News from the Urban Forestry Center Volunteers

Hello everyone! I hope you are all having a great summer!  Thanks to those of you who attended our successful June and July volunteer work parties. We’ve gotten so much done and have had lots of fun along the way. 😊 We have been hydrating and pacing ourselves this summer, but are looking forward to cooler weather. From now through October 2026, AJ and Liz have confirmed our plan to continue meeting the 2^nd and 4^th Wednesday of the month. Closer to the holiday months of November and December, we’ll adjust dates around the holidays as needed.

August through October volunteer dates

• September 9
• September 23
• October 14
• October 28

Each work party meets from 10 am to 2pm, with a lunch break. When weather is inclement (heat/cold/precipitation), we will move inside for planning tool maintenance, etc.

Please register for these and future dates on our SignUp app:

 https://signup.com/go/OmhUPsU . If you can join us but haven’t signed up yet, please register and choose your dates at https://signup.com/go/OmhUPsU

Volunteer outcomes, June and July 2026

Utility Arboretum: Featuring short stature trees suitable for planting under power lines, pruning this arboretum has begun.

Tree ID trail: Trail blazes have all been repainted and are much easier to follow

Forestry trail: With volunteers overseen by Eagle Scout candidate Adam, each stop along this trail has been cleaned and tidied and number signs replaced. UF Center volunteers have continued to clear invasive species and have completed the trail blazes.

Pollinator Garden: Other than AJ, who knew there was a Pollinator Garden at UF Center? Planted ages ago by Eversource under the power lines, it has been excavated – meaning a brush cutter was needed to clear a border outside the fence. The fence was rebuilt, and within the garden was weeded by hand. We removed invasive species and ‘found’ some lovely native flowers and shrubs.

“Main Street” project: Here’s the short story: the goal is to create a full scale model of sidewalk and street plantings for urban planners. Clearing has begun, and more updates will follow.

Foundation plantings around the office and Learning Center:

Lots of clearing, pruning, and planning was started to make these plant and shrub areas into teaching demonstration areas that are also visually welcoming.

Goals and Plans

Our volunteer mission is ambitious! Under the direction of  A.J. Dupere and Liz McKinley, here’s the plan.

• In the arboretum, we are working toward restoring the arboretum to be an educational site, offering homeowners examples of ‘the right tree for the right spot’ and providing arborist trainees with a living learning resource. It’s time to remove some trees and replace them with appropriate options. Ongoing tasks include pruning, weeding bittersweet (& more) and mulching
• Trail maintenance of the Forest Trail and Tree ID trails will be an ongoing labor of love. We are also working towards providing kiosks, trail guides and guided walks as well as well-marked trails for casual visitors.
• Indoor inclement weather plans include tool maintenance, kiosk and trail guide design, project planning, future event planning, and more
• Eventually we plan to offer educational programs, but let’s just say that first there is much to do!

Seeking new volunteers

WE WANT YOU!  And also, do you have a friend who is also a Natural Resource Steward or a Master Gardener through UNH?  If so, invite them to join us!

Our program started in December 2025 and is now well established. We have lots of fun AND have managed to accomplish a great deal of goal-oriented work in the arboretum and on the trails.

We have both light duty and rugged work available, and of course, many hands makes light work. Most of our work is outside, but never worry – we also have indoor plans for inclement weather.

New volunteers can register on SignUP at https://signup.com/go/OmhUPsU. There is no regular ongoing commitment; we look forward to seeing you whenever you can join us.

Hope to see you soon!

Gale & Jess

Gale Lyman, NFC ’25    gale@galelyman.com, 508.878.2954

Jessica Cobb, NFC ’25   jcobb628@gmail.com

Urban Forestry Center Volunteer Coordinators

Stewards Day at Canterbury Shaker Village

Friday, August 14 and 21, 2026

August 14

Promote Safe Hiking:  Clear Overgrown Summer Grasses from the Final Section of Meadow Pond Trail

It seems that everyone enjoys walking the Meadow Pond Trail. It ambles downhill from the CSV parking area under a canopy of trees that leads directly to Meadow Pond.  The trail follows the perimeter of the pond along steeper inclines and crosses a stream that provides a path for pond water overflow during spring thaw or summer downpours. 

