in 1980.
Five Rivers is honored to receive this gift of land from the Armstrong family, says Beth McGuinn, Five Rivers’ executive director. “We will care for this land as a natural area, so others can develop a closer relationship to the natural world.”
Many thanks to Anne Armstrong Cram, Sarah Thorne, and Sarah McCraw Crow for their generous contributions to this article.
A Five Rivers member with her two children enjoying a walk on Five Rivers’ Sweatt Preserve in Hopkinton.
Dear Five Rivers Land Trust Members and Supporters:
For years you have committed to conserving the land and water of the greater Capital region. Many of you have stood by Five Rivers on our 30+ year journey. Today, our commitment to you is that we will continue our conservation efforts to the best of our abilities while keeping our staff and families safe amidst this global crisis. Please read below for an important status update on our work and events.
Five Rivers Update during Social Distancing
Conserved properties open: Five Rivers properties with public access and a trail network are open as usual and free every day. See the map of locations. We hope you can find solace on the trails, and ask that you please follow CDC guidelines to keep yourself safe.
Five Rivers office closed: Staff are working remotely from home. Please email info@5rct.org to connect with any of us. If you prefer phone contact, you can still reach us by our office phone (225-7225) and leave a message, which will be sent to us via email.
Events: Based on advice that is coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the New Hampshire governor’s office, and our colleagues at other land trusts across the country, we are cancelling our in-person exploration of the newly conserved Armstrong Forest Preserve in Concord on April 19th. We are exploring the opportunity to introduce you to this new property via the internet, so please stay tuned. We continue to watch the recommendations and will make a determination in May about our Annual Gathering, scheduled for June.
Be well: Please take care of yourselves and your families so that we may continue to work together.
Keep in touch: Keep in touch on social media – we would love to see your photos of our conserved properties!
Support conservation: We hope you will continue to support Five Rivers during these uncertain times. There is still so much work we must do together. Click here to make an online donation now.
Our Sincere Thanks,
Beth McGuinn, Executive Director, and the Staff and Board of Five Rivers Conservation Trust
Steve and Patrice Rasche have been Five Rivers members for many years. Over that time, they have supported Five Rivers as members, annual appeal donors, Conservation Leaders, supporters of our Land Conservation Specialist positon, and recently by making a generous gift to help our local land conservation efforts.
The Rasche’s are all around conservationists! They ride their bikes into Concord regularly to conserve fossil fuels, drive hybrid cars, and live in an energy efficient underground home. You can find them hiking with their dogs on trails throughout New Hampshire.
Pictured are Steve and Patrice with their Samoyeds Aoife (with Patrice) and Trotsky (with Steve).
Name: Stephen and Patrice Rasche
Town of residence: Canterbury, NH
Lived in NH since: 1986
How did you first become aware of Five Rivers? There was a walking tour of some wetlands that were protected by Five Rivers near the center of town and we took part in that and went to the little celebration after the walk.
For you, what’s the most important function Five Rivers serves? Keeping undeveloped land undeveloped. I recently read that natural land the size of a football field is lost to development every 20 seconds in the United States.
Does or how does your day job intersect with your membership? I was going to say that we are retired so we have no day jobs. But then I thought of the Thoreau quote which kind of sums up our current day jobs which of course perfectly intersects with Five Rivers: “For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snow-storms and rain-storms, and did my duty faithfully; surveyor, if not of highways, then of forest paths…”
What is your favorite Five Rivers property right now, and briefly, why? The land around Carter Hill Orchards, simply because it is the only one that we spend much time walking on.
What question do you wish people would ask you about Five Rivers? Who is the Executive Director? Why of course it is Beth McGuinn who lives a mile of so from us and is doing such a wonderful job.
What’s your favorite way to spend a free day? Being out in the woods with the dogs. When I was growing up my father would take me and my siblings hiking but it never meant much to me. It was only when I got a dog when I was in high school that I began to really love being out in nature because I loved how much she loved being out in the woods. I think if dogs can teach us anything, it is how to be happy. Before I got a dog I didn’t even know how much I needed a dog and I didn’t even know how much I loved the natural world.
What’s something you’d love to do outside in NH this year? Hiking, cross country skiing, bicycling, chopping firewood.
What else do you think people would like to know about you or do you wish we’d asked? Years ago I read that money and happiness only intersect in a few ways. First, of course, is to avoid living in abject poverty. But beyond that money can really only bring you happiness in two ways. First by doing things with people you love and second by giving your money away. We’ve tried both routes and they seem to work.
Today is Five Rivers’ second of four Trivia Tuesday quiz. This week’s quiz is about New Hampshire flora. How well do you know the native wildflowers, shrubs, and trees in our area?
Each Tuesday for the next four weeks, we are offering a Five Rivers trivia quiz. This week’s quiz is about our five rivers. How well do you know our five rivers and their ecology?
The 139 acres on Loverin Hill Road in Salisbury has a long, rich farming history and a bright future, thanks to Joe Schmidl and Cindy Owen. From the 1760s into the early 1900s, this land was home to Fairview Farm. However, over the following fifty years, most of the fields returned to forest. In 2010, the land went up for sale and a developer came forward with a proposal to build thirty houses. When Joe and Cindy heard about the potential development, they decided they couldn’t let that happen and brought together the resources to buy the property.
Read more about Joe and Cindy below – their answers provide valuable insights into why conservation-minded property owners like them want to protect their land and what the conservation process involves.
Name: Cindy Owen and Joe Schmidl
Town of residence: Salisbury, NH
Please introduce yourselves and tell us where your land is located. Cindy is a certified professional midwife who works at the Concord Birth Center; Joe is a Professional Geologist and Certified Wetland Scientist who works for the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. Our land is located south of the end of Loverin Hill Road in Salisbury. We have a 144-acre parcel and have placed about 140 acres in a conservation easement with 5RCT. When we purchased it, the property included an old sugar shack, an 8-acre corn field, and the remainder had been heavily logged between 2007 and 2008. Since we purchased it at a foreclosure auction in 2010, we have built a home in a portion of the field and built a timber-framed barn on the property.
What makes this land special to you and why did you decide to conserve it? The property was proposed as a 33-lot subdivision in 2009. It is a poor location for such a subdivision, particularly because it is located off a dead-end road adjacent to the most-densely populated part of Salisbury, Hensmith Road. We felt it was important to maintain the 8-acre field as open space, partly for agricultural purposes and partly for wildlife habitat. We also wanted to encourage the reforestation of the recently logged portion of the property.
Why did you choose to work with Five Rivers? We met 5RCT at a event at the Concord Food Cooperative. They demonstrated that they shared our interest in conserving open space, and had a lot of experience working with folks like us. We’re glad we did; they recognize and appreciate our perspective in wanting to conserve the land and yet retain control over most everything that happens on the land. They were upfront about the few limitations that apply to the conserved area.
Please briefly describe the process of conserving your land with Five Rivers. Was the process easy or more difficult than you expected? The process was simpler than I expected. 5RCT volunteers worked with us to lay out the steps: having the property appraised, surveyed, and writing the conservation easement. 5RCT found grant money that paid for the survey, and filing fees at the Registry of Deeds. All we had to do was pay the $5,000 monitoring/stewardship fee (to which the grant could not be applied). In return, we received a $150,000 Federal Income Tax Deduction accounting for the difference in value of our property with and without the conservation easement. The tax deduction covered our income taxes for three years.
How often does Five Rivers come to your property and what do they do when they visit? We are visited once a year, and our monitor checks with us regarding changes (actual and proposed) and walks some portion of the property to verify current conditions. He’s a great guy, and shares 5RCT’s interest in conserving our land.
