We’re excited to be featured in the fall issue of Here in Hanover magazine! Pick up your copy around town or share the article with friends online.
NEW website for Pine Park
The Pine Park Association has a new website!
Stay up to date and learn more about this beloved area at PinePark.org.
Pine Park is a treasure in so many ways…
— scenic, forested Connecticut River shoreline – near downtown!
— beautiful trails, linking the campus and nearby neighborhoods
— protected corridor & shaded fish habitat for Girl Brook, one of Hanover’s most vulnerable streams
— stopover habitat for spring migrating birds
— shelter for wildlife
Here’s more from our friends at the Pine Park Association:
Pine Park is Hanover’s first natural area permanently preserved as a park and today functions as the town’s “central park” for the enjoyment of walkers, joggers, skiers and many others. TRAILS MAP
The Park’s 95 acres, acquired between 1900 and 1912, represent an important ecological resource, where riparian and forest ecosystems intersect. Accessed through the Hanover Country Club, off Rope Ferry and Occom Ridge roads north of the Dartmouth College campus, the park features a significant stand of old white pine, hemlock and hardwoods. The land is home to deer and black bear, among many other woodland animals, as well as to some unusual and endangered plant species.
Historically, the town of Hanover and Dartmouth College have shared responsibility for the management of the park, and both periodically offer labor and expertise in connection with its preservation. However, neither contributes funding directly for park maintenance or capital improvement. The park is owned by the Pine Park Association, a voluntary nonprofit that dates back to 1900, when a group of 17 local residents sought to prevent the Diamond Match Company from harvesting trees along the riverbank just north of the Ledyard Bridge.
Conditions in the park have deteriorated in recent years, in part because of an aging canopy affected by a disease known as needle cast, and because of development that has contributed to notable erosion along Girl Brook. Frequent foot traffic along the brook, which crosses the park’s main path, has also contributed to the degradation of the bank and adjacent trail, which has been temporarily re-routed. A pedestrian bridge has been built to protect the bank from further damage. (Watch the bridge being built!)
To learn more about Pine Park contact the Pine Park Association. Read an essay about the park (Valley News, September, 2014). (Thanks to Kathryn Stearns for this article)
Work continues at Pine Park
Pine Park is Hanover’s first natural area permanently preserved as a park and today functions as the town’s “central park” for the enjoyment of walkers, joggers, skiers and many others. The park is owned by the Pine Park Association, a voluntary nonprofit that dates back to 1900, when a group of 17 local residents sought to prevent the Diamond Match Company from harvesting trees along the riverbank just north of the Ledyard Bridge.
Stay up to date and learn more about this beloved area at PinePark.org.
Emerald Ash Borer update
In face of Emerald Ash Borer invasion, NH lifts statewide quarantine, relying on homeowner efforts to slow the spread of this deadly pest.
EABs are here, and our ash trees will never be the same. Individual landowners are the best equipped to treat and save trees on private property. Throughout New England, large tracts of forest and roadways will be cleared of trees before infestation (when removal is much safer and lumber may be sold), in stages during the active infestation as budgets allow. Towns all across our region are using state resources to take inventories of ash trees within their town limits, and set priorities for removal or possible treatment. Stay informed: VT Invasives has an easy-to-navigate site, and the UNH Cooperative Extension regularly publishes information, like this blog and accompanying homeowner handout.
Thank you for your support!
With an all-time high in membership, generous land donors and growing partnerships with local schools, it’s been a record-breaking year for the Hanover Conservancy. Every gift makes a difference. Please join us as we move into our 59th year serving the Upper Valley!
Britton Forest Conserved!
The Hanover Conservancy announces a major addition to our protected lands!
Set on Moose Mountain, this 79-acre property is the generous gift of Doug and Katharine Britton of Norwich on October 31, 2018. The Britton family has owned the land for nearly three-quarters of a century.
The forested parcel cloaks the west slope of the iconic Moose Mountain ridge just below the North Peak, surrounded on three sides by permanently protected and/or public land. On the east is an expanse of National Park Service lands surrounding the corridor of the Appalachian Trail. To the south is the Conservancy’s own Mayor-Niles Forest, given to the Conservancy just five years ago this month. To the north is the Plummer Tract, owned by the Town of Hanover.
Doug Britton observed, “It’s not often that landowners have the opportunity to add acreage to existing conserved land, especially in areas important to wildlife, water resources, forestry and recreation. We are pleased to make this gift to the Hanover Conservancy, strongly support their mission, and appreciate their assistance in making this transfer happen.”
“Protecting this property accomplishes a number of the Conservancy’s strategic conservation goals,” observes Adair Mulligan, the Conservancy’s Executive Director. “It provides an unbroken link in valuable wildlife habitat and expands the protected higher elevation lands that create resilience to climate change. These cooler, unfragmented forests will become an increasingly critical refuge for birds and other wildlife.”
The Britton Forest supports flood security for neighborhoods below by protecting streams that flow into Hewes Brook. Forested headwaters regulate stream flow, mitigating microbursts and washouts. Shaded stream banks also ensure a brook’s health downstream by keeping water clear and cool.
![Marks from a black bear](https://www.hanoverconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/bear-paw-e1540928805191-150x150.jpg)
Black bear, moose, snowshoe hare, red fox, grouse, deer, and likely bobcat inhabit the Britton Forest. The Conservancy plans to inventory the property’s plants, birds, and wildlife before deciding on future management. A network of stone walls laces the land, indicating its 19th-century past as sheep pasture. The Britton Forest will be open at all seasons for recreation. Stone wall-lined Plummer Hill Road, a Class VI road, gives access to the land, and the Harris Trail follows the west side.
One need not visit the property to enjoy it – it is easily visible even from Vermont, part of the scenic view of Moose Mountain that forms a beautiful backdrop to the town of Hanover. “The Hanover Conservancy appreciates the fore-sighted generosity of landowners like Doug Britton,” Mulligan continues. “We hope his example encourages other Moose Mountain landowners to consider the future of this wild and scenic region of our town.”
Britton has also thoughtfully provided a contribution toward the Conservancy’s transaction costs. Mulligan said the group hopes others will join him, to help cover expenses of inventorying natural features, trail building, blazing boundaries, and caring for the land into the future. A small grant for transaction expenses was provided by the Quabbin to Cardigan Partnership, a public/private effort to protect the Monadnock Highlands of western New Hampshire and north central Massachusetts.
How to get there:
Parking for 3-4 cars is available at the end of Ibey Road, off the north end of Three Mile Road. Walk up Plummer Hill Road (Class VI, unmaintained) 1/4 mile past the entrance to the Conservancy’s Mayor-Niles Forest. The Britton Forest begins at a stone wall on the right. Watch this space for details and announcements of guided trips to explore the Britton Forest.
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