MMRG's Annual Meeting Featured Guest Kevin Gardner

Annual Meeting photos courtesy of Kate Wilcox.Moose Mountains Regional Greenways held its 2016 Annual Meeting festivities on April 17 at the Kingswood Greenside Tavern in Wolfeboro, NH with nearly 100 people in attendance. MMRG Board Chair Jack Savage welcomed the crowd and extended thanks to many volunteers for their dedicated work, to several landowners present who have conserved their property with MMRG’s help, to the many donors of items for the silent auction, and to Norman Vetter Foundations, the business sponsor of the event.In his remarks, Savage outlined three key elements for achieving success in land conservation, focus, opportunity, and capacity, and concluded that MMRG is in an excellent position on all three counts. MMRG will sharpen its focus for future land conservation efforts with a new regional conservation planning process that it is now underway. Meeting attendees participated in this process by identifying their favorite special places on a map of the 7-town region served by MMRG; the public and many stakeholder groups will be engaged in months ahead. Conservation opportunities are currently in abundance, exemplified by several new projects at varying stages: a contract for purchase of the Branch River Conservation Area, an easement project on the verge of commitment, ongoing discussions with another landowner, and inquiries from others. MMRG’s capacity to carry out conservation projects is in good shape due to the recent hire of a full-time Executive Director and the repeated fundraising success of business sponsorships for the annual Woods, Water and Wildlife Festival, a family-oriented event that celebrates the great NH outdoors.In a short business meeting, MMRG members elected Emily Lord of Middleton to a first-time three-year term and several Board members to repeat three-year terms: Art Slocum (Wolfeboro), Bruce Rich (Wakefield), Dan Coons (Wolfeboro), and Nancy Spencer Smith (Wakefield). Board members with continuing terms include Cynthia Wyatt (Milton), Jack Savage (Middleton), Lorrie Drake (New Durham), Nicole Csiszer (Brookfield), Ron Gehl (New Durham) and Wendy Scribner (At-large). The newly-elected Board then elected its Executive Officers: Jack Savage (Chair), Nicole Csiszer (Vice Chair), Bruce Rich (Treasurer) and Art Slocum (Secretary).Founding member Cynthia Wyatt bestowed organizational awards on two recently retired Board members, former long-serving Treasurer and volunteer bookkeeper Jon Batson and long-time dedicated Director Steve Panish. Said Cynthia, “MMRG would not be the stable and effective organization that it is today were it not for the outstanding contributions of these two.” As she handed them plaques and gift certificates, she added, “The real award is the everlasting quality of every land protection project taken on by MMRG.”It was the first MMRG Annual Meeting for new Executive Director Patti Connaughton-Burns, who expressed how pleased she was to finally put faces to many names on MMRG’s membership list and her appreciation for the energy, commitment and welcome she feels from Board, Staff and MMRG members. She then spoke about the Branch River Conservation Area, MMRG’s first outright land purchase, a 17-acre property with 5,000 feet of frontage along the Branch River in Wakefield. She noted that a recent mailing to Wakefield residents about this project had elicited an immediate strong response of donations, phone calls, and potential new conservation projects. Click here to add your donation - Thank you!Having recently re-located to Wolfeboro from southern NJ, Connaughton-Burns cited the lands in NJ used as important migratory bird stopovers that have been diminished by recent development crush as an example of how quickly open space can be lost. Referring to the crucial role of land conservation, she commented, “ We may feel protected right now, but it doesn’t take much to lose it.”Featured guest speaker, author and tradesman Kevin Gardner commenced by unloading a bucket of small stones onto a table. His disclaimer that the purpose of the stones was purely to keep his hands busy and had nothing to do with what he would talk about seemed belied by his careful construction of a miniature wall characterized by just those qualities he described for dry-laid stone walls built to last- a small wall nearly as wide as it was high and with successive layers of stones placed carefully over joints between stones in lower layers. But Gardner’s talk ventured over more topics than how to build a wall. He told the story of stone walls in New England and how they became common in the late 18th century. Farming became the primary occupation after the Revolutionary War, sheep requiring fencing became popular as livestock, stones had to be removed from the fields but wood was becoming scarce and earlier split rail fences and fences of tree stumps had deteriorated, and hand scythe clearing allowed for close cutting up to the stone walls. An inventory by the US Dept. of Agriculture determined that by 1871, over 250,000 miles of stone walls crisscrossed New England, a length that could go around the world ten times.Moose Mountaineers Keith Fletcher and Cathy King played tradtional fiddle and guitar music during the social hour and auction. Proceeds of the silent auction support MMRG’s land conservation and educational outreach work. Bidding was particularly competitive on a guided lobster trip and on a Trager massage session. A bag of dark roast coffee beans garnered the greatest number of bids with a garden primitive birdhouse running a close second. We thank our many generous item donors:4J's EarthworksAnonymousArt & Lynne SlocumBirds & Beans CoffeeBruce RichCheryl GiguereCheryl KimballCynthia WyattDottie BeanEastern Boats, Inc.Forty to One FarmGarwoods RestaurantGranite Steak & GrillGratitude Yoga & WellnessJohanna HelferJane Wingate PhotographyJay Fortune Custom CarpentryJill PaulJim Theodore & Nancy Spencer SmithJohanna VienneauKam DamtoftKay FernaldKevin GardnerKira JacobsLee PrescottMapleStone SchoolMcKenzie's FarmMeadow View SugarhouseMilton Hardware, LLCNew England FurnitureNH Farm MuseumNH Tree Farm CommitteeNorth Endz Hair & TanningPat's PrimsPigs ina PokePink Cadillac DinerRachel TowneSteve PanishSusann Foster Brown StudioThe Governor's Inn Restaurant and TavernThe Music MillThe Wakefield InnTiny Hill FarmTrager Massage, LLCVirginia LongWendy ScribnerWindjammers Seafood RestaurantWinning LandscapesWinnipesaukee ChocolatesWyatt & Siemon

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Annual Branch River Paddle planned for May 28

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Winter Walks co-sponsored with Branch Hill Farm