Skip to main content

Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests

Get our e-news! Sign up

small nav

  • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Staff
    • Board of Trustees
    • Our History
    • Employment
    • Conservation Center
    • FAQs
    • Partners
    • Business Members
    • Annual Reports
    • Bylaws
    • Policies
  • log in
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

Main menu

  • What we do
    • Land Conservation
    • Education & Events
    • Advocacy
    • Forestry & Recreation
    • News & Features
    • Forest Notes & More Publications
  • Current Projects
    • Mahoosuc Highlands, Shelburne
    • Forest Society North at The Rocks Campaign
    • Build Creek Farm Restrooms, Portsmouth
    • Mount Major Stewardship Fund
    • Recent Accomplishments
  • Visit & Explore
    • The Rocks
    • Conservation Center
    • Mount Major
    • Creek Farm
    • Forest Reservation Guide
    • Visitor Use Guidelines
  • Get Involved
    • Upcoming Events
    • Membership/Renewal
    • Support Our Work
    • Volunteer
    • Subscribe to E-news
    • Annual Meeting 2023
  • Search

Search form

Donate
Menu

News

  • Lemonade Out of Lemons, Habitat Out of Trees

    Sarah Kern
    September 18, 2023

    After Eversource cut down 40 pine trees along Little Harbor Road a few years ago due to safety concerns, the Forest Society's Creek Farm staff went to work by turning the trees into habitat.

  • Healing A Battered Brook Crossing at Gap Mountain

    Laurel Swope-Brush
    August 3, 2023

    Bog bridging helps forest regrowth on Gap Mountain.

  • Moving Rocks on Monadnock

    Laurel Swope-Brush
    July 20, 2023

    Even with the threat of rain and storms, volunteers accomplished major trail structural improvements and retained important ecosystems at Mount Monadnock and Gap Mountain during this year’s event.

Green Up at Grafton Pond

Hypertherm Volunteers Prepare Grafton Pond for Summer
Carrie Deegan
May 17, 2017
Volunteers
Paddling (canoeing / kayaking)

 

Every spring, volunteers from Hypertherm, Inc. help the Forest Society with a thorough pre-season cleaning at Grafton Pond.  Hypertherm allows its employees to volunteer for non-profits and community events several days each year, paying them for a normal day at work. 

Because the Grafton Pond workday involves paddling on a gorgeous and unpeopled (only in mid-May!) pond, it’s a popular choice with those in the know. 

This year, only two of the 15 Hypertherm volunteers had not been to the Grafton Pond workday on previous years.  Only one had never been to the pond before. 

“You’re in for a treat,” we told her, and everyone meant it.  

Despite the smattering of black flies dancing around our heads, it was a picture perfect Grafton Pond workday.  Not too hot, not too cold, and just a light breeze rippling the pond’s surface, enough to keep the bugs away while we were on the water.

Kayaks ready to head out

The first order of business, however, was trash detail on the road frontage and trails.  Every year we collect an amazing amount of beer cans, coffee cups and chip bags from the side of Grafton Pond Road, as well as tires, appliances, and crushed five-gallon buckets that have been dumped on the Forest Society’s 933-acre Grafton Pond Reservation surrounding the pond. 

“The pile doesn’t seem to get smaller every year, does it?” remarked Ed, one of the Hypertherm volunteers.  Unfortunately, no.  When people have to pay to dispose of certain items at their local transfer stations, we often find these items piling up at known dumping spots on our conservation lands.  But these Hypertherm folks are tough, and they made short work of dragging tires filled with muck-water up a 40-percent incline and getting them loaded into a pickup.

After a quick lunch, we paddled the pond’s many islands and winding shoreline looking for any additional trash items, which thankfully are few and far between on the pond itself.  This year, we also installed two wood duck nesting boxes and replaced nearly a dozen worn-out signs asking people to pack out trash and refrain from camping on the islands and shoreline.  While we worked, loon pairs called almost continuously, their tremolo voices echoing across the water’s surface.  They’re getting ready to choose nesting spots and lay eggs, ready for the sun’s warmth and the chicks they’ll spend the summer raising on the pond.  They’ll encounter thousands of human paddlers before those chicks fledge, and 

Cleaning out a duck box that had fallen into the water
we hope all of them will treat the loons and the pond environment with the respect they deserve. 

Thanks to the Hypertherm crew, this amazing environment always starts off with a clean slate each spring, heading into a summer full of promise and potential.  

 

Download the Forest Society Mobile App, powered by OuterSpatial

Available on the App Store
Get it on Google Play

Footer menu

  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests54 Portsmouth St.Concord, NH 03301
Phone: 603.224.9945Fax: 603.228.0423info@forestsociety.org
Land Trust Alliance accreditation logo