Today we focused on removing overgrown grasses to allow hikers easy access to the end of the trail. Loppers and a weed whacker were used along the way.  Overgrown tree branches were cut and carried away from the trail. 

A sample of the wide trail leading to Meadow Pond. The trees provide shade and protection from sun and/or moderate rain.

August 21

Perfect Weather to Trim the Tree at the Bee House and Begin the Process of Drying Flax

You have probably heard that the Bee House at the Shaker Village will be officially opened for viewing (sans bees!) on Saturday, August 29.  Details are listed at the close of the blog.  All are welcome to enjoy, reconnect and visit with staff.    Today, we were asked to trim the tree adjacent to the structure’s front door.  The trimming was needed to provide safe passage up the steps and through the entry door.

The Bee House will receive new coats of paint on the internal walls and exterior lathing.  Historical information and photos will be displayed along the perimeter of the room.  The building will be dedicated and opened for viewing on August 29. 

The Stewards cleared the path to the entryway and loaded the lopped branches onto the trailer for disposal. 

As soon as the branches from the Bee House trimming were transferred to the dump, the team agreed to move a load of harvested flax to a drying room in the Garden Barn.  The Flax may be on display during the dedication of the Bee House next week. 

The bundled packs of flax were collected and delivered to the Garden Barn by a Steward.  Others helped move the packs to the third floor where packs were laid on racks to allow air flow over and below each layer.  Raised layers of window screens provided a few “shelves” for one layer and a shelf of plastic milk crates saved the day for the remaining batches of flax.

The teams cleaned the attic and returned to the first floor.  Another successful Steward and Volunteer working session closed for the day at the Village. 

Reminder:  All Stewards and the Friday volunteer team are invited to attend the Grand Reopening of the Bee House on Saturday, August 29 from 12:00 – 4:00 PM. 

If interested, please contact Bruce Currie or ML Dopart to learn about meeting of the Stewards prior to the opening ceremony.

And we hope that you are able to join us next Friday, if you can, to clear invasive plants and care for hiking trails at the Canterbury Shaker Village.

Year-Round StewardsDays at Canterbury Shaker Village

Dates:                  Friday mornings 9:00 AM – 12:00 noon 

Location:              Meet in the Shaker Village parking lot

Hosts:                   Bruce Currie, John Pastore 

Equipment:         Pruning/Garden tools if you have any available.

Food:                    Bring your own water or beverage

Dress:                    Layers/sunscreen for the season, insect repellant, sturdy shoes, work gloves, hats

Health tips:         Please do not attend sessions if you have any symptoms of Covid-19.

Format:                 Lead Stewards will meet you in the parking lot to review the day’s projects.

A Fellowship of Ferns

By Paula Munier, NRS ’22

It’s that time of year again when the forest floor is crowded with ferns. Ferns often go unnoticed and unheralded, despite their fractal beauty. Indeed, if they are spoken of at all it is typically with annoyance at their abundance or anxiety about the ticks lurking in their fronds.

And yet ferns play a critical role in the ecosystem of forests—and they always have. This group of plants is one of the oldest on the planet, far older than flowering plants. We’re talking 360 million years ago, long before the dinosaurs and long before us.  

What’s so special about ferns? Well, their fronds shade the soil, keeping it moist in the summer. And when they die off come autumn, they provide nutrients that enrich the soil. Their deep roots help prevent soil erosion, and the entire plant serves as shelter to a variety of animals, from insects and spiders and amphibians to ground-nesting birds like ovenbirds and hermit thrushes. Both wild turkeys and ruffled grouse hide their poults and chicks in ferns to keep them safe.

And while they make rough eating for many species thanks to tough fibers and tannins and toxins, ferns are also a food source for other species, including our own. Moose munch on wood fern and royal fern (above). Snowshoe hares and white-tailed deer feed on bracken fern and ostrich fern in spring.

