We need your help to conserve this historic working farm located in a part of the state that's under intense development pressure.
Whippoorwill Farm is a critical link in a rare agricultural and forested oasis in New Hampshire's southern tier. In recent years surrounding lands have been rescued from development and protected by conservation easements. Now we have an opportunity to build upon these earlier conservation successes in the most rapidly growing area of the state.
Just two miles from the Massachusetts border and 15 miles from New Hampshire's busy Seacoast, the farm's open fields, orchard, and forests roll across the East Kingston/South Hampton town lines, connecting other conserved land. The fields provide hay for a local dairy farm in East Kingston, fueling the local food production cycle, while the property's forests are sustainably managed for fuel and fiber.
Surrounded by open land, this bucolic farmstead is perched on Eaton Hill along Old Stagecoach Road. A conservation easement on 71 acres will allow for continued farming and sustainable forest management. Photo by Mike Speltz.
Surrounded by open land, this beautiful farmstead is perched on Eaton Hill along Old Stagecoach Road, as a visual link and commitment to sustain the region's agricultural heritage. The land was first purchased in 1978 with the goal of preserving it and creating a legacy of family farming. Today, the two adult sons who will be the next generation of stewards have committed to continue this farming tradition.
Connecting conserved land to the north and east with the Eaton State Forest to the west, Whippoorwill Farm is a haven for many species of wildlife, including birds that depend upon grassland habitat for survival. In fact, the owners delay mowing portions of their fields to allow resident bobolinks to finish nesting.
The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department's Wildlife Action Plan has identified much of Whippoorwill's forest as "best in state" for this type of habitat, and the Towns of East Kingston and South Hampton have also identified the land as a conservation priority. Half of the property is Appalachian oak-pine forest – one of the state's most quickly disappearing habitat types, unique to the Southeast and Upper Merrimack Valley.
A conservation easement on 71 acres held by the Forest Society will allow for continued farming and sustainable forest management. The owner has generously agreed to sell the property's development rights for far less than their appraised value. To ensure that the land remains undeveloped, the Forest Society must raise $991,000 before September 30.
We're almost there! With the support of the federal Farm and Ranchland Protection Program and the towns of East Kingston and South Hampton, we have already raised $965,000. We now need your help to raise the remaining $26,000 to purchase the easement and cover transaction and stewardship costs. Please make your gift today to help us conserve this historic working farm and unique forest community. Tomorrow's bobolinks will thank you.
For more information, please contact Susanne Kibler-Hacker at  or 603-224-9945. 
Help Us Spread the Word about Forest Society Reservations
In an increasingly uncertain world, there's comfort in knowing that there are special, quintessential pockets of our state where our natural values still grow strong.
The Forest Society owns more than 165 reservations in over 95 New Hampshire communities. We invite you enjoy our properties, to return to your roots and reconnect with the natural world. We conserved these lands to save a place for wildlife, to promote sustainable forestry, and to share their natural beauty and tranquility with Forest Society members and visitors.
The Forest Society owns more than 165 reservations that are open to the public, like the Evelyn H. & Albert D. Morse, Sr. Preserve featured here.
Photo by Jerry and Marcy Monkman, EcoPhotography.
All of our properties are open to the public, and many offer a complete recreational experience with designated parking, kiosks, maps, and trails. We hope you visit these gems and share your experiences with us.
Curious if there's a Forest Society reservation nearby for a casual nature walk or a weekend adventure? We're developing an Online Guide to Our Lands to help you find one. When complete, the Online Guide to Our Lands will feature maps, photographs, trails, descriptions, and a short history of each Forest Society reservation. (The test version can be viewed at here.)
But pulling these resources together will require time and resources – $10,000 worth – to feature the first group of 40 reservations.
We need your help. We've barely scratched the surface, and we still have a long way to go. Please make your gift today, and help us share these special places.
Each year, the Forest Society welcomes thousands of visitors to its Merrimack River Outdoor Education and Conservation Area in Concord. It's more commonly known as the "flood plain" because that's exactly what it is, nearly 100 acres along the Merrimack River. A place of changing seasons, diverse wildlife, and dynamic landscapes, the flood plain is also one of the Forest Society's most-visited reservations. Visitation is particularly intense during the summer months, when the cool river waters beckon swimmers from near and far. We're grateful for the support we've received from Northeast Delta Dental and Grappone Auto Group, but we need your help, too.
The Forest Society plans to upgrade the trail maps in each of the information kiosks on the property, do some needed clean-up from flood damage, improve trail signage, and make repairs to the parking lot. We have also hired part-time rangers to help monitor daily use of the reservation, a program that helps ensure that visitors can count on having a high-quality experience.
The Merrimack River Outdoor Education and Conservation Area is a dynamic landscape that includes native silver maple floodplain forest, a maple-oak-hickory terrace community, oxbow marshes, wooded swamp and beaver-influenced wetlands. Waterfowl and other birds, turtles, beaver and various other small mammals populate the property's diversity of upland and wetland natural communities. An easy-to-walk loop trail winds along the Merrimack River and returns along the wetlands and floodplain forest adjacent to Mill Brook. A small parking area provides access to the trail.
We need your help to continue the stewardship of this special place. Please make your gift today.
Help keep us ready to act! Donate to our Land Action Fund today.
It's a familiar story. A key parcel of open space land with important conservation values comes on the market unexpectedly. There's an opportunity to protect it, but time is short. The Forest Society must act quickly and find the money to buy the land or it could be lost forever.
Today, when an important property with outstanding wildlife, forest, agricultural, recreational or scenic attributes is threatened, the Forest Society has an important tool to help secure its future: The Land Action Fund.
Established more than 10 years ago, the Fund was created through generous gifts from dedicated conservationists and Forest Society members. It's a special fund that can only be used to help buy land or conservation easements, and can be put to use quickly on any land protection project approved by our Board of Trustees.
Over the past decade, thanks to the Land Action Fund, the Forest Society has protected dozens of critically important water resources, wildlife habitat, and working forests in all corners of the state. We use the Fund to purchase land that will be protected permanently as a Forest Society Reservation, to acquire land that we later transfer to public ownership, or to fill in a funding gap making it possible for us to complete an important conservation project.
For example, we recently acquired a 50-acre forest abutting the Nash Stream State Forest by borrowing the funds to buy the land from the Land Action Fund, and will repay the Fund once the state is able to appropriate the purchase price in order to add it to the State Forest.
In 2007, the Lamprey River Advisory Committee and Southeast NH Land Trust sought to conserve 73 remarkable acres of river frontage abutting the Forest Society's Lamprey River Forest. The Lamprey is one of New Hampshire's only two nationally designated "Wild and Scenic" Rivers. The Land Action Fund enabled the Forest Society to fill a funding gap, and today this land has become a significant addition to the existing Lamprey River Forest.
In Hebron, the new Town Forest abutting the Forest Society's Cockermouth Forest has been protected, in large part with funds from the Land Action Fund. The town owns the land and the Forest Society purchased a conservation easement on the 450-acre parcel.
We need your help to assure that the Forest Society can continue to respond in time to land conservation emergencies. Please make a donation to the Land Action Fund today. Your gift will go directly to buying land and conservation easements and helping to pay the often substantial transaction costs for these projects.
With your help, the Forest Society will be ready when that call or email arrives that says "Help! A critical parcel of land is on the auction block!"
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