Donation Creates New Moody Mountain Reservation in Wolfeboro

Dec. 15, 2014 – Cecily Clark of Ossipee has donated a 250-acre property off Beach Pond Road in Wolfeboro to the Society for the Protection of N.H. Forests (Forest Society), to be conserved and managed as the Moody Mountain Reservation.

   

         Like most of the Forest Society’s 178 other properties around the state, the Moody Mountain Reservation will be open to the public for hiking, hunting, wildlife watching, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and other non-motorized activities, and its current-use taxes will be paid by the Forest Society.

            “Cecily Clark has been a friend and supporter of our land conservation mission for many years, and this donation is one more way that she has shown her commitment to protecting the forests near her home forever,” said Jane Difley, the Forest Society’s president/forester. “We know she is placing her trust in us to care for this land as well as she has, and we are honored to be able to carry on her stewardship.”

            Clark, a sculptor and a founder of the Ossipee Children’s Fund, conserved another 462 acres in 1994 by donating a conservation easement to the Forest Society on land that abuts the new reservation. Clark and her neighbors who have also conserved their land have conserved a total of 890 acres on Moody Mountain.

            A wildlife enthusiast, Clark bought the parcel she donated in 1972 in order to keep it undeveloped. She said the easements and the donation have brought her peace of mind that the acreage will remain intact and unspoiled.

            “I care about this land, I want it to be a habitat for wildlife and I also want other people to be able to enjoy it,” Clark said. “I know it’s in good hands with the Forest Society.”

            Moody Mountain is named for Clark’s great, great, great grandfather Abner Moody, who was granted 320 acres there for his service in the Revolutionary War. The land has been passed down in the Moody family through the generations since the late 1700s. The land Clark bought in 1972 and recently donated lies in between the family land she inherited and Beach Pond Road, near Upper Beech Pond. 

            The new Moody Mountain Reservation contains excellent wildlife habitat, with a mix of softwood cover, hardwood mast sources, wetlands, vernal pools, open ledge and streams. In accordance with Clark’s wishes, the Forest Society will create a looping nature trail on the new reservation that will make the land more accessible for pedestrian recreation. “It will be a moderate trail, about a mile and a half through the forest, providing opportunities for walking through great habitat for deer, moose, bear and wild turkeys,” said Ryan Young, the Forest Society land protection specialist managing the project.