As do human foragers, who search out the tightly looped shoots of ostrich fern known as fiddleheads. Fiddleheads are a delicacy prized by home cooks and award-winning chefs alike. Some cooks also use the fiddleheads of lady fern.

“Only spread a fern-frond over a man’s head and worldly cares are cast out, and freedom and beauty and peace come in.”

–John Muir

Take a closer look at the lovely kaleidoscope of these green feathery plants overrunning the trails the next time you wander through the woods. On a recent hike here in New England, we spotted several different fern species brightening the dappled gloom of the understory.

The interrupted fern (above) has been around the eastern part of North America for some 200 million years, according to fossil records, making it the oldest species of fern here.

Sensitive ferns (above), like many ferns, are eco-indicators, meaning that their presence indicates a certain kind of habitat. These ferns need constant moisture, and so when you spot a sensitive fern, you’ll typically find high groundwater and/or wetlands nearby.

The cinnamon fern (above), named after its dramatic cinnamon-stick style fertile fronds, is a great soil stabilizer, perfect for bogs and rain gardens. Its rootstock was used in indigenous medicine for such ailments as colds, chills, and rheumatism.

The New York fern (above) is also a wetlands indicator. Its pretty, wispy look and low-maintenance profile make it a favorite for those with woodland gardens or natural wetlands gardens. In addition to the shady forest floor, they’re also found in marshy, wet areas, and along the banks of streams. New York ferns thrive in damp, shaded woodland floors and stream edges, thereby providing the high-humidity environments beloved by toads and amphibians.

The Christmas fern (above) is an evergreen fern prized by the makers of holiday wreaths, floral arrangements, and other seasonal decorations. Its year-round dark green fronds make the fern a favorite of gardeners, too, especially as ground cover for shady spots and erosion-prone slopes, as well as providing shelter for wildlife. The plant was widely used by the North American indigenous peoples for medicinal purposes, including root teas for treating rheumatism, fevers, and stomach problems. It was also thought to be a good blood purifier.

“If we were required to know the position of the fruit dots or the character of the endusium, nothing could be easier to ascertain, but if it is required that you be AFFECTED by ferns, that they amount to anything, signify anything to you, that they be another sacred scripture and revelation to you, help you to redeem your life, this end is not so easily accomplished.”

 –Henry David Thoreau

As the ever-wise Thoreau reminds us, if we want to have a deep connection with nature, we must abandon our books and our belongings and our busyness and go into the woods, to commune with the ferns. These ancient plants are time-honored friends of the forest, a fellowship of ferns as it were, supporting the flora and fauna of our natural world.

So the next time you wander into the woods, read the sacred scripture of the fronds, and redeem your life.

One fern at a time.

May your summer be filled with fun, frolic, and ferns.

Yours,
Paula

Rain Gardens in the Fall

By Rebecca Dube, NRS ’19

According to former Extension Nursery & Landscape State Specialist Catherine Neal, a rain garden is defined as “a shallow depression designed to capture storm water runoff and allow it to slowly infiltrate into the soil.” With the larger, more intense storms we have today, rain gardens help prevent all of that beneficial water from merely running over surfaces and disappearing down the drain. Perennials, grasses or shrubs that tolerate both wet and dry conditions provide a barrier for the running water, stopping it and letting it soak into the soil. These same plants later transpire water, releasing it back into the atmosphere.

Rain gardens can extend far into the fall as well, depending on what you choose to plant in them. Excellent late-season plants to use include New England asters and goldenrod, both which attract many pollinators. Swamp sunflower continues to bloom through October and does well in most soil. Switchgrass can stand through the winter and provides a strong root base.

As with any garden, fall cleanup is an essential part of its healthy maintenance. Rain gardens can collect leaves and debris, so this should be cleaned out each fall. The leaves and debris can build up and block the overflow weir of the garden, or where excess water can flow to in a larger storm. Each fall, make sure your overflow weir is not eroded, and add new rocks to it if needed.

