Forest Society to Host Information Session on Harmon Preserve
Join the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests on Tuesday, May 17 at 7 pm to learn about the organization’s management plans for the Dr. Melvin A. Harmon Preserve in Freedom.
The 334-acre Harmon Preserve was protected by the Forest Society in 1999 with plans to manage it for its globally imperiled pitch pine - scrub oak natural community.
Forest Society staff will discuss the pitch pine – scrub oak natural community restoration project. The multi-year project began this spring with a timber harvest to remove most of the competing tree species that are not a part of the pitch pine - scrub oak natural community, such as white pine and competing hardwoods. Over the next several years the Forest Society plans to use prescribed burns as well as other mechanical methods to perpetuate this unique natural community.
The Forest Society owns 170 reservations totaling 50,000 acres, all of which are managed for multiple values, including rare species and unique natural communities, timber, public recreation, water quality, and wildlife habitat. The current effort to restore the pitch pine – scrub oak natural community on the Harmon Preserve is part of the Forest Society’s long-term management plan for this reservation.
To learn more about this restoration project, please join Forest Society Staff Wendy Weisiger and Will Abbott at the Freedom Town Hall located at 16 Elm Street. For more information, contact Wendy at wweisiger@forestsociety.org or 603-224-9945 ext. 340.
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.