THE WOODPILE

With Hope for the Future

With just one last remaining mature red mulberry tree clinging precariously to the Merrimack River Outdoor Education and Conservation Area’s steep riverbanks in Concord, Forest Society staff have long wished to plant replacements.

Their wish came true on April 15, 2022, when local Concord teacher and nature photographer Ellen Kenny and seven students from Broken Ground Elementary School joined Forest Society Senior Director of Education Dave Anderson, Reservation Stewardship and Engagement Director Carrie Deegan, and volunteer land steward Dave Heuss to help plant three young mulberry trees further back from the riverbank.

Students helped dig wide holes to place bare-root nursery stock in a mix of soil with cow manure and compost mix. They enthusiastically removed sod and roots and stockpiled soil on a tarp to be replaced around the tree. The trees were staked to prevent wind damage until the roots begin to grow. Finally, the tender young nursery stock were each fenced aggressively with tall wire cages to prevent browsing or damage by deer, which are common on the floodplain.

Native to river floodplains and riparian habitats, red mulberry attracts numerous songbirds, squirrels, chipmunks, foxes, and other wildlife in early June when the trees’ fruits ripen. Anderson and Deegan talked about how the students could return in subsequent years to visit "their" mulberry trees and see if local wildlife had found this sweet sustenance. A total of eight red mulberry trees were planted over the course of two days on the floodplain as part of a grant-funded program with generous financial support from Benjamin Couch Trust, in addition to annual support from Northeast Delta Dental and Merrimack County Savings Bank.

Students and teachers from Broken Ground Elementary are all smiles after a day of planting trees at the Merrimack River Outdoor Education and Conservation Area.

Discover the Merrimack River Watershed! June 15-September 30

$25 per party. Challenge participants receive 5 laminated paddle guides with put-ins/take-outs, directions, interpretive details & safety tips. forestsociety.org/mpc

Coming in from the Fields

After more than three decades of arranging his life around the agricultural rhythms of growing and selling Christmas trees at the Rocks in Bethlehem, Nigel Manley has decided it’s time to hand the shears to the next farmer. Manley will sharpen his focus to programs and community engagement later this year, and the Forest Society will be seeking a new Christmas tree farmer.

“It’s been many years and I’ve enjoyed growing not just the trees, but the businesses associated with The Rocks,” Manley says. “As anyone who is a farmer knows, it is all-consuming. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with volunteers and visitors and having a bit more time for my own pursuits.”

The Rocks was donated by the Glessner family to the Forest Society in 1978. Manley arrived in November 1986 and managed the original planting of the Christmas tree farm. He has been the face of The Rocks and the force behind the Forest Society’s activities at the 1,400-acre site ever since.

Over the decades, Manley established a thriving Christmas tree operation with some 32,000 trees in the fields. He has greeted thousands of families who enjoy the annual tradition of traveling to The Rocks to cut their own Christmas trees. Manley also developed a robust set of experiential education programs at The Rocks, which hosts the Maple Museum of the NH Maple Producers Association and offers maple tours, is a destination for tour groups, and is a popular venue for events, including weddings.

Manley will continue to work part-time for the Forest Society on a variety of programs, including working closely with Anne Truslow, vice president of development, on the Forest Society North at The Rocks Campaign. With Manley’s help, popular programs such as the Wildflower Walks, the Forever Green Program in association with local schools, and bus tours will continue without interruption.

“We are thrilled that Nigel will continue to be an instrumental part of our next chapter at The Rocks. We owe him a huge debt of gratitude for everything he has done to make The Rocks one of our premier forest reservations,” Forest Society President Jack Savage says. “He’s successfully worked with hundreds of dedicated volunteers and with local businesses to make The Rocks part of the tourism economy in the region. And he has shown extraordinary resilience in keeping the operation going in the aftermath of a devastating fire in 2019 followed by the pandemic.”

The Forest Society is moving forward with plans to renovate the 1884 Carriage Barn on the property to serve as a new net-zero education and program center with classroom and meeting space and offices for more Forest Society staff. In 2019, a fire leveled the historic Tool Building, which previously had housed a classroom, office, and workshop. The site of the Tool Building has been converted to an outdoor amphitheater that offers views to the Presidential Range of the White Mountains. For more information about the Rocks, visit forestsociety.org/therocks.

