50 Days for 50 Years at Balch Hill

July 30, 2020

Did you know that Balch Hill nearly became the site of over 100 homes? Fifty years ago, the Hanover Conservancy led a group of concerned neighbors to raise the funds to purchase and protect the summit of this iconic place.

Over the last half century, the Balch Hill Natural Area has grown with more lands owned by the Conservancy, Town of Hanover, and Dartmouth College, and managed by a volunteer neighborhood stewardship committee with support from Town and Conservancy staff.

On August 1st, we are launching a 50 day fundraising campaign for the Balch Hill Stewardship Fund, ensuring that this beloved property will be maintained for the next 50 years! Please consider making a gift today. Your donation will support trail maintenance, mowing, invasive plant treatment, sign replacement and many other projects at the hill.

Hanover Votes to Fund Mink Brook Community Forest

July 8, 2020

At last night’s Hanover Town Meeting, residents voted to approve a $500,000 contribution towards the purchase of the Mink Brook Community Forest from reserve and conservation funds held by the Town. From the Valley News, “Plans to turn 260 acres of woods and old farmland along both sides of Greensboro Road into a town forest also were OK’d on Tuesday. Residents voted by a show of hands to spend $500,000 to help purchase land which crosses Mink Brook and includes a brick farmhouse from 1850. The Trust for Public Land, assisted by the Hanover Conservancy, hopes to spend $2.5 million acquiring the property from the Leavitt family. So far, an anonymous donor has footed $500,000 to help the project, which also received a $600,000 community forest program grant from the U.S. Forest Service. None of the town’s share will come from new taxes, and will instead be taken from existing reserve and conservation funds. Officials also hope to sell the property’s farmhouse to help finance the overall project, and a separate four acres could be used by Twin Pines Housing Trust to build “a small cluster of affordable cottage-style homes targeted to new homeowners,” according to an April news release.”

GOOD NEWS FOR GREENSBORO!

May 5, 2020

We all know that broad and beautiful meadow on Greensboro Road – a generous open space that is such a welcome sight in days like these. The Hanover Conservancy is proud to partner with the Town of Hanover and the Trust for Public Land in a major project to protect these 250 acres of floodplain meadow, upland forest, and the corridor of Mink Brook, to be called the Mink Brook Community Forest. MORE

50 Years of Conservation in Hanover

April 22, 2020

Earth Day 2020 – 50 years of conservation

We at the Hanover Conservancy are proud of the progress we’ve helped our community make in protecting natural lands and clean waters. By the time of the first Earth Day in 1970, we had protected the summit of Balch Hill and conveyed the Tanzi Tract to the Town of Hanover with conservation restrictions. Beyond Hanover, we’d also assisted NH Fish and Game in acquiring Lyme’s 43-acre Wilder Wildlife Management Area and the New England Wildflower Society in protecting a 35-acre riverfront preserve in Plainfield.

These maps tell the story of then and now.

Today, we own and protect 450+ acres of natural areas and hold permanent conservation easements on another 550+ acres. The Hanover Conservancy has also assisted other partners with saving nearly 1700 more acres in Hanover and elsewhere in the Upper Valley.

Earth Day turns 50!

April 22, 2020

2020 marks the 50^th anniversary of the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970 – and the beginning of the environmental movement that has inspired so much healthy, positive change in how we treat our home planet. Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, US Senator from Wisconsin, came up with the idea after witnessing a massive oil spill in California. It was the Vietnam Era; Sen. Nelson hoped to infuse the energy of anti-war protests with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution to force environmental protection onto the national political agenda.

Organizers chose April 22 (between Spring Break and final exams), for an event that drew 20 million Americans — 10% of the total US population — to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast protests, uniting groups fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife. Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, gaining support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, urban dwellers and farmers, business and labor leaders. Congress soon passed the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts and created the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Plant a Tree for Earth Day

April 21, 2020

Trees give us many gifts – clean air and water, places to recreate, wildlife habitat…and carbon storage. Restoring trees to the landscape is the single best low-tech, low-cost pathway for storing more carbon on the land. A forest can store an average of 2-3 tons/acre of C0₂ each year. With just a will and a spade, we can get started pulling carbon from the air right now.

A NATURAL CARBON SINK – To prevent the most dangerous impacts of climate change, greenhouse gas emissions must reach net zero by 2050. Capturing carbon from the air naturally – by putting trees to work – can provide significant cumulative carbon removal through 2050 and beyond.

When choosing a tree for your home landscape, consider this:

Fast growing trees store the most carbon during their first decades.
Long-lived trees can keep carbon stored for generations without releasing it in decomposition.
Native trees will thrive in these soils and best support local wildlife.
Low-maintenance, disease-resistant species will do better without greenhouse-gas-producing fertilizers and equipment.

Red Maple identification image — Red Maple

We suggest Northern Red Oak — Acorns attract wildlife and the leaves develop a brick-red fall color. Red oak is fast growing, easy to transplant, and tolerant of urban conditions (including dry and acidic soil and air pollution). Best growth is in full sun and well drained, slightly acidic, sandy loam. Northern red oak often reaches 60-90’ and occasionally 150’. Trees may live up to 500 years.

A colorful alternative for damp soils is Red Maple — the most abundant native tree in eastern North America. Known for its early brilliant fall foliage and red flowers, it is usually found in moist woodlands and wet swamps in sun or part shade. A medium-sized, fast-growing tree (2-5’/yr), its seeds and buds are eaten by birds and mammals, but it is not preferred by deer.