Has anything changed for you due to the conservation of your land? One thing we were concerned with was that our children might not share our interest in conserving our property when it passes to them, and might want to develop it. The conservation easement is permanent, guaranteeing that our gift to our community will be permanent. It is gratifying that many of our neighbors have taken the time to thank us for helping preserve the rural nature of Salisbury by conserving our land in perpetuity. We’ve been able to build a new, net-neutral home and outbuildings within the excepted area, and continue to develop maple sugar, native berries, lumber resources, and have converted the corn field into hayfield and pasture for a flock of sheep, making our dream of “homesteading” a reality. Joe joined 5RCT’s team of conservation monitors, and monitors a conservation easement in Boscawen annually. It’s been a great opportunity to get to know a group of conservation-minded people who share our values.
Is there anything you wish to convey to someone who is considering conserving their land? 5RCT has been a great partner in making Salisbury a bit better place to live. It is hard to express the satisfaction we share in having been able to make such a contribution to the quality of life of our town, despite our modest means. 5RCT has helped us act as philanthropists in a way we never dreamed we could.
On Sunday, February 9th, Five Rivers hosted Taps, Tunes, and Trivia. It was a full house with over 100 people joining us at Henniker Brewing Company! Local band, HydroGeoTrio, entertained while guests socialized and sampled the local craft beer.
We wrapped up the night with some nature-based trivia and a raffle drawing. Local naturalists tried to stump the crowd with some challenging trivia questions. However, the crowd’s knowledge was impressive, and five trivia teams walked away with prizes.
We also awarded raffle prizes to five lucky winners. It was a great way to stay warm on a snowy winter night while supporting local conservation.
Thanks to these local businesses who sponsored the event’s raffle prizes:
Colby Hill Inn in Henniker – donated a 5-course tasting dinner for two, with each course paired to an exceptional wine ($200-250 value).
December 23, 2019 – This week, Thomas M. Armstrong and his family donated the 24-acre Armstrong Forest Preserve to Five Rivers Conservation Trust. Mr. Armstrong entrusted the forestland to Five Rivers with these words, “encourage active public observation, learning and enjoyment…for the study and wonder of nature, forests in particular, outdoor recreation, and the recharging of our minds, bodies and spirits.”
Located on Stickney Hill Road, the Preserve enhances, connects, and is in close proximity to St Paul’s School land and conserved land. Land to the east, is owned by St. Paul’s School. City of Concord land and the West End Farm Trail extend to the north. Three expansive fields and farms conserved by Five Rivers Conservation Trust lie to the west. If you want to visit the Preserve, it is directly across Stickney Hill Road from the botttom of the Exit 3 ramp from I-89 North.
Towering white pines and oaks cloak the new Preserve. Perimeter trails beckon walkers, runners and cross-country skiers to explore this lesser known, less crowded part of Concord.
The Armstrong Forest Preserve is a gateway to an inviting trail network of scenic discontinued town roads along the southern boundary of the property. The trail begins on Millstone Drive, passes the historic Stickney Cemetery and connects to NH Snowmobile Corridor 11.
If you want to explore the untrailed interior, you may find the vernal pool in spring and a small forested wetland. The forest has not been harvested in over 40 years and is maturing into venerable pines, oaks, and hemlocks. In winter, explore on snowshoes to learn which critters leave tracks in the snow. At other times of the year, step gently and you will discover hidden wildflowers, mosses and ferns.
Tom Armstrong, now of Scarborough, Maine, purchased this forestland in 1953, after he worked at Fox State Forest in Hillsborough. He donated the Preserve to Five Rivers in memory of his wife, Rachel Franck Armstrong, and in honor of his forestry mentors and friends Henry Ives and Birgit Baldwin, and Frances and Larry Rathbun.
Beth McGuinn, Five Rivers Executive Director, expressed the organization’s gratitude. “We are honored to receive this gift of land from Tom Armstrong and his family. We will care for the land as a natural area, so others can develop a closer relationship to the natural world.”
The past year was another exciting one for Five Rivers Conservation Trust. Conservation successes in 2019 include the addition of four major properties, totaling 254 acres. Our 2019 news includes the addition of Alison Scheiderer, our first first conservation staff member. And in 2019, more than 350 participants enjoyed themselves at Five Rivers events and outreach programs.
Warner Fishing Derby at Children’s Brook in Warner
Conservation Successes
Wilson-Sapiro property in Gilmanton – This 164-acre property contains forest, stream, and wetland habitats and the remains of a once-thriving 19th century mill complex. Landowners Graham Wilson and Virginia Sapiro generously donated the conservation easement to permanently protect their land from development, subdivision, and mismanagement, no matter who owns it in the future.
Children’s Brook in Warner – Five Rivers collaborated with landowners Scott and Joan Warren and the Warner Conservation Commission to conserve nearly one half mile along Willow Brook, also known as Children’s Brook. Children’s Brook has been home to Warner’s Children’s Fishing Derby for over 60 years. With the area conserved, future generations of parents and children will have access to this special place!
Houston Intervale Field in Contoocook – Five Rivers and the Hopkinton Conservation Commission collaborated to conserve Houston Intervale field, a 55-acre farm field in the center of Contoocook with one mile of frontage on the Contoocook and Warner Rivers. The land is farmed by the nearby Pine Lane Farm, a dairy farm operated by the Houston family.
Backwoods 2 in Concord– Five Rivers and the City of Concord collaborated to conserve Backwoods 2. Adding this property creates nearly 200 acres of contiguous conserved land behind Concord Hospital and the Unitarian Universalist Church. Backwoods 2 connects Winant Park to Walker State Forest. Concord’s Conservation Commission is working with the NH Division of Forests and Lands to delineate the main trails from Winant Park through the newly conserved land to Walker State Forest.
News and Events
Homeowners Gina Sapiro and Graham Wilson with participants at their August event
January 2019 – Alison Scheiderer joined Five Rivers as its first conservation staff member. Alison has already written successful grants to fund land conservation projects, worked with five different landowners on the process of conserving their properties, visited 25 conserved properties and reviewed 80 monitoring reports. She is also working on our Conservation Plan and improving our property stewardship program. Alison’s work has helped bring our list of active projects to 1000 acres!
February 2019 – Five Rivers’ community of conservation-minded supporters and friends turned out in force for Five Fivers’ second Film Festival held at Red River Theatres in Concord! Films about fishing and farming, water and trails, conservation and biking, nature and forests were shown, and raffles prizes were awarded.
April 2019 – Our Flannel, Fleece, and French Toast Fundraiser was a success! Over 60 people joined us for a hearty, catered breakfast. Our hosts at the Showshoe Club were welcoming and the amount of flannel in the room was astounding. This event raised over $4,500 to support the creation of Five Rivers’ first Conservation Plan.
June 2019 – On a beautiful June evening, more than 90 friends and supporters joined Five Rivers for our Annual Gathering, this year at the McLane Center in Concord. Executive Director, Beth McGuinn shared an exciting year of conservation successes and staff expansion with the crowd. Anthea Lavallee, Executive Director of the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, was our featured speaker. She shared key Hubbard Brook discoveries including acid rain, the impacts of forest management on water quality and quantity, and climate change consequences.
August 2019 – On Sunday afternoon, August 18th, Five Rivers hosted an event in Gilmanton on one of our newest properties – Wilson-Sapiro. More than 60 people joined us on this fascinating walk that explored the vast historical and natural treasures of the Jones mill area of Gilmanton.
October 2019 – Five Rivers moved its offices to The Concord Center at 10 Ferry Street, Suite 311-A in Concord. For nearly three years, Resilient Building Group had hosted Five Rivers’ office on Dixon Avenue, but RBG’s business has grown tremendously and they needed the space we had occupied.
November 2019 – On a glorious cool fall day in November, over 80 people joined Five Rivers at Bohanan Farm for a hike to the confluence of the of the Blackwater and Contoocook Rivers. Ted Deirs, Watershed Management expert at the NH Department of Environmental Services, naturalists Ruth Smith and Linden Rayton, and Bohanan farmer Jamie Robertson provided educational stops along the trail.
