Working Forests

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.

In December 2015, the Forest Society began harvesting timber from the southern part of the Ashuelot River Headwaters Forest in Lempster.  The Forest Society acquired this 1,827-acre gem in 2010, and the forest management plan was completed in 2014.  This harvest is the first of several planned en

Remember the TV show The A-Team, in which the cigar-chewing hero John “Hannibal” Smith says: “I love it when a plan comes together”?  Faced with a challenge, he would develop a plan, execute that plan under much adversity and by the end of the hour-long show put a big grin on his face and spout …

One of our more interesting recent timber sales is at the Emily and Theodore Hope Forest in Danbury. We’re using a “seed tree cut” for part of this harvest to encourage red oak to grow.

            The site is very good for red oak, producing a high percentage of quality sawlogs and …

Encouraging results after a fall 2014 seed tree cut

The Forest Society is conducting a timber harvest on the north parcel of the Taves Forest (also known as Parker Hill) in Roxbury this summer.  The planning for this harvest started in 2013, when staff forester Steve Junkin did a comprehensive inventory of the property and wrote a management plan

Anyone who has played baseball or softball knows the feeling of hitting the sweet spot. When bat meets ball dead-on, it’s as if the ball isn’t even there. It’s perfect nothing.

When I arrived home from work one warm day last week, the dogs suggested that we take a walk in the field out beyond the barn. Over the course of time all dogs have perfected the highly persuasive suggestion, and so I couldn't refuse.

Sugarmakers are all wondering what this extraordinary winter will mean to this year’s maple syrup production. In central New Hampshire, I have historically tapped the trees for my modest hobby operation by President’s Day weekend in February, often enjoying a good run that week. This year, other than a few meager drips echoing on the bottom of my old-school buckets, there hadn’t been a real good run by March 24. Contrast that to a few years ago when spring came so fast that I was all done by March 18.

Over the past several years, the flightless insects, called scales, have bored deep into the bark of red pines throughout the region, ravaging the ramrod trees from New York to Maine.