North Road
67 acres of forest, field, and large wetlands
Public access, no formal trails
November 2007

Working with the Hillsborough Conservation Commission and the landowner, Five Rivers Conservation Trust became an executory interest holder of this attractive, 67-acre property near Hillsborough Center. The Conservation Commission holds the primary conservation easement, donated to the town by Olivia St. John Smith in 2008. Five Rivers holds executory easement.

This acreage, along North Road, has a wonderful mix of forest, fields, and wetlands. Of particular note is the property’s large wetlands, a beaver pond complex that exhibits extensive plant and wildlife diversity. This wetlands and forest is blessed with a host of wildlife that, in addition to beaver, include moose, bobcat, deer, bear, turtles, porcupine, and many species of birds.

Gleason Falls Road
113 acres of forests and a marsh and abuts the scenic Gleason Falls conservation area owned by the town
Public access
July 2012

In the 1970s, Hope Thomas and her husband purchased a large tract of land across from her house on Gleason Falls Road in Hillsborough. The sheep she raises pasture in the first field but behind that, stretching back for many acres, are the woods that make up the bulk of the easement.

In the south-east corner of the property is a large pond that Hope affectionately calls the “swamp.” Herons and beavers live here; you can see the gnawed and felled trees left by the beavers near the banks. The pond itself empties into a stream that tumbles down through the property until it joins with Beard Brook.

To the west, down the road from Hope’s house there is an old woods road that takes you to the pond. Watch out for trails that seem promising but peter out. The woods road forks at one point and the right fork leads to the brook. Today, it has become overgrown with no clear path forward. The left fork leads up a hill and eventually to the pond. In the winter, you can snowshoe the trails.

Hope has hired a forest manager and there is ongoing logging activity. Some trees are marked with paint to be harvested, don’t assume that they mark a trail. Hope wants people to use the trails; all she asks is that you check in when you start and take all your trash when you leave.

The easement placed on Hope’s land has the additional benefit of connecting to land already conserved by the Society for the Protection of NH Forests, assuring that a valuable woodlands and water resource remain untouched by development.

Bog Road
50 acres with a stream, two meadows, and mixed forest in close proximity to Farrar Wildlife Management Area
Public access, no formal trails
May 2012

When Ken and Vicki Coffin bought their house on Bog Road in 1989, the accompanying land and its future development value was part of their retirement plan. Then, on an overcast, rainy night in April of 2000, Ken was reading Swampwalker’s Journal by David Carroll. He came across a chapter describing the mating habits of spotted salamanders which happened to occur on nights like that one. Out of curiosity, Ken decided to go outside. Spotted salamanders are a rare sight because they spend most of their time underground, only emerging after a rain to forage or mate. So you can image Ken’s surprise when he saw hundreds of the salamanders, just as Carroll had described. Ken and Vicki realized how important the marsh was to so many species and figured out that what they wanted to do was preserve the land, not sell it.

It took more than a decade to make that plan happen. Ken and Vicki contacted several groups but were limited by their desire to keep hunters and trappers off of the land. Eventually they attracted the attention of the Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust and Gordon Russell from the Russell Foundation. It was Russell who dedicated funds to the project and first brought Five Rivers out to the marsh. With additional support from the Hillsborough Conservation Commission, Five Rivers closed on the easement in May, 2012 with a cover easement for wildlife going to the Wildlife Land Trust.

The easement protects a large section of wetlands, fed by Sand Brook and spring water coming down from the mountains, and the nearby woods. To the north, on the eastern side of Bog Road, is the large, state protected Farrar Marsh and to the south lies Fox State Forest. The Coffin’s property in between has helped create a largely uninterrupted wildlife corridor. There are several active beaver lodges in the marsh and Ken and Vicki have reported seeing bobcats, moose, and all kinds of songbirds and raptors. There are no trails on the property but at the southern end of the easement, you can get a clear view, from the road, of the marsh and a couple beaver lodges.