Year end, 2019 – Thomas M. Armstrong and his family donated the 24-acre Armstrong Forest Preserve to Five Rivers Conservation Trust. Located on Stickney Hill Road, the Preserve enhances, connects, and is in close proximity to St Paul’s School land and conserved land. Land to the east, is owned by St. Paul’s School. City of Concord land and the West End Farm Trail extend to the north. Three expansive fields and farms conserved by Five Rivers Conservation Trust lie to the west. Five Rivers is honored to receive this gift of land from Tom Armstrong and his family. We will care for the land as a natural area, so others can develop a closer relationship to the natural world.
We thank you for your support, participation, and your committed dedication to preserving vital farms, forests, wildlife habitats, and water resources in the greater Capital region.
Left to right: Rep. Mary Beth Walz; Gov. Chris Sununu; Amanda Merrill, LCHIP Board Chair; Dijit Taylor, LCHIP Exec. Dir.; Alison Scheiderer, 5R Land Conservation Specialist; Ken Koerber; Beth McGuinn; 5R Exec. Dir; Sue Koerber (photo: Perry Smith)
On December 4, 2019, Five Rivers Conservation Trust received an anchoring grant of $100,000 from LCHIP to permanently protect the 133-acre Koerber Family Forest in the center of Dunbarton. This significant grant, along with generous donations from the landowner, the Dunbarton Conservation Commission, funding from several other sources, and several significant donations means that we have met our fundraising goal for this project.
The forest is adjacent to the Dunbarton Elementary School, and its conservation will ensure that students and teachers can continue to use the property as an outdoor classroom to foster conservation ethics and outdoor literacy among the student body.
Ensuring public access will allow the Town of Dunbarton to build on the trails that already exist on the property, creating the opportunity to connect to nearby conserved land and develop a future hub for pedestrian recreation and outdoor engagement. Conserved land nearby includes Five Rivers’ protected Stone Farm.
The Koerber family is thrilled that the woods they have stewarded for over 40 years will remain available to students and families for generations to come.
Additional Information About the Koerber Family Forest
What resources will be conserved?
133 acre forested property in the center of Dunbarton
Includes three headwater streams
Four acre forested wetland
Recreational trails connecting the property to the Dunbarton Elementary School
Productive forestland and the soils that produce quality forest products
Habitat for a state endangered species and other wildlife
Stone walls and a historic barn site
What are the benefits to the community?
The opportunity to create a trail network that connects to nearby conserved properties, including Five Rivers’-protected Stone Farm
Natural area accessible to elementary school for use as an outdoor classroom with cross country ski opportunities
Clean water – from the headwaters streams that feed the Kimball Pond conservation complex
Enlarges a block of conserved land to 750 acres
Who are the funders of the property so far?
Landowner donation (50% of conservation easement value)
LCHIP $100,000
Town of Dunbarton Conservation Fund
State Conservation Committee Moose Plate grant
Merrimack Conservation Partnership
Local Land Conservation Fund of the NH Charitable Foundation
Private Donations
Funding still needed: $18,000. One grant pending, additional private funds still needed.
NH State Conservation Committee Moose Plate
Koerber Family Forest photos to the right are by Barb Beers, LCHIP
On a glorious cool fall day earlier this month, over 80 people joined Five Rivers at Bohanan Farm for a hike to the confluence of the of the Blackwater and Contoocook Rivers. Ted Deirs, Watershed Management expert at the NH Department of Environmental Services, joined us to discuss why the places where rivers come together are so rich in soil, plants and animals.
Naturalists Ruth Smith and Linden Rayton explored a vernal pool with participants. And Jamie Robertson of Contoocook Creamery (Bohanan Farm) talked about the cover crops that protect his fields through the winter. Contoocook Creamery milk and cheese, Carter Hill Orchards cider, apples an donuts capped off the day. Thanks to our sponsors, the Hvizda Team of Keller Williams Realty and Stockwell Physical Therapy for making this hike possible!
About Bohanan Farm:
Five Rivers’ largest conserved property
400+ acre dairy farm and forest
Producer of Contoocook Creamery milk and cheese
Active forest management program
Located at the confluence of three of our Five Rivers: Contoocook River; Blackwater River; Warner River
Our new Member Spotlight is on Tim Pifer, a long-time Five Rivers member and volunteer. Tim recently retired after a distinguished 30-year career in New Hampshire’s Police Forensic Laboratory, the facility that analyzes crime scene evidence from across the state. He had been the lab’s director for 23 years.
Tim is a charter member of our Conservation Leader Society, a group that provides essential ongoing support to sustain Five Rivers as a successful organization. Tim also volunteers his time as an easement monitor for Five Rivers. Easement monitors annually walk their assigned property to determine whether it is in compliance with easement terms, maintain a working relationship with the landowner, and create a record of easement stewardship and property condition over time. They are the eyes and ears for our conserved lands! (If you are interested in being an easement monitor, please contact Alison Scheiderer, our Land Conservation Specialist.)
Name: Tim Pifer
Town of residence: Concord
Lived in New Hampshire since: 1985
How did you first become aware of Five Rivers? I first became aware of Concord Conservation Trust when my wife Julie and I bought land in Concord in the early 1990’s and donated to their mission. I have been a strong supporter of Five Rivers Conversation Trust throughout the ensuing years.
For you, what’s the most important function Five Rivers serves? For me, the most important function of 5RCT is the preservation and conservation of our open spaces and ensuring these spaces remain open in perpetuity.
Does or how does your day job intersect with your Five Rivers membership? During the past 30 years, my day job (which also turned into a night job at times) involved dealing with the most heinous crimes in New Hampshire. I needed to find an outlet to de-stress and decompress. That outlet became trail running and hiking in the trails around Concord. Most of these spaces are conserved directly or have the easements held by Five Rivers. I became involved with the trails committee in Concord and a strong supporter of Five Rivers as a way to give back for the “therapy” they provided me over the years. As I am newly retired, my use of these local open spaces will become even more frequent, but without the need for stress relief!
What is your favorite Five Rivers property right now, and briefly, why? I am partial to Carter Hill Orchard as I used to live nearby. Not only is it a working farm, but also has amazing woods and a beautiful pond. Additionally, this property is a great reminder of how crucial protecting land from potential development is as this could have become a significant housing project in 2000.
What question do you wish people would ask you about Five Rivers?
Q: Why is the name of the conservation organization called Five Rivers – don’t you protect more than those waterways? Absolutely, not only are the waterways conserved and protected, but the surrounding lands that adjoin and lead to them are as well.
What’s your favorite way to spend a free day? On my free days (which have become more numerous), I enjoy hiking or trail running, both locally and in the White Mountains.
What’s something you love to do outside in New Hampshire this year? I enjoy creating and maintaining Concord’s extensive hiking trails, which now total over 80 miles. Working in the woods is great mental therapy and super relaxing.
What else do you think people would like to know about you or do you wish we’d asked? I recently retired after a 30-year career with the state of New Hampshire. My transition plan from working to retired status involved hiking Vermont’s 275+ mile Long Trail. Not only did this 19-day adventure give me a restorative reset and transformative insights into what’s next in my life, it further proved how valuable and critical preserving open spaces are for future generations to enjoy!
On September 22, 2019, The Concord Monitor published “My Turn: The Oppressive Heat of a Watershed Moment” by Five Rivers’ Trustee Bonnie Christie. The article is about the moment Bonnie made the connection between the impact of climate change on her life and the promise that the land around us holds for creating a solution. As you read it, think whether you have had a “watershed moment.” What experiences brought you to supporting land conservation? We’d love to hear your story! Drop us an email at info@5rct.org.
