FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Amanda Nickerson, Communications Specialist
Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests
(603) 224-9945, ext. 301
New Dublin Trailhead to Open Soon
Eagle Scout helped coordinate Dublin trailhead relocation
Concord, N.H., May 18, 2007 —With the help of a Hillsborough Eagle Scout, the Forest Society recently completed the Dublin trailhead relocation project. The Society for the Protection of NH Forests has announced that they will celebrate the relocation of Mount Monadnock’s Dublin Trailhead located on Old Troy Road in Dublin, in the near future.
With well over 100,000 documented visitors each year, Mt. Monadnock has earned the title of most climbed mountain in the world and regular trail work is critical to ensure safe and sustainable recreational opportunities. The project was supported by the Monadnock Advisory Commission, the NH Division of Parks and Recreation, and was recommended in the 2003 Monadnock State Park Master Plan. The improved parking lot is designed to accommodate 20 mid-sized vehicles. The new section of trail leads from the parking lot and will go through a small section of a working forest that has been recently harvested. It then ascends next to a mountain brook with picturesque scenery. A crew from the NH Conservation Corps is currently working on building bridges and steps to help ensure the long term viability of the trail and to make the hiking experience more enjoyable.
“An exciting change at Mount Monadnock” said Forest Society Director of Land Management, Geoff Jones. The new parking lot and trail relocation is the result of a 15-year effort to find an alternative to the congestion and overcrowding that was a perennial concern at the historic Dublin trailhead.”
For his Eagle Scout service project Caleb Howard of Hillsborough spent 80 hours planning, organizing a crew of 20 people and finding equipment to reroute the three-quarter of a mile section of the Dublin Trail. Caleb met with Andy Fast, reservation stewardship specialist from the Forest Society, who worked with Caleb to use the project as an educational opportunity and promote a safe and productive work environment for all the participants. Caleb and his crew of volunteers spent six hours on the trail, cutting trees, removing brush and clearing the trail of debris.
“The Dublin Trail reroute is an exceptional project” said Fast. “It improves the aesthetics and safety of the trail, and should solve a number of ongoing parking issues along Old Troy Road. Moreover, it is exciting and rewarding to have Boy Scouts and the NH Conservation Corps associated with the project. Not only does the reroute improve the operations at the State Park, it fulfills an important educational mission rooted in the work of the Forest Society.”
The Forest Society owns nearly 4,000 acres on Mount Monadnock and Gap Mountain and leases much this land to the state to be operated as Mount Monadnock State Park. In 1915, the Forest Society acquired its first 406 acres on Mount Monadnock, thus beginning a long-term effort to protect the natural integrity of the fabled mountain and its surroundings. Over the past century, the Forest Society has worked with local communities and residents to gradually expand conserved land on the mountain through both land acquisition and conservation easements over important segments of trail and forestland. Today, the Forest Society’s land includes the summit of Monadnock and most of Gap Mountain, and includes property in all four Mountain Zone towns of Dublin, Marlborough, Troy and Jaffrey.
The The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (www.forestsociety.org) is the state’s oldest and largest non-profit land conservation organization. The Forest Society’s Center for Land Conservation Assistance was established to help aid land trusts and municipalities achieve their land conservation goals. In order to preserve the quality of life New Hampshire residents know today, the goal of the Forest Society, in partnership with other conservation organizations, private landowners, and government, is to conserve an additional one million acres of the state’s most significant natural lands for trails, parks, farms and forests by 2026
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