New Hampshire

Pisgah State Park. Situated in part of southwestern New Hampshire known to Henry Thoreau as a region of immense pines and scattered old forests, this rugged region attracted Wildland preservation in the 1920s. Since the 1970s, as the park grew to nearly 14,000 acres managed by the Department of Resources and Economic Development, pressure mounted for timber harvesting and ATV and snowmobile use. An ongoing dispute has ensued over the expansion of the core Wildland, which currently stands at approximately 4,594 acres. Photograph copyright David R. Foster.

Pemigewasset Wilderness—White Mountain National Forest. Totaling approximately 45,000 acres that make it the largest of six federal wilderness areas on the WMNF, the “Pemi” was designated by the U.S. Congress in the 1984 New Hampshire Wilderness Act. Although intensely logged and burned from the 1880s into the 1940s, the area’s forests are recovering and rewilding remarkably across the topographically and ecologically diverse terrain that is accessible by a series of Wilderness trails. Photo copyright by Ken Gallagher.

Vickie Bunnell Preserve comprises nearly 11,000 acres in northern New Hampshire, owned by The Nature Conservancy, and secured by a Forest Legacy easement held by the State of New Hampshire and a “forever wild” easement held by Northeast Wilderness Trust. With adjoining Nash Stream State Forest, the area comprises a 40,000-acre block of unfragmented forest, including thirteen mountain peaks above 3,000 feet and habitat for less-common species like pine marten and Bicknell’s thrush. Photograph copyright Zack Porter.

Building on the theme of natural climate solutions, this session will highlight several ways how conserving natural forest systems for climate mitigation also provides economic benefits to communities and the region. This presentation covers the community forest movement.