My Turn: The Oppressive Heat of a Watershed Moment
The spider has moved. The tiny, crab-shaped creature who has been making its home in my sunroom isn’t haunting its usual territory. It has been inhabiting the angles of the vaulted ceiling where, I suppose, it finds insect-trapping most rewarding. But there it is, hugging the flat surface above the whirling blades of the ceiling fan. This strikes me not only as an unlikely insect habitat, but equally inhospitable to web-spinning.
But then, another thought: Perhaps, in a Sophie’s Choice between sustenance and survival, the cooling air won out.
On this particular day, at 97 degrees with near 100% humidity, I too have sought out the coolest locations. I have stayed indoors, kept the shades drawn, eaten only cold foods, avoided electricity use – except for the ceiling fan – to keep the temperature as low as possible.
For the past week the heat has barely dissipated at night and creeps back shortly after sunrise. If I had risen earlier, I might have taken my little dog Brownie for a walk through the village, but by the time I consumed my coffee we had missed the window of opportunity.
At midday I resist the urge to rush out like a firefighter and give my garden a soak. All good gardeners know to avoid watering in the heat of the day so less water will be lost to evaporation and more delivered directly to the plants. But by early afternoon I give in. I emerge from my house on a rescue mission.
Now I wish I had followed my instincts. If the lilies and sunflowers had tongues, they would be dragging in the dirt. My rainbow chard has yellowed, basil leaves droop, zinnias lean like botanical towers of Pisa. Entire tomato plants bend over their cages like Gumbies. I feel like an emergency responder who arrives late at the scene and frantically searches for a pulse amid multiple crash victims.
This mission has become resuscitation.
Grass
I drag the hose from its neat coil by the spigot and trudge across sere grass littered with brittle pine needles. The lawn crunches underfoot, oddly reminiscent of the sound of boots on snow when the temperature dips below 14 degrees. In my anthropomorphic way, I hear this as a courtesy call from Earth: Crunch – Earth to amygdala. Crunch – Earth to amygdala! It’s an audible warning to the part of the brain that initiates fight or flight when survival is at stake, telling me that if I stay out here long enough the safety zone for optimal human brain function will be breached. Ninety-eight and six-tenths is considered normal body temperature; if it falls below 94, hypothermia begins to cause stupefaction, while above 104 hyperthermia triggers delirium, then heat stroke.
When things get crunchy, it’s time to think about temperature regulation.
Does a blade of grass have an amygdala? The surface temperature where I am standing measures 123. Thirty feet away under a clump of hemlocks, it registers 78 – an amazing 45-degree difference. Amygdala or not, grass surely doesn’t have feet, so proximity to shade is of no consequence when the sun beats down. To make things worse, even though the irrigation system is fully functional, water percolates immediately and deeply into these sandy soils, beyond the reach of the thirsty 1-inch roots of turf grass.
My neighbor says the brown patches aren’t dead, only gone dormant. Either way, it doesn’t appear that this poor grass can be revived anytime soon so I turn my focus to what holds the best chance for survival. I set the sprinkler in the center of the garden and turn it on.
Dissection
As the tiny droplets arc out, I sense an internal shift. It’s more than the perspiration breaking out on my brow, more than a sudden craving for iced tea, more than an urge to throw myself under the nearest shade tree. It’s an awareness of something lethal, triggering what I can only describe as an aortic dissection of the psyche.
I am reminded of a reflection about change by the writer Terry Tempest Williams: “It’s strange to feel change coming. It’s easy to ignore. An underlying restlessness seems to accompany it like birds flocking before a storm. We go about our business with the usual alacrity, while in the pit of our stomach there is something tenuous. These moments of peripheral perceptions are short, sharp flashes of insight we tend to discount like seeing the movement of an animal from the corner of our eye. We turn and there is nothing there. They are the strong and subtle impressions we allow to slip away.”
Today’s impressions are neither peripheral nor subtle: They are dead center and searing. For the first time, my intellectual concerns about a warming planet become more than global models of arctic ice-melt, news stories about Western communities incinerated by wildfires, or video of millions of tons of topsoil washing away in freak Midwest flooding. It’s impossible to discount what is tangible right here, right now, to all five senses. I can see, hear, smell and touch this change, and if I could taste it I’m pretty sure it would have the flavor of dirt and dead vegetation.
Earth to amygdala: This is not California, Arizona, Florida or any other notoriously hot part of the country. This is New Hampshire, and Dante’s Inferno has arrived. It is licking my feet, infiltrating my house, desiccating my garden and driving living creatures into places only the desperate dare go. Wait – isn’t this supposed to be slated for the next decade, the next generation, the next century? Yet here, today, the lifeblood of the Earth is evaporating before my eyes.
I stare at the rotating spray. What was I thinking? I came out here to save my garden but my efforts seem as shallow as the roots of this grass that was never meant to grow here.
This is not enough. A million sprinklers wouldn’t be enough.
Staring at it only paralyzes me. I need to change focus. We need a cooler planet.
“I will lift up mine eyes . . . from whence cometh my help?” Can any ancient wisdom be called up to keep me grounded?
And then, there it is. How have I missed this connection? I leave the sprinkler on full throttle and walk directly toward the forest.
Forest
Sixty feet away, beyond the clump of hemlocks that offers the amazing temperature differential, white pines, American beeches, red oaks, paper birches, popples and scattered maples rise in a dense tangle. This is where birds chorus in the morning before the neighborhood stirs, deer follow familiar paths, fisher cats, raccoons and skunks travel silently in the night, leaving telltale tracks. Where I gather moss and partridgeberry and tiny ferns for the terrarium I assemble every fall to keep me company through the long winter.
Here, also, is where a heavily shaded brook flowing from an upstream beaver pond carves a ravine, tumbles over mossy boulders, winds downward until it pools in wetlands. From there it passes under Main Street, is captured by a second beaver pond, seeps under the ancient stones of a now-abandoned railroad bed, through an archway formed by a fallen oak, where it empties into the Contoocook River.
River
Downstream along the river’s edge, children shimmy up overhanging trees to catch ropes, swing out and plunge into its cooling water. Kayakers put in at the boat launch to follow the current past farms on fertile floodplains, paddle under more stone bridges and portage around old dams from bygone mills.
The Contoocook flows north for 71 miles from its source to its confluence with the mighty Merrimack, which then flows south, crossing into Massachusetts, where it ends its journey in a vast salt marsh near Plum Island on the shores of the Atlantic. This little brook that feeds the Contoocook, that feeds the Merrimack, that feeds the ocean has no name. It is considered too insignificant to have a title on the map. But for me its significance is huge.
Today I need to see it.
Ravine
Ten feet into the forest it is lush with ferns, mosses, huge pines, downed trunks of fallen giants, and branches dropped in heavy winds and snowfalls, or simply from old age. A thick detritus of leaves, twigs, pine needles, blankets rich soil that has formed over the sandy base from centuries of forest cover doing what it does: perpetuate itself in the complex mosaic of a native New Hampshire ecosystem.
Here, the ambient temperature is 8 degrees cooler than the hemlock oasis on the lawn, which was 45 degrees cooler than the lawn itself. I bushwhack down the slope, scrambling over rotting logs, post-holing in hidden cavities, balancing on rock edges, sidestepping piles of deer droppings.
I can hear the brook. As I get closer, I see the play of dappled light filtering through the overstory, illuminating the running water. Brownie, ever the water dog, heads toward it like a homing pigeon, wades in and stands in ecstasy, letting the coolness bathe his legs and belly, as if he is soaking it into his body. I, too, step in. I sit on a flat rock and let it flow around my feet and legs. Let everything flow – water, worries, despair.
Here in the ravine the temperature at ground level registers yet another 2 degrees lower – 68, which is an astonishing 55 degrees cooler than the surface temperature back on the lawn.
