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  • Conserve Your Land

Thank you, Adair

September 2, 2025

The Hanover Conservancy would like to inform our members, partners, and neighbors that Adair Mulligan, the Conservancy’s Executive Director, has decided to step aside. Her career has been marked by a deep love of our land and dedicated service to expanding and strengthening conservation initiatives in the Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont.

To know Adair is to know her fervent love of nature. Adair’s accomplishments over the past fifteen years cannot be understated. She became the Conservancy’s first full-time Executive Director in 2010, where her deep knowledge and talents in land conservation, stewardship, and coalition building became readily apparent. Adair helped expand Hanover’s network of protected areas and dramatically increased our community’s capacity to responsibly manage key resources.  Under Adair’s leadership, the Hanover Conservancy’s number of protected properties and acreage tripled over those protected across the previous half century of the organization’s history. In addition, she supported efforts by the Town of Hanover and others to protect another 450 acres. The financial assets of the Conservancy expanded more than eight-fold.

Perhaps most importantly, Adair’s commitment to connecting people to the environment led to hundreds of community field trips and educational events, scholarship awards, and conservation trainings. An environmental biologist with a deep interest in cultural history, Adair brought a new focus on how natural resources shape the human experience on the landscape.

We are grateful to have Adair’s leadership, expertise, and energy until December.  Indeed, Adair is working in overdrive to finalize several exciting conservation projects before she steps down. Later this year we’re planning a formal event to properly thank Adair for her service to our community.  In the meantime, please join us at a Hanover Conservancy event to get outdoors and say thank you.

The Hanover Conservancy will soon begin the difficult task of finding Adair’s successor. Please reach out if you know of good candidates.

Adair – The Hanover Conservancy Board, on behalf of our members, volunteers, and partners thanks you for your devotion, your passion, your intelligence, and most of all, your service to the land. What you have accomplished will live on forever.

 


Photo courtesy of Jim Block.

Filed Under: Board of Directors

Black Bear Glen conserved!

October 31, 2025

The Hanover Conservancy is celebrating the latest addition to its portfolio of protected lands, Black Bear Glen on Moose Mountain. This major property is the generous gift of Clyde Watson
and Denis Devlin.

Located on the mountain’s western slope close to the Appalachian Trail, Black Bear Glen abuts the Shumway Forest, also protected by the Conservancy. Black Bear Glen joins a network of
over 3,200 connected acres of conserved land on the ridge that dominates the town of Hanover.

“This is an extraordinary expanse of mountainside,” observes Adair Mulligan, the Conservancy’s Executive Director. “It reflects all our strategic conservation priorities, and provides climate resilience and flood protection for Etna Village.” Black Bear Glen’s forest and streams support a rich array of wildlife, including moose, black bear, bobcat, fisher, ruffed grouse, raptors, and wild brook trout. The NH Fish and Game Department describes 60 of the property’s 92 acres as the highest quality habitat in New Hampshire. The property also includes over 1/3 mile of Mink Brook, Hanover’s largest stream. Conserving the brook and its headwaters benefits water quality, wild brook trout habitat, and more. “These far-sighted landowners have made a lasting gift to our community.”

“What a wonderful thing it is to place this land in the capable hands of the Hanover Conservancy,” commented owner Clyde Watson, “and to continue sharing its gifts with our neighbors, human and animal alike—secure in the knowledge that it will be cared for and protected for evermore.”

Black Bear Glen is accessible from the Appalachian Trail just east of Three Mile Road and is open for hiking, nature observation, snowshoeing, back-country skiing, scientific research, hunting, and other non-motorized use. The historic Harris Trail—original route of the AT—crosses the property for 4/10 mile. The General’s Trail forms a loop that swings by hemlock-
shaded glens. The Trout Lily Trail connects to the Shumway Forest, leading to Mill Pond.

Traces of Hanover’s agricultural past dot the property, including stone walls and sheep lanes dating from the early 19th century.

The long-term effort to protect ecologically valuable, climate resilient lands on Moose Mountain began in 2013 with the donation of the Mayor-Niles Forest, followed by easements on the Mill Pond Forest in 2015 and Shumway Forest in 2017, donation of the Britton Forest in 2018, and the Conservancy’s purchase of the Headwaters Forest in 2023 and Hewes Ravine in July. The Conservancy recently won a grant from the Appalachian Trail Landscape Partnership’s Wild East Action Fund to help with survey and other costs of receiving the gift of land.

