Spotlight on Five Rivers Trustee Bonnie Christie
May 2018 – Bonnie Christie
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.”
