Karen Finogle (603) 224-9945
September 12, 2003
LOCAL FAMILY PURCHASES FORMER MCCABE
HOUSE FROM FOREST SOCIETY
Adjoining 187-acre McCabe Forest remains protected
and open for public recreation
ANTRIM - Local residents Brian and Mary Sawich are the proud new owners of the McCabe house in Antrim. The Sawich’s purchased the house and the five-acre tract it sits on from the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. The adjoining 187-acre McCabe Forest will remain permanently protected and open to public recreation.
Dorothy McCabe donated the McCabe House along with 192 acres to the Forest Society in 1982. The house was used as a Forest Society staff residence and field office for about 10 years before being occupied by local caretakers Amos and Margot Russell.
In 1995, the Forest Society received approval from the Antrim Planning Board to divide the property into a five-acre tract containing the house and grounds and the adjoining 187-acre McCabe Forest. Earlier this year, the Forest Society decided to sell the house and five acres so that it could focus on investing more time and resources on the adjoining conservation land.
"When we first acquired it, the Forest Society thought the McCabe house might potentially serve as a regional field office for our land conservation and management activities,” said Paul Doscher, senior director of land conservation for the Forest Society. “After a while it became clear that what we really needed was the storage space we had in the existing barn, and not a large colonial house." As a result, the Forest Society concluded the house might be better cared for if a family owned it.
As part of the sale to the Sawich's, the Forest Society will retain the use of the barn for five years. Presently, the barn is used to store equipment for managing the Forest Society’s dozens of forested and open space properties around the Monadnock Region. Eventually, the Forest Society will build a new equipment shed for this purpose on a property in the region.
The Forest Society will continue to own and manage the 187-acre McCabe Forest as it has in the past. A parking area with a visitor kiosk is located off the Elm Street extension in Antrim. There are trails leaving from the parking lot that are open to the public for hiking and other non-wheeled recreation. The McCabe Forest features extensive frontage on the Contoocook River, widely varied and productive wildlife habitat, well-managed pine and hardwood forests, and a host of interesting wildflowers and other plants.
Founded in 1901, the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests is a 10,000-member, nonprofit organization that has helped protect more than one million acres. Visit www.forestsociety.org for more information, or call (603) 224-9945.
-END-