No crunching in here. Just the soothing babble of the water.
From October 8 – 10, Five Rivers will be moving its offices to The Concord Center at 10 Ferry Street, Suite 311-A in Concord. During that time of transition, please be patient with our electronic and phone connections! By October 11, we will be operating out of our new space.
For nearly three years, Resilient Building Group has hosted Five Rivers’ office on Dixon Avenue. RBG’s business has grown tremendously and they need the space we have occupied.
Email, website and phone number will all remain the same, so please stay in touch! For those who have been in the area awhile, this is the old Rumford Press building, near where 393 comes into North Main Street. Come visit us after October 10th.
Five Rivers and the City of Concord have collaborated once again to conserve an important property – within 1.5 miles of downtown.
“Backwoods 2” is a 26-acre addition to the original Backwoods property of 28 acres. This latest addition was purchased by the city who donated a conservation easement on the property to Five Rivers Conservation Trust.
This property is the missing piece, connecting Five Rivers-conserved Winant Park to Walker State Forest, creating nearly 200 acres of contiguous conserved land behind Concord Hospital and the Unitarian Universalist Church. Winant Park and Walker State Forest have been connected for years by a network of trails used by hikers and bikers, but there was no guarantee of continued access under private ownership. Now, thanks to the City’s foresight and commitment to conservation, this property will remain open to the public.
The Conservation Commission and NH Division of Forests and Lands are working to create a main trail on the new property. Five Rivers’ job will be to monitor the use of the property to ensure only conservation/outdoor recreation related activities take place on the land in the future.
Have you ever walked or ridden along a quiet rural road in New Hampshire and imagined what you’d see if you could travel back in time? Take a look at this photo:
Just a typical quiet, wooded New Hampshire backcountry road, right? You are looking toward the intersection of Meadow Pond, Loon Pond and Stockwell Hill Roads in Gilmanton, the location of one of Five Rivers newest conserved properties, a conservation easement donated by Graham Wilson and Gina Sapiro.
Let’s go back in time almost 150 years. The next photo was taken in about 1880 from about the same spot.
Quite an astonishing change! This photo shows the vibrant and productive Jones Mills community, with the Jones farmhouse at the top right by the road, along with a variety of mills, residences, and a long factory building on the left constructed over a gorge near Academy Brook.
In 1880, all the buildings visible in this photo were located on what is now the 164-acre Wilson-Sapiro property, conserved by Five Rivers in December 2018. Last month in August, we hosted an afternoon educational event at the property where participants learned about the site’s natural and human history. Architectural historian James Garvin brought to life the once-vital Jones mills complex.
The Jones mills were established by James Jones (born 1775). By 1845, the industrious family had constructed a series of four separate dams along Academy Brook to power two gristmills, one sawmill, and several shingle mills, clapboard machines, and a linseed oil mill.
Although a severe flood in 1848 destroyed most of the industrial complex, the Jones family was back in business by 1850, turning to carriage and wagon making. The 1880 photo above shows the mill community at its peak: a saw mill, multiple carriage shops, a paint shop, a trim shop, a wheelwright shed, and a cooper shop.
The Jones mill community was more than a complex of industrial buildings—maps from 1860 and 1892 are dotted with the homes of the Jones family, as well as those of their employees and other mill owners. Directly behind the Jones farmhouse stood a one-room schoolhouse (see photo below).
In 1880, Jones Mills was an important and active self-contained community that provided employment, housing, education, and social unity in this part of Gilmanton.
But after 140 years, all the mill buildings, carriage shops, and other industrial structures are gone, with the surrounding fields returned to forests. Today, only a few foundations and the 18th-century Jones family farmhouse remain.
By conserving the 164 acres of this beautiful and historic property, Wilson and Sapiro and Five Rivers have ensured that the land and its history are preserved forever. “Conservation land always has a natural value, but in New Hampshire, the land often has a historical and human value as well,” says architectural historian James Garvin. Graham and Gina’s property is a perfect example.
Property owner Graham Wilson writes: “The land and, we hope, the house will endure long after we have gone. The conservation easement we have signed with Five Rivers recognizes this underlying reality. It makes it more certain that others in the future will enjoy the beauty, peace, and charm that our land provides. It gives owners who come after us the chance to be part of that long chain of people stretching back before the creation of these United States through to today and into the future.”
During Five Rivers’ educational walk at the Wilson-Sapiro property on August 18th, property owner Gina Sapiro talked about the 18th-century antique Cape built by the Jones family that she and Graham now call home, and showed us her extensive gardens that provide produce and flowers for Gilmanton’s Own Cooperative Market located in the Four Corners Brick House in Gilmanton Center.
Existing stone and earth wall of one of the four dams that fed the Jones mills during the 19th century.
Graham and Gina will continue to own and management property for conservation purposes, and Five Rivers will monitor activities on the land to ensure that it is never developed. When Graham and Gina transfer the land to a new owner, Five Rivers will work with the new owners (and all future owners) to ensure that this special place remains conserved.
On Sunday afternoon, August 18th, Five Rivers hosted an event in Gilmanton on one of our newest properties – Wilson-Sapiro. More than 60 people joined us on this fascinating walk that explored the vast historical and natural treasures of the Jones mill area of Gilmanton!
There were four learning stations along the way, each with a fascinating expert presentation.
Owner Gina Sapiro talked about the 18th century Antique Cape built by the Jones family that she and Graham now call home, and showed us her extensive gardens that provide produce and flowers for Gilmanton’s Own Cooperative Market located in the Four Corners Brick House in Gilmanton Center.
Jim Garvin (NH architectural historian) brought to life the once vibrant Jones Mill complex that produced shingles, lumber, linseed oil, carriages and wagons in the second half of the 19th century.
Owner Graham Wilson discussed the forest management programs that he and Gina have developed for their forested property.
And at a beautiful wetlands portion of the property, Amanda Stone (Natural Resources & Land Conservation State Specialist with UNH Cooperative Extension) explained the importance of wetlands to wildlife and the ecological balance.
The weather was perfect on this summer Sunday afternoon! Thank you, Graham Wilson and Gina Sapiro, for sharing your wonderful property with us. And thank you to everyone who attended and shared this exciting educational experience with us!
In June 2019, Maura Adams was unanimously elected Chair by Five Rivers’ Board of Trustees, having served as Vice-Chair for the past two years. Maura is a program director at the Northern Forest Center, a non-profit organization that creates economic opportunity and community vitality while fostering sound forest stewardship across the Northern Forest of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York. We thought you’d like to know more about her!
Name: Maura Adams
Town of residence: Deerfield
Lived in New Hampshire since: 2006
How did you first become aware of Five Rivers? I attended a farm-to-table dinner at Dimond Hill. Later, my husband became an easement monitor for several Five Rivers properties in Penacook (where we used to live).
For you, what’s the most important function Five Rivers serves? Keeping land from being developed in ways that are detrimental to habitat, ecological services, working lands and outdoor recreation opportunities, and our rural aesthetic.
Does or how does your day job intersect with your board service? I’m a program director for the Northern Forest Center, a regional innovation and investment partner that connects people, economy, and the forested landscape in the Northern Forest of New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and New York. Five Rivers’ commitment to protect working lands – where forestry, food production, and recreation coexist for the benefit of local communities – is consistent with the Center’s values (and, of course, my own). The Center’s not a land trust and we don’t overlap geographically with Five Rivers (the Northern Forest doesn’t start till north of the notches!) but I appreciate contributing to complementary organizations with similar ethics.
What is your favorite Five Rivers property right now, and briefly, why? I’ve spent many hours running Winant and Swope trails and they’ll always feel special to me!
What question do you wish people would ask you about Five Rivers?
