The New Hampshire Bureau of Trails, a division of the state’s Division of Parks and Recreation, recently honored the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests as its Landowner of the Year. The award was presented at the annual meeting of the NH Snowmobile Association.
“The Forest Society has been a supporting and willing landowner for snowmobile trails in the state for many decades,” said NH Bureau of Trails Chief Chris Gamache. “The organization has enhanced that relationship in recent years by partnering with local snowmobile clubs on fundraising efforts to protect parcels of land that have snowmobile trails on them.”
The NH Bureau of Trails has more than 5,000 landowners enrolled in its landowner insurance policy allowing public motorized trails on their lands.
“The Forest Society continues to work hard on public recreational access issues and is a model landowner for us to work with,” said Gamache. “The organization’s continued communications and partnerships with so many snowmobile clubs, as well as the Bureau of Trails, makes it by far the stand-out landowner to us.”
“We’re pleased to be recognized by the Bureau of Trails,” said Jack Savage, Forest Society VP of Communications. “It’s a credit to those on our staff—George Frame, Wendy Weisiger, Carrie Deegan, and Rita Carroll—who work with local snowmobile clubs and other trail users. We are also lucky to have more than 100 volunteer Land Stewards who help keep our lands and trails open and safe for the public.”
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.