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Another Trails Challenge season comes to a close

October 10, 2025

Thank you for participating in the 12th annual Hanover Trails Challenge. More than 120 people registered for this year’s Challenge, including individuals, families, and groups of friends . We hope everyone enjoyed getting outdoors and exploring some or all of our featured trails this summer. New for this year, we have special finisher bandanas for everyone who submitted a completed checklist by the deadline. These are available for pick-up at the Hanover Conservancy office at 71 Lyme Road, or out at our events this fall. Limited in-town delivery may be possible, let us know if you are having trouble connecting with us in-person!

From our stack of completed checklists, we drew names for our raffle on September 26. All winners have been notified and prizes mailed. Congratulations to our lucky winners: Diane and Eric, Kathleen, Debra, Catherine and Joseph, Ken and family, Martha and Lindsey, Daniel and Ellie, Penni, Deborah, Laura, Mert, Gary, Heather, and Peter and Silvia! Please join us in thanking these local businesses for donating raffle prizes: King Arthur Baking Co., Blue Sky Restaurant Group, Ramuntos Brick and Brew, Stateline Sports, Base Camp Café, Umpleby’s Bakery and Café, Hubert’s Family Outfitters, Main Street Kitchens, Molly’s Restaurant, and the Nugget Theater.

Did you find a new favorite trail this summer? Would you like to help us keep it cared for and protected for future generations? Become one of our adopt-a-trail volunteer stewards! Volunteers help us by providing an extra set of eyes, ears, and hands on the trail. If you would like to learn more about this program and how you can get started, please email program manager Barry Matthews at bmatthews@hanoverconservancy.org.

Thank you again for spending some of your time this summer hiking with the Hanover Conservancy! We hope to see you out on the trails or at an event soon!

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized

2025 Nominations to the Board of Directors

October 2, 2025

Sarah Kitz

Sarah Kitz has a background in sustainable forest management and conservation. She is currently a Managing Director at The Lyme Timber Company, a forestland investment group in Hanover, NH, where she works on existing and prospective investments. Immediately prior, Sarah served as Manager of Business Development for Green Diamond Resource Company, a fifth-generation forestry company, where she evaluated and managed investment activities, new partnership opportunities, and conservation sales. She has also previously served on the Board of Directors for the Washington Farmland Trust. Sarah earned her M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business and a B.A. in Environmental Analysis from Pomona College. She currently lives in Norwich, VT with her husband Willy and two kids, Sophie and Caleb.

Members are invited to vote on our nominated slate of directors at our Annual Meeting on October 15. More information can be found here. 

Filed Under: Uncategorized

New trips for Fall 2025!

September 2, 2025

We hope you’ll join us for another exciting season of events out on the land and around town. Our 2025 fall trips card will be making its way to member households shortly (join or renew today!), and you can find the full listing of events on our online calendar. You won’t want to miss fun outings to Balch Hill, Mink Brook, Moose Mountain, and more.

And as always, all our events are free and open to the public—all are welcome!

Stay tuned throughout the fall months for pop-up volunteer events and other opportunities to come together and celebrate Hanover’s special places.

Filed Under: Balch Hill, Events, Indoor Programs, Mink Brook, Moose Mountain, Outdoor Trips

Spring trips announced!

March 31, 2025

We hope you’ll join us for another exciting season of events out on the land and around town. Our 2025 spring trips card will be making its way to member households shortly (join or renew today!), and you can find the full listing of events on our online calendar. You won’t want to miss fun outings to Balch Hill, Mayor-Niles Forest, the Dartmouth Organic Farm, and more.

And as always, all our events are free and open to the public—all are welcome!

Stay tuned throughout the spring months for pop-up volunteer events and other opportunities to come together and celebrate Hanover’s special places.

Filed Under: Balch Hill, Birds, Events, Indoor Programs, Mayor-Niles Forest, Moose Mountain, Outdoor Trips, Volunteers

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71 Lyme Road
Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 643-3433

info@hanoverconservancy.org

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