Q: Of all the organizations you could volunteer for or give money to, why this one? A: I find it very meaningful to contribute to an organization whose work is so tangible, personally impactful, and widely beneficial. All of us in the capital region benefit from the recreation, food, forest products, habitat, and clean rivers that Five Rivers helps provide. I wish more people knew Five Rivers was responsible for so many amenities!
What’s your favorite way to spend a free day? Trail run or mountain bike with my husband, jump in a river or lake, work a little in the garden, cook something from the garden or CSA, read a good book on the deck with a tasty local beer…
What’s something you’d love to do outside in New Hampshire this year? An ambitious trail run, like running the Presidential Traverse in a day. Not sure I have time for training, but I’d love to do it.
What else do you think people would like to know about you or do you wish we’d asked? My husband and I (and our dog Miles) live off-grid on 24 acres of conservation land (not a Five Rivers easement, though – we’re in Bear-Paw’s area!) and love knowing that the meadow, brook, and woods will forever be a happy home for turtles, moose, deer, and other creatures.
July 2019 – Five Rivers Conservation Trust and the Hopkinton Conservation Commission collaborated to permanently protect a 55-acre farm field in the center of Contoocook Village from future development. The Houston family owns the field, located behind Dimitri’s restaurant and Colonial Plaza, as part of its Pine Lane Farm. The family has a long history of farming in Contoocook. Rich Houston, the third-generation of the family to manage Pine Lane Farm, has seen many acres of farmland lost to non-farm uses, so he wanted to permanently protect this prime agricultural land along the Contoocook and Warner Rivers. Houston says, “The viability of the farm depends on having enough good farmland to grow the corn silage and hay needed to feed our 450 milking cows”.
The Houstons’ goal of protecting their farmland meshed perfectly with the goals of Five Rivers and the Hopkinton Conservation Commission. Both organizations prioritize protecting working farmland and river frontage. This 55-field has the added benefit of being in the center of Contoocook village, across from the town’s Riverway Park and next to Contoocook’s iconic covered bridge. Keeping this agricultural land open is important to maintaining Contoocook’s rural character.
On a beautiful June evening, more than 90 friends and supporters joined Five Rivers for social time in the gardens at the McLane Center in Concord. Executive Director, Beth McGuinn shared an exciting year of conservation successes and staff expansion with the crowd.
Congratulatory plaques were awarded to Fran Hart for conserving the Albin-Hart Farm on Kast Hill in Hopkinton, to the Town of Warner Conservation Commission for conserving their portion of Children’s Brook in Warner, and to Rick Ball and Denise Navia of the Town of Belmont and for buying and conserving 77 acres of Tioga Marsh in Belmont.
Anthea Lavallee, Executive Director of the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, was our featured speaker. She shared key Hubbard Brook discoveries including acid rain, the impacts of forest management on water quality and quantity, and climate change consequences.
Thank you, Five Rivers members, for making our successes possible!
June 11, 2019 – During Five Rivers’ Annual Gathering at the McLane Center/NH Audubon, we welcomed three new board members. From left to right in the photo, they are Mike Hvizda, Katy Ward, and Liz Short. We are excited to have them join us!
Mike Hvizda, Concord
Mike has had a deep love for his natural surrounding from a young age. A New Hampshire native passionate about hiking, mountain biking, surfing and skiing, Mike is driven by building meaningful relationships and connecting people with opportunity. While owning and operating a farm in Boscawen, NH, he saw an opportunity to fill a gap in the real estate industry. As he built a positive reputation in the Greater Concord area, he found himself involved in many conversations regarding land use and conservation. These conversations led to the launch of the “Land Access Info Session” which brings land owners and land seekers together to learn from professionals about everything from leasing land for agricultural production to conservation opportunities. In fact this session continues to run regularly and has been adopted by Land for Good.
Always prioritizing people over profits, Mike’s vision is to pave the way for the future of real estate—one in which honesty, integrity, and sustainability are paramount. After devoting more than a decade to growing and managing a local ice‐cream truck business, he began his real estate career in 2012 — and within two years, he was producing within the top 5% of his market center of over 300 agents. Over the last two and a half years he has lead Keller Williams Realty in Andover, MA as the CEO of the franchise. In 2019 he returns to the ever growing Hvizda Team in Concord, NH and looks forward to working with his team to serve both buyers and sellers in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. A bold leader and skilled negotiator, Mike shows by example that a fierce entrepreneurial spirit can be backed up by a strong sense of ethics.
Katy Ward, Henniker
Katy is President and Principal Engineer at Aries Engineering, LLC, an environmental consulting company located in Concord. She lives in Henniker where she and her husband raise their two children. Katy and her family enjoy biking, skiing, camping, and other outdoor activities, including hiking at Chase Brook, a Five Rivers‐conserved property in Henniker. Katy believes in the importance of conserving land for future generations to enjoy.
Liz Short, Concord
Liz is honored to be considered for the role as Board member and is looking forward to working (and hiking or trail running!) alongside other Five Rivers ambassadors.
Liz is the Business Finance Program Director at the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, a nonprofit organization that turns investments into loans and education to create opportunity and transform lives across New Hampshire. Her team provides capital and technical assistance to small businesses, community services (like child care centers and nonprofits), and affordable housing developers.
Liz spent 12 years in the organic dairy industry at Stonyfield, including roles in milk sourcing, green building, and employee engagement in environmental initiatives. Liz received a MBA and MS in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute in 2005 and a BA in Biology from Cornell in 1998.
Early in her career Liz found rewarding work with The Nature Conservancy’s national conservation science division. She is excited to get back into land conservation and make deeper connections locally. Liz lives in Concord with her husband Joe and two daughters, Maddie (age 10) and Lily (age 7). If you were to ask her youngest daughter what is the best part about serving on the Five Rivers Board, Lily would say “so that we can go on hikes and make fairy houses!”
April 13, 2019 – Our Flannel, Fleece, and French Toast Fundraiser was a success! Over 60 people joined us for a hearty, catered breakfast. Our hosts at the Showshoe Club were welcoming and the amount of flannel in the room was astounding.
This event raised over $4,500 to support the creation of Five Rivers’ first Conservation Plan. These funds will be used to leverage other private donations and grant funds so that Five Rivers can identify the most important land for conservation and reach out to the owners of those properties with information about their conservation options. Five Rivers is truly at an exciting point in our history and growth.
About the Conservation Plan
Conservation Plans use community knowledge and natural resource maps to help identify areas where conservation is most critical – focus areas.
Some focus areas might be special places that the community identifies as important to its history or character. Others might be where natural resource values like wildlife habitat, productive soils, and water resources occur in the same area, creating an important matrix of resources. Other areas might be located along an important stream or trail corridor or linking already conserved areas.
Once focus areas are identified, Five Rivers can help landowners in the focus areas understand the conservation value of their properties and introduce them to their options for conserving their land. Conservation plans help land trusts to focus their attention, attract funding for projects in conservation areas and help avoid the development of the most important land to conserve.
The plan will require engagement with our 17 towns and hiring of a mapping consultant to help analyze the resources and identify the focus areas.
April 2019 – Linden Rayton joined Five Rivers soon after moving to New Hampshire two years ago. “We were at the farmer’s market in Contoocook, and I saw a table with Five Rivers’ name on it and went over to say hello.” An environmental educator, Linden was excited to learn more about Five Rivers’ work, and she struck up a conversation with Five Rivers trustees Carolyn Miller and Kathy Barnes. Since then, Linden has jumped in to share her expertise with Five Rivers, serving as a natural-history guide during November’s Bohanan Farm exploration in Hopkinton.
Linden joined Five Rivers because she’s a big fan of land trusts and the role they play in sustainability. But she hadn’t even known what a land trust was until she went to work for another small land trust, Cape Elizabeth Land Trust, outside Portland, ME. She served as the group’s education coordinator, and she saw first-hand how small land trusts can make a big difference, preserving resources for communities to use and enjoy.
