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Conservation Commission

Conservation and More

              by Bruce B. Beckley

Issue #88, September, 2000
Just For You

We hear some folks are looking for community service credits or a project towards a scouting award or, unbelievably, just have time on their hands for community service. This is written for you. It is also written to school and community organizations willing to underwrite projects or give a group effort. These are some of the opportunities we have to offer you. I suppose this smacks of Tom Sawyer and fence painting.

This summer the ACC received two grants from the NH State Trails Bureau for trail improvements in Joe English Reservation and the Pond Parish Town Forest. The first is for new trail signage and maps. The latter for better drainage and grading of the loop trail in PPTF and a 200-foot long bridge and boardwalk.

To qualify for these grants the ACC must provide a substantial matching effort which can be in the form of volunteer hours. What is a volunteer hour worth? To us, it's priceless. The Trail Bureau values an hour of a volunteer's manual effort at $7.17 and will credit the ACC accordingly. Donated professional services (engineering or equipment operation, for example) are credited at the donor's normal billing rate.

Project Specifics

Joe English Signage: a) Carry posts to 25 trail junctions, dig holes and set posts, mount new signs which are on hand and maps on posts. b) Construct a kiosk at the Plumb Forest trailhead and improve the entry area.

Pond Parish Trails: a) Improve former logging road with grading, culverts and new surface. b) Design and construct a major foot bridge and boardwalk to connect the two sections of the forest.

JE Hemlock Trail: Logging for forest management has begun in Joe English Reservation. Upon completion, we plan to create a new trail, the Hemlock trail, in parallel with the steep portion of the Bicentennial Trail. The Hemlock Trail will provide a gentler climb, variety and a better route for winter activity. Effort will be needed to improve skidways, move rocks and build a bridge over Hammond Brook.

Eagle trail: Also in Joe English, improvements are needed in wet areas where increased usage is causing difficult walking and adverse impacts. The Commission owns land along the Souhegan River which could provide opportunity for a riverside walk and places for relaxation. This project will entail gathering permissions, layout, environmental assessment and physical effort.

At Peabody Mill Environmental Center volunteers can help with several property improvements to preserve the historic sawyer’s cottage and improve the other buildings used for classes, displays and youth camp programs. There is always need for help with seasonal maintenance at PMEC and on the trails.

Nobody said conservation was easy. If any of these opportunities match your needs, please give us a call. If they don’t, we can find one which will. Promise.

From An Amherst Hilltop

Members of the Commission recently had an invitation to a preview visit of the property being bequeathed to the ACC by the late Professor Walter Jackson Bate. The land rises steeply from the old farm, affording long views to the south. Professor Bate was a preeminent authority on the poet John Keats. With this in mind as we stood on his hill, these words of the poet came to mind;

I stood tip-toe upon a little hill,
The air was cooling, and so very still,
And then there crept
A little noiseless noise among the leaves,
Born of the very sign that silence heaves.

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