Explorers Learn about Dragonflies on Guided Walk
Twenty adventurous people joined Carrie Deegan (Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests) and Andy Deegan (Ausbon-Sargent Land Preservation Trust) on a dragonfly walk at the Forest Society’s Langenau Forest in Wilmot last week. Carrie and Andy volunteer for the New Hampshire Dragonfly Survey, an effort coordinated by NH Audubon, UNH Cooperative Extension, and the NH Department of Fish and Game, that seeks to catalog the dragonfly species in NH.
Participants at this walk learned about dragonfly identification, biology, and behavior, as well as why the conservation of land and aquatic habitats is important for the perpetuation of the state’s dragonfly populations. Aerial nets were passed around to allow people to try catching and releasing dragonflies in the field. More than a dozen species were identified!
Founded in 1901, the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests is the state’s oldest and largest non-profit land conservation organization. Supported by 10,000 families and businesses, the Forest Society’s mission is to perpetuate the state’s forests by promoting land conservation and sustainable forestry. For more information, visit www.forestsociety.org.
The Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust preserves the rural landscape of the Mt. Kearsarge/Lake Sunapee region. For more information, visit www.ausbonsargent.org.