Linden and her family left Maine for New Hampshire when her husband Reed Loy took a job as rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Hopkinton. These days, Linden works as a substitute naturalist at NH Audubon and as a candle dipper at Marklin Candles. With their two small children, she and Reed enjoy walking on nearby Five Rivers-conserved properties. “We love Carter Hill, Swope Park, and Winant Park for family walks,” Linden says. “We also walk the Sweatt property in Hopkinton. It is really beautiful, walking along all those streams.”
February 2019 – What a night! Our community of conservation-minded supporters and friends turned out in force for Five Fivers’ second Film Festival! Savory and sweet refreshments, drinks of all sorts, perusal of raffle prizes and a frenzy of raffle ticket purchases started us off before the films.
Once in our seats, introduction of films about fishing and farming, water and trails, conservation and biking, nature and forests was deftly handled by community members closely tied to each topic area. Raffles, including a scythe handle, locally brewed beer, locally roasted coffee, gift certificates to local restaurants and shops were happily awarded.
Will there be a third annual Film Fest next February? Watch our website to find out!
January 2019 – Nine acres and nearly one half mile along Willow Brook has been conserved by landowners Scott and Joan Warren and the Warner Conservation Commission. Willow Brook, also known as Children’s Brook, has always been the Warner Fishing Derby location. Families come with their children, fishing poles and bait to help their kids learn the thrills of spending time outdoors.
Five Rivers is responsible for monitoring the property to ensure it is used for conservation purposes going forward.
Now this portion of Willow Brook will always be open for children who want to take a chance at catching the big one. In an era when the lure of technology means children (and parents) spend less time outdoors, Children’s Brook is a very important place for introducing children to the inspiration of nature. With the area conserved, future generations of parents and children will have access to this special place – Children’s Brook.
December 2018 – CONCORD & GILMANTON, NH. Approaching the four corners of Meadow Pond, Loon Pond, and Stockwell Hill Roads in Gilmanton is like experiencing “The essence of rural character in Gilmanton”. Now these 164 acres of scenic lands are conserved permanently, thanks to landowners Graham Wilson and Virginia Sapiro who donated a conservation easement to Five Rivers Conservation Trust on December 20, 2018.
The landowners generously donated the conservation easement to permanently protect their land from development, subdivision, and mismanagement, no matter who owns it in the future. Five Rivers Conservation Trust guided the conservation process and is responsible for ensuring the terms of this conservation easement are upheld forever. To do that Five Rivers will monitor the property at least annually, work cooperatively with all future landowners to determine appropriate land uses and take action if future activities are not compatible with the conservation easement.
December 2018 – Please help us welcome Alison Scheiderer to the Five Rivers Staff! Alison will join us in January as our first Land Conservation Specialist. She comes to us from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) where she served as Land Protection Associate over the past 8 years, covering all of New England.
In that position she re-created and coordinated ATC’s volunteer monitoring and boundary maintaining program and created a training program for volunteer monitors. She has a history of collaboration with volunteers, landowners, state clubs, federal agencies and private landowners. We were especially impressed with Alison’s ability to tackle complicated projects, take initiative and think systematically to solve problems.
At Five Rivers, Alison will broaden her efforts to collaborate with landowners, towns, and funders to conserve important land in the greater capital area, she will lead our effort to create a conservation plan to identify the most important land for conservation, and she will lead our land and easement stewardship program.
Alison lives with her husband and two children right next door in Epsom, where she serves on the School Board. She will join Five Rivers’ staff in mid-January. We can’t think of a better way to celebrate 30 years of conservation than to expand our capacity to conserve more of the farms, forests, wetlands, and wildlife habitats that make the greater capital area a wonderful place to live, work, and play.
November 2018 – One sunny day between rainy weeks and Five Rivers was out in the field with 70 members and neighbors at Bonanan Farm in Contoocook. Bohanan Farm is Five Rivers’ largest conserved property at 400+ acres. We visited the new milk processing facility, a recent timber harvest and one of the trails on the property. What a GREAT day! Thanks to all who joined us, and to everyone at Bohanan Farm and Contoocook Creamery.
The conserved land produces feed for the cows, who produce milk for the community. Construction of Contoocook Creamery’s milk processing facility is almost complete, and owner Jamie Robertson showed us how the processing will work. We were also treated to free samples of the Creamery’s delicious milk and cheese!
The Farm includes acres of forestland, with an active forest management program, harvesting trees periodically through the years to improve the quality of the trees that remain, and begin a new generation of young trees. Forester Ron Klemarczyk showed us a recent tree harvest and told how trees are selected.
With trails throughout and miles of frontage on the Contoocook, Warner and Blackwater Rivers, Bohanan Farm is a great place to explore the natural world. Wildlife abound with fields, forest and rivers providing homes for a wide variety of animals from insects to bears. Environmental We walked along some of the trails, where educators Ruth Smith and Linden Rayton helped us understand some of the natural processes that shape this land and provide habitat.
August 19, 2018 – On a glorious August day, between rainstorms, 50+ paddlers joined Five Rivers on a trip down the swollen Contoocook River.
There were smiles all around as participants floated past 3.5 miles of Five Rivers conserved land and mystery mile of frontage we are currently working to conserve.
All were rewarded with ice cream donated by Granite State Candy Shoppe, who churns their ice cream using “conserved-milk” from Contoocook Creamery at Bohanan Farm.
August 2018 – Land Conservation increases quality of life in so many ways! From the arts to local food, outdoor activities, clean water and air, and abundant tails, trees and wildlife, conserved lands make the greater capital area a special place to live, work and play. This summer and fall, challenge yourself to do some or all of these activities related to Five Rivers Conservation Trust, to celebrate 30 years of local land conservation. If you document your activities and submit them by November 10, Five Rivers Conservation Trust will give a limited-edition 30th anniversary baseball cap to the person who completes the most activities.
Visit conserved farms and purchase locally grown products:
July 2018 – Five Rivers Conservation Trust announces the conservation of 77 acres of the Currier-Sanborn Conservation Area (Tioga Marsh 2), a significant parcel of land purchased by the Belmont Conservation Commission (BCC) for conservation purposes. The property is located between Silver Lake, the Winnipesaukee and Tioga Rivers. The land abuts 178 acres of land previously conserved by Five Rivers and the Town of Belmont. The BCC purchased the Tioga Marsh 2 property from the Sanborn Family Trust, descendants of the long-time owners of the property and donated a conservation easement to Five Rivers.
Highlights of the property are its half-mile frontage along the Winnipesaukee River and Tioga Rivers, a significant marsh/flood-plain forest that ranks among the most significant wildlife habitat in the state, and the additional land creates a block of over 250 acres of conserved land. The property is a mixture of woodlands, marsh, and floodplain-forest. The property will be managed by the BCC and is open to passive recreation, hunting, and fishing.
The BCC used monies from the town’s Conservation Fund as well as grant funding from the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP), the New Hampshire Dept. of Environmental Services Aquatic Resource Mitigation Program (ARM), and a State Conservation Committee Conservation Grant (Moose Plate) to purchase the property and cover the costs of the conservation easement.
Five Rivers is grateful to the BCC for their commitment to conservation of the Tioga Marsh and their efforts to raise funds for and purchase this property for conservation.
Five Rivers holds a conservation easement on both of these parcels, collectively known as The Tioga Marsh, ensuring their undeveloped, protected status forever. As the easement holder, Five Rivers will monitor the property annually to ensure that the property remains undeveloped in the future.
LCHIP awarded Belmont a grant for the property’s protection. LCHIP is an independent state authority that makes matching grants to NH communities and nonprofits to conserve and preserve New Hampshire’s most important natural, cultural and historic resources.