Christmas Tree Farm Manager Nigel Manley

Save the Date! 121st Annual Meeting of the Forest Society

September 24, 2022 Featuring Keynote Speaker Dr. Michael E. Mann, distinguished scholar of climate science and author of The New Climate War. This year we are coming home to Concord! Please join us at The Conservation Center, the Forest Society’s statewide headquarters on the Merrimack River.

9 a.m.–12 p.m.

Local area field trips

Noon

Registration and lunch

1:00 p.m.

Business Meeting and Conservationist of the Year Award

2:00 p.m.

Keynote Address and Q&A with Dr. Michael E. Mann

Keynote speaker Dr. Michael E. Mann

Summer Speaker Series at The Fells

Environmentalist and nature writer John Hay

The Fells and Forest Society members: $10; nonmembers: $15. Advanced registration is required. To register, please call 603-763-4789 x3 or visit thefells.org.

JUNE 19 | 4:305:30 P.M. Veranda Readings With Dave Anderson

John Hay wrote in several of his books about childhood summers spent at The Fells, his parents Clarence and Alice Hay, and the special places he fondly remembers exploring. This late afternoon program on the veranda of the Main House will share

JUNE 17 | 4:005:30 P.M. In the Company of Light: A Discussion of John Hay’s Nature Writing

Join us for a panel discussion honoring the environmentalist and nature writer John Hay. Panelists include four nature writers who knew Hay and were influenced by him: Dave Anderson, Christopher Merrill, Fred Taylor, and Ted Levin. The Fells and Forest Society members: $20; nonmembers: $30. Beer, wine, and hors d’oeuvres are included in admission. Advanced registration is required. To register, please call 603-763-4789 x3 or visit thefells.org.

JUNE 18 | 4:305:30 P.M. I Learn from Everything I Do Not Own: The Poet’s Eye in Contemporary Nature Writing

Christopher Merrill is the author of The Way to the Salt Marsh, an anthology of John Hay’s essays and poetry about nature. According to Merrill, John Hay is “the nature writer’s writer.” Merrill’s presentation will incorporate selected readings from this book. As director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa since 2000, Merrill has conducted cultural diplomacy missions to more than fifty countries. He served on the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO from 2011¬–2018, and in April 2012 President Barack Obama appointed him to the National Council on the Humanities.

readings from John Hay’s works, including The Immortal Wilderness, A Beginner’s Faith in Things Unseen, and In the Company of Light. Join Dave Anderson as he reads several passages from John Hay’s writings—each inspired by Hay’s boyhood rambles at The Fells, Lake Sunapee, and his own summertime explorations of the former farms which now comprise The Fells and the Forest Society’s Hay Forest Reservation. The Fells and Forest Society members: $10; nonmembers: $15. Advanced registration is required. To register, please call 603-763-4789 x3 or visit thefells.org.

JUNE 22 | 4:305:30 P.M. Hay’s Migratory Sense of Place

Join Fred Taylor, who has taught Environmental Ethics, Writing, and Natural History at Antioch University New England and Keene State College. His writing focuses on a Sense of Place and has been published in a variety of literary journals, including the North American Review, Alligator Juniper, and Antioch’s Whole Terrain. He first met Hay in the early ‘90s when they were both a part of the Glen Brook writers’ group. Taylor will discuss the influence of Hay’s interest in migratory species on his early writing and read from one of his own essays (published in Whole Terrain), which tells the story of Hay’s meeting with one of Taylor’s Antioch classes on Cape Cod. The Fells and Forest Society members: $10; nonmembers: $15. Advanced registration is required. To register, please call 603-763-4789 x3 or visit thefells.org.

JUNE 23 | 4:305:30 P.M. Honoring Hay’s Legacy

During the pandemic, Ted Levin stayed at home and kept a daily nature journal. Encouraged by friends, the journal evolved into a blog called Homeboy at Home During Coronavirus. Levin’s talk will honor John Hay and explore the influence of Hay on Levin’s own nature writing. Levin’s work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Audubon, Sierra, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe, among other publications. He has written books for children and adults. His most recent book, America’s Snake: The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake, was published in 2016. The Fells and Forest Society members: $10; nonmembers: $15. Advanced registration is required. To register, please call 603-763-4789 x3 or visit thefells.org.

