Phil Primack (right) speaks with Congressman Chris Pappas at the New Hampshire Tree Farm Field Day. (Photo: courtesy office of Congressman Pappas)
The Forest Society joined with its NH Tree Farm program partners on September 28 to celebrate “NH Tree Farm Field Day” and recognize Phil Primack, the 2024 Outstanding Tree Farmer, who hosted the field day at his tree farm in Epping.
Primack is the proud steward of the 100+ acre Tree Farm that he calls “Eli’s Woods.” Eli – for those readers who might be wondering – was Phil’s trusty four-legged sidekick for many years. For a dog, life on a Tree Farm must be like hitting a jackpot. Can it get any better?
Eli’s Woods started taking shape in 1974 when Primack, looking for “10 acres on a creek” to build a small house, instead stumbled upon a big old farmhouse with 64 acres owned by the estate of Mary Folsom Blair. An aspiring young writer short on funds, Phil had to sell the farmhouse along with 10 acres to help finance the deal.
Little did he know that the land’s former owner (a longtime teacher, 4-H leader, and nature lover) would serve as inspiration for his eventual book, Put It Down on Paper: The Words and Life of Mary Folsom Blair, A Fifty-Year Search (Loom Press, 2022). He acquired an abutting 52-acre parcel in 1988, protected most of the land via a conservation easement in 1998, and became a proud Tree Farmer a quarter of a century ago in 1999.
Not long after purchasing the land, Primack set about hiring a local logger to cut some pine to be sawn into rough-cut framing for his new home. Satisfied with the pine lumber but less so with the results in the woods, Primack asked then-County Forester Phil Auger to visit his woodlot. Impressed by what he learned during that initial visit — namely, that he needed the guidance of professional foresters — Primack began a lifelong relationship with them, first working with Chip Chapman in the mid-1990s followed a by long-time partnership with current consulting forester Charlie Moreno.
When asked what impresses him most about Phil, Charlie said, “He cares deeply for his forest and has carried on steadfastly for 50 years.”
The forest has been carefully managed under Primack's tenure, with the most recent timber harvest finishing up in 2022. For the last 20 years, harvests have been prepared by Moreno Forestry Associates and carefully executed by G & C Morse and Sons Logging and have focused on developing a “multi-aged” forest comprised of several different age classes.
Commercial harvests are followed by timber stand improvement to assist favored regeneration and you can often find Primack, saw in hand, busy liberating young white pine and oak saplings from competing hardwoods (especially beech).
Primack is always happy to show visitors nice stands of timber and regeneration on his woodlot and is especially eager to show off “Super Tree” (the state champion black birch), the wildlife opening maintained for beaver and the five-acre “no cut” reserve, or lead a walk along the property’s half mile of frontage on the scenic Pawtuckaway River.
In addition to welcoming (respectful) non-motorized public access, he has hosted many educational tours sponsored by the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association, the Southeast Land Trust of New Hampshire, and UNH Extension. He also utilizes his talent as a writer to promote the Tree Farm Program in New Hampshire and beyond.
Careful readers may have noticed that the first paragraph of this article referred to Primack as “steward” and not “owner” of Eli’s Woods. He uses this term because he gifted a Life Estate to the Southeast Land Trust of New Hampshire in 2022; he wanted to ensure exceptional management of Eli’s Woods when he is no longer the one caring for them.
That gift “assures that these woods will remain forever protected,” Primack wrote. “The pines, hemlocks, oaks, and maples will harbor wildlife and sway in the wind long after I am compost.”
Primack was presented with an Outstanding Tree Farm of the Year sign at the annual N.H. Timberland Owners Association meeting in June. Thank you to Hancock Lumber for donating the wood.
The NH Tree Farm Field Day was attended by many people, including Congressman Chris Pappas, who congratulated Primack.
“Tree farms are a vital piece of our conservation and sustainability efforts in New Hampshire, and it was great to learn more about his sustainable forest management,” Pappas said in a statement.
The New Hampshire Tree Farm program relies on five co-sponsoring state and private forestry organizations to guide and administer its programs: New England Society of American Foresters – Granite State Division; NH Division of Forests and Lands; NH Timberland Owners Association; the Forest Society; and the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension.