Forest Society Honored by National Organization
The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (Forest Society) was honored with a national award for its innovation in advocating for both land protection and the careful sustainable use of natural resources.
The organization was selected from more than 1,700 land trusts across the country to receive the National Land Trust Excellence Award from the Land Trust Alliance. The award was presented at Rally: The National Land Conservation Conference in Portland, Oregon on October 12, 2009.
“We are delighted to be recognized for our innovative land conservation work,” said President/Forester Jane Difley, who accepted the award for the Forest Society. “Our success is due in large part to the strength of our partnerships as well as our recognition that land protection and sustainable forest management go hand in hand.”
Since its creation in 1901, the Forest Society has been a leader in collaborative efforts to conserve natural resources throughout the state of New Hampshire. In addition to owning and actively managing 165 forest reservations in nearly 100 communities, the Forest Society holds conservation easements with numerous municipalities, provides an executor role in more than 125 easements held by other organizations, and has joined with nearly every major land trust in the state to complete or advocate for land protection projects. The organization also frequently partners with New Hampshire’s State Division of Forest and Lands and Fish and Game Department to conserve working forests and critical wildlife habitat.
The Forest Society has always been looked upon to bring together various stakeholders to address complex conservation and environmental issues, in large part because it has always been viewed as a fair and reasonable convener and advocate. Through consensus building and collaboration, the state’s oldest and largest land trust is a proven leader.
“The members of the Forest Society have preserved the quality of life and unique character of their community—now and forever,” said Rand Wentworth, President of the Land Trust Alliance, in bestowing the award. “From its first major initiative to promote the Weeks Act to create the eastern National Forest System to the many other collaborative projects that reformed timber taxes, created a constitutional amendment to enable the creation of current use land assessment, and the creation of the Trust for New Hampshire Lands and Land Conservation Investment Program—a $50 million program to secure 100,000 acres, the organization’s efforts have proven it to be a successful leader in collaborative conservation.”
The Land Trust Alliance is a national conservation organization that works to save the places people love through land preservation, wise land management, and political action. For more information, visit www.landtrustalliance.org.
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.