Nonprofit Heroes: Preserving NH's Landscape and Natural Resources

Business NH Magazine, Apr 01, 2007

While there's no question nonprofits can transform NH's communities, The Society for the Protection of NH Forests has preserved the landscape of the state. Founded in 1901 to protect the White Mountains from being deforested, the organization has been key to protecting areas that have become state treasures.

The Society helped the state buy Crawford Notch for a public park; lobbied to pass legislation to create the White Mountain National Forest; bought 638 acres on Mount Sunapee to save the land from being clear cut; protected more than 4,000 acres on Mount Monadnock; and began the campaign to purchase 6,000 acres in Franconia Notch, including the Old Man of the Mountain, the Flume, the Basin, and two mountain lakes, according to "People and Place, Society for the Protection of the NH Forests: The First 100 Years." And that was just in its first 25 years of existence.

"New Hampshire wouldn't be what it is today without the Forest Society," says Jane Difley, president and forester with the Society; adding that the Society helped to found the state's parks division.

The Society for the Protection of NH Forests is a land trust that holds 500 conservation easements and owns 43,000 acres of land in NH and 152 reservations around the state, most of which is open to the public. "We've become more strategic about the lands we'll protect," Difley says. "We're trying to protect the land that is most important to people in terms of natural resources."

The Forest Society also aims to protect large blocks of forestland to support the state's forestry industry, protect wildlife habitats, drinking water supplies, and prime agricultural soils.

The Society has created intricate maps showing where these resources are in the state to better guide their efforts. "When donors are asked for money, they know we're using their money in the most strategic way we can," Difley says.

Two years ago, the Society worked with the Trust for Public Land, the City of Concord, Canterbury, and hundreds of volunteers and donors to protect 1,000 acres of land along the Merrimack River. "We protected six miles of the Merrimack River. We protected public access to the river and that land. We helped to make it possible for a sod business to sell to another agricultural endeavor. There will always be an agricultural enterprise on that land," Difley says.

Five years ago, the Society created a 25 year strategic plan. "When you're in the business of growing trees, 25 years is a short amount of time. You have to have a long-term view," Difley says. "Between 2001 and 2026, we want to protect an additional one million acres of land [20 percent of the state]," Difley says. The Society is also lobbying the Legislature to expand money available to all land trusts to protect land. "We're working to increase capacity of others in the state to protect land," she says.