The Forest Society's mission includes perpetuating New Hampshire's forests through their 'wise use', or sustainable forestry. Working forests--those managed to provide a renewable wood resource--are more likely to remain as forests rather than being lost to development. Visit this page to explore stories and projects related to working forests.
By mid-summer, I noticed a faint yellow tinge to the foliage of aged local sugar maples lining our dirt road. I despaired at the possibility of some decline in their health. With more than ample rainfall, how could the maple foliage not be lush, deep green?
"May something go always unharvested! May much stay out of our stated plan, Apples or something forgotten and left, So smelling their sweetness would be no theft."
Robert Frost, 1936
My Christmas tree plantation is now a faded field of dreams. Five hundred balsams, row upon …
The afternoon sunset glows pink, reflecting off my windowpanes at 3:45. Against the lethargy of the approaching winter night, I trudge uphill into the gathering gloom, carrying a sack of wood shavings, a folding chair, a steel can of diesel fuel, and a box of wooden safety matches in my pocket. …
A boyhood discovery turns out to be the gift of a lifetime
The unmistakable scent of balsam was exotic to me when I was a boy, growing up on a street planted with ornamental hardwood trees in the crowded suburbs of northern New Jersey. The “Christmas tree smell” represented a …
With arm’s sweep, US Forest Service Research Forester Bill Leak gestured at the thick regeneration of beech, yellow birch, and sugar maple crowding a 30-year old clear-cut on the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest and said, “The northern hardwood forest is Nature’s answer to armor-plating …
The Forest Society owns and manages more than 55,000 acres of land in more than 100 New Hampshire municipalities (see our Reservations Guide). We advocate for the “wise use” of forestry resources, and work with state and federal leaders and private landowners to assure that laws governing forestry and land use also promote wise use of forest resources.
In August, NH towns celebrate "Old Home Days." Forest Society founders, Frank Rollins and Nahum Batchelder conceived "Old Home Week” in 1899. It was designed to lure wealth back to NH to revitalize depressed rural economies and bring abandoned farms back onto tax rolls.
Ancient tree-worshipers – Druids - believed mistletoe possessed magical powers because it grows high in bare oaks, shedding lush green leaves even in midwinter. Druids harvested mistletoe to hang in households to promote fertility.
The Forest Society owns and manages more than 55,000 acres of land in more than 100 New Hampshire municipalities (see our 