JUNE 26 | 11:00 A.M.2:00 P.M. A Hay Family Picnic on Sunset Hill

One of the beloved events of the Hay family was to enjoy a picnic on the top of Sunset Hill. This summer, join Dave Anderson of the Forest Society and members of the John Hay Estate at The Fells staff for a traditional Hay Family picnic at the top of Sunset Hill. Co-sponsored by Forest Society and The John Hay Estate at The Fells. Lunch catered by Blue Loon Bakery of New London, N.H. The Fells and Forest Society members: $20; nonmembers: $25. Picnic lunch included. Advanced registration is required. To register, please call 603-763-4789 x3 or visit thefells.org.

The Forest Society thanks our business partners for their generous support

Summit Circle ($5,000 and up)

Asplundh Tree Expert Company Badger Peabody & Smith Realty Inc. BCM Environmental & Land Law, PLLC Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson, P.A. Merrimack County Savings Bank Seaboard International Forest

Products, LLC Whalen Public & Media Relations, LLC Trustees’ Circle ($2,500 to $4,999)

Northeast Delta Dental Northland Forest Products, Inc. The Secret Agency, LLC President’s Circle ($1,000 to $2,499)

Checkmate Payroll Services Chinburg Properties Community Toolbox, Inc. EOS Research Garden Life, LLC Lumbard & Kellner, LLC Mallory Portraits Martin Forestry Consulting, LLC Mulligan Forest, LLC New England Private Wealth

Advisors, LLC Pennyroyal Hill Land Surveying and Forestry LLC Ransmeier & Spellman, P.C. Rockywold-Deephaven Camps, Inc. SCM Associates, Inc. Wipfli LLP Partner ($500 to $749)

Arcomm Communications Corporation Blue Mountain Forest Association Capitol Craftsman, LLC Durgin and Crowell Lumber Co., Inc. GMEC, Inc.

Partner (continued)

Gunstock Mountain Resort Half Moon Enterprises The Lyme Timber Company LP Meadowsend Timberlands Limited Mediation Partners of New England, LLC The Music Mill NH Conservation Real Estate Pine Springs R.M. Piper, Inc. Plymouth Soapworks, LLC Whole Wealth Management, LLC Zambon Brothers Logging Colleague ($250 to $499)

Acapella Technologies, LLC Altus Engineering Ambit Engineering, Inc. Ameresco, Inc. Bangor Savings Bank Black North, LLC Blaktop, Inc. Dublin Road Tap Room and Eatery Eastern Mountain Sports Fuller’s Sugarhouse, LLC Gideon Asen, LLC Great Brook Veterinary Clinic, LLC Innovative Natural Resource

Solutions, LLC J and M Morse Trucking, LLC Kozikowski Properties, LLC Lenk Orthodontics New England Flower Farms North Woodlands, Inc. Orr & Reno P.A. Rise Private Wealth Management, Inc. Robbins Lumber Samyn-d’Elia Architects, P.A. Twin State Sand & Gravel Co., Inc.

Matching Gift Companies

Amaresco, Inc. American Biltrite, Inc. Amgen, Inc. Amica Mutual Insurance Company Autodesk, Inc. Bank of America Bose Corporation Citizens Bank Dell, Inc. Erie Insurance Facebook, Inc. Gartner, Inc. General Electric Gilead Sciences, Inc. Google, LLC The Home Depot, Inc. IBM Corporation Liberty Mutual Insurance MassMutual The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Microsoft Corporation MilliporeSigma Motorola Solutions Novartis Oracle Corporation OSR Open Systems Resources, Inc. Shell Oil Company Subaru of America Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. The Travelers Companies, Inc. Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

We are grateful to the many businesses that support the Forest Society with gifts of less than $250. The Forest Society…Where Conservation and Business Meet

For information about business memberships, sponsorships, or to initiate a gift membership program for your clients or employees, please contact Anne Truslow at (603) 224-9945 or atruslow@forestsociety.org