The ARM grant was awarded based on the protection value of the wetland and contributing upland on the property. The ARM fund is collected from applicants who have impacted significant wetlands where on-site mitigation is not possible and have made an in-lieu fee.
The Conservation Commission received a Moose Plate Grant to offset the administrative costs of the conservation easement. The NH Conservation License Plate (Moose Plate) Program supports the protection of critical resources in New Hampshire, including scenic lands, historic sites and artifacts, plants and wildlife.
The BCC Conservation Fund receives 100% of the Land Use Change Tax, the 10% market value penalty when land is converted from Current Use. The Commission has used the Fund to protect a number of significant properties throughout town since it was established. The BCC manages just about 700 acres of property that has either been purchased or given to the Town. Properties fronting on the Tioga River have special significance to the BCC’s conservation priorities.
June 2018 – Over 100 people joined Five Rivers at its 2018 Annual Gathering to celebrate 30 years of land conservation in the greater Capital region of New Hampshire.
Members, past board members, founders and guests enjoyed good food, a toast to the anniversary and a special cake.
Long time members Liz Hengen, Sylvia Bates and Mark Zankel shared stories of the early days and encouraged Five Rivers to be relevant to a broad range of constituents, to collaborate in conserving historical landscapes and their buildings, and to raise the funds needed to grow. We look forward to taking action on all those suggestions.
For Five Rivers member Bonnie Christie, protecting the environment has been a lifelong passion. A New Hampshire native, Bonnie grew up in the North Country, hiking the White Mountains and working summers at Appalachian Mountain Club huts. At Mt. Holyoke College, she majored in environmental studies, geology, and biology, and she built on that base with a master’s degree in environmental law and policy at Vermont Law School.
Over the years, Bonnie worked for several nonprofits in Boston, Seattle, and Vermont, including Appalachian Mountain Club, The Atlantic Center for the Environment, and the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law School. As an environmental consultant, she focused on bringing electric vehicles to Vermont. She’s also served on conservation commissions in Charlotte, VT, and Shelburne, VT.
Her children grown, Bonnie returned to New Hampshire two years ago to be closer to her extended family. “As soon as I moved here, my sister Emilie and her husband Tom said ‘you’ve got to get involved with Five Rivers, this land conservation group,’” Bonnie says, and so she did: She let Executive Director Beth McGuinn know that she was available for volunteer work.
Last year, Bonnie began shadowing Rob Knight as he coordinated the monitoring of Five Rivers’ easements. “It’s been fun getting to know the properties, and that’s helped me learn more about the region, and get more of a sense of place.” Now Bonnie has taken over the position of easement monitor coordinator. She visits easements with monitors, and she reminds Five Rivers’ 35 volunteer easement monitors to turn in their reports (every property that’s been conserved with an easement must be monitored annually, to make sure that the properties are complying with conservation easement requirements). “I’m still getting to know the Five Rivers properties, and have mostly enjoyed the ones closest to me in Hopkinton,” Bonnie says. “Sweatt Preserve is lovely, and the trail at Bohanan Farm where it comes out at the confluence of the Contoocook and Blackwater Rivers is really beautiful. I also like Diamond Hill for cross-country skiing in the winter. I hope to get out to all the 5RCT easements in the coming year.”
Bonnie joined the Five Rivers’ board of trustees in June 2018, offering her wealth of environmental experience to Five Rivers. “I think Five Rivers’ biggest strength is the amazing group of people who work so hard on a volunteer basis to support its mission,” Bonnie says. “I feel like when I got to know the Five Rivers gang I had found my people, as in like-minded, energetic, and dedicated people who are really fun to work with.” As a trustee, she’s keen to increase Five Rivers’ visibility, so that more people turn to Five Rivers as a resource. “My personal interest is the role protected land plays in the health of our rivers, wetlands, and other water resources,” she adds. “We’re in the Merrimack watershed which is one of the nation’s nine most endangered rivers, so everything we do upstream can help get the Merrimack off that bad list.”
April 2018 – Even on a drizzly April evening, it is possible to be mindful – when you’re on a walk in a beautiful place with a mindfulness guide!
In late April, over 40 guests joined Five Rivers and guides Betsy Black, Jeanne Ann Whittington, Asa Dustin and Lucia Cote to learn how to slow down, relax, clear the mind and walk mindfully to reduce stress and enjoy the natural world.
Our guests followed their guides through long rows of naked apple trees and down to the pond. The gathering was a great melding of the yoga/mindfulness community and the conservation community in the greater capital region. Some folks described the refreshing feeling of mist on their face – something they had not felt before. Others just appreciated taking the time to be in nature, especially when the weather would normally have kept them indoors.
After the event, folks mingled over hot chocolate and refreshments.
Thank yous go out to our Mindfulness Guides and Sponsors Revision Energy and Horseshoe Pond Physical Therapy for making this event possible!
March 2018 – Five Rivers and the Chichester Conservation Commission recently conserved the Spaulding Town Forest, Five Rivers’ first property conserved by easement in Chichester! This 120-acre working forest is located on the Chichester/Pembroke Town Line, off of Hutchinson Road in the southern part of Town. The easement adds to the Town’s other easement holdings which total nearly 400 acres.
The property is open to the public for backcountry exploration and the Town plans to create a trail network in the future. The highest terrain on the parcel provides some exceptional views to the east.
Many New Hampshire towns have designated Town Forests, and some people believe that these properties are conserved by that designation. However, the Town Forest designation can be removed by a vote at town meeting. The Spaulding Town Forest is now protected by a conservation easement, which limits its use to forestry, outdoor recreation, wildlife habitat management and conservation – forever.
Five Rivers will continue to work with the Town and the Conservation Commission to ensure that the property’s conservation values are always protected for the public benefit.
February 2018 – As folks arrived, there were enthusiastic greetings among friends and as the group grew, so did the chatter and excitement. Clearly, people needed a gathering in the middle of winter! Food and drink, friends, fun and informative films, raffle prizes and the connection between community members and Five Rivers made for a great night.
Thanks to nearly 150 people who purchased tickets, our great host, Red River Theatres and the Board members and volunteers who planned and carried out the event. Special thanks to Maura Adams who selected the films!
This won’t be our last film festival, so as you peruse the web, if you find fun and/or informative films that feature activities that might take place on conserved land, please send along a link to info@5rct.org. Or, if you are a videographer, please consider making a film about Five Rivers and our conserved land!
The Five Rivers
The Merrimack, Contoocook, Blackwater, Warner and Soucook Rivers converge in an area of river bottom farmland and rolling hills that defines Five Rivers’ service area.
August 12, 2022 – Five Rivers Conservation Trust announces the conservation of the Wyman Farm in Loudon.
January 24, 2022 – Five Rivers Conservation Trust announced the conservation of Sloping Acres Farm located on West Road in Canterbury. The 37-acre property has been owned and operated by the Glines family for five generations and is currently run by Peter and Eric Glines. It is entirely in agricultural use, growing corn and hay while also providing pasture for the adjacent 140 cow dairy.
Today is Five Rivers’ fourth and final Trivia Tuesday quiz. In this week’s quiz, test your knowledge of New Hampshire farms.
Today is Five Rivers’ third Trivia Tuesday quiz. In this week’s quiz, test your knowledge of New Hampshire winter ecology.
Today is Five Rivers’ second of four Trivia Tuesday quiz. This week’s quiz is about New Hampshire flora. How well do you know the native wildflowers, shrubs, and trees in our area?
Each Tuesday for the next four weeks, we are offering a Five Rivers trivia quiz. This week’s quiz is about our five rivers. How well do you know our five rivers and their ecology?
December 2018 – Please help us welcome Alison Scheiderer to the Five Rivers Staff! Alison will join us in January as our first Land Conservation Specialist. She comes to us from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) where she served as Land Protection Associate over the past 8 years, covering all of New England. 
