The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests recently traded 9.5 acres that the organization owned near the Monadnock State Park’s Poole Road entrance to the State of New Hampshire in exchange for 119 acres on the mountain’s western slope.
The state plans to use the nine-plus acre parcel conveyed by the Forest Society to improve its visitor facilities and add much-needed parking.
The 119-acre tract received by the Forest Society is known as the Joseph Gay Mountain Pasture, a name given by Anne Kimball, who donated the land to the State of New Hampshire in 1929, in honor of Joseph E. Gay from whom she inherited the land. The parcel’s name is a reminder that less than 100 years ago, the now-wooded flanks of Mount Monadnock were open pasture grazed by sheep.
The Forest Society’s ownership of this parcel will enable the organization to more easily access and manage its other properties on the mountain, including its Monadnock Reservation.
The Forest Society conserved the first 650 acres of Mount Monadnock in 1915. Today the organization owns more than half of the 6,817 conserved acres on the mountain and holds easements on more than 1,000 additional acres. The Forest Society also owns 1,105 acres on nearby Gap Monadnock.