Plants can be removed that are diseased or have had extensive insect damage. If the plant has spread too much, or you don’t want its seeds to germinate, it can be removed. Some plant removal can wait until spring to provide food and shelter for birds and insects. If you have woody plants in your rain garden and we have a dry autumn, it is a good idea to continue to water them until the ground begins to freeze.

If you are interested in creating a rain garden, either in your own yard or as a community project, you can look into how-to videos and guides by UNH Extension, or read more at the NH DES voluntary program Soak Up the Rain New Hampshire. NH Audubon and UNH Extension are also hosting a class on rain gardens on September 21 at the Massabesic Center in Auburn.

Rain gardens play an important role in the mitigation of stormwater throughout the year. They can also attract pollinators and provide more moisture for the soil. By choosing plants that bloom into the fall and performing routine maintenance, homeowners and communities can ensure their rain gardens will continue to provide these benefits in any season.

Seed Seeker Season is On!

By jo Russavage, NRS ’10

Elderberries

It’s seed collection time again! With all of the construction activity at the NH State Forest Nursery this summer, we didn’t schedule seed seeker training this summer. Hopefully there are still some folks from past years interested in collecting, & newbies willing to learn as we go!

The Wednesday volunteers have already launched the season, collecting arrowwood seed and hazelnuts from the NH State Forest Nursery hedgerows in August. We will be organizing more collections at the nursery, and all are welcome to join in. Be aware that the timing is fairly spontaneous, as various crops ripen as weather dictates.  Billy generally gives us a few days’ notice, and we’re also collecting on the regular volunteer day/ first Wednesday each month. If you want to get on the direct notice list for seed collecting, please let us know.

Billy wanted to give everyone an idea of what species are coming up within the next few weeks, and a few species that we are looking for over the coming late summer and fall that we can help with. Elderberries are ripening over the next couple weeks. It looks like a bumper crop in many places! If you have access to elderberry that you want to donate to the nursery seed stores, please contact jo (jo.russavage@unh.edu) or Billy (William.R.Kunelius@dncr.nh.gov) so it can get to the nursery in a timely manner. Be aware that the nursery cannot use seed from berries that have been heated or frozen as part of processing.

A few species that we are looking for this season that we could use help finding sources are:

• Black Cherry- Mid August-September; 
• Shagbark Hickory; Red Oak- looks to be a decent nut year in many areas of the state;
• Oak- We may not find any this year, but keep an eye out!
• Sugar Maple- I am not seeing any seed in the greater Concord area, but there could be seed in other areas of the state;
• Red Spruce  and White Spruce

The Gentle Art of Plant Conversation

By Jennifer Montgomery, NRS ’19

Drawing by Richard Duijnstee.

Walking into the conversation late

Lately, I’ve been thinking about how we speak about the natural world. I came to native plants, pollinators, and resource stewardship…late. Not fashionably late. More like walking into a conversation where everyone already knows each other, is using vocabulary I don’t understand, and seems very confident about it.

When I discovered an interest in conservation several years ago, I quickly realized how much there was to learn—and how differently people carried that knowledge. I encountered novices like myself and also many people with deep expertise and genuine enthusiasm.

Part of my education has been discovering that conversations can sometimes drift into something less like shared curiosity and more like quiet competition over who holds the most rigorous or “correct” view. The enthusiasm is real, but occasionally it can come across with a certainty that makes some of us want to retreat rather than engage.

I remember standing in a beautiful flower garden once, admiring the blooms, only to have a fellow visitor explain—in great detail and with sharp judgment—how particular flowers in this lush pollinator garden were ecological mistakes. I just wanted to back away quietly and avoid future monologues.

That wasn’t a one-off experience—not common, but not rare either. Sometimes I want to escape what can feel like eco-surveillance. If you’ve ever felt that tension, you are not alone.

Good information, hard delivery

Here’s the tricky part: The information shared by knowledgeable people is often excellent. The challenge is not so much the content—it’s how it’s delivered.

A recent article by Margaret Roach, “It’s Time to Plant, but First Take a Crash Course on Cultivars,” offers a useful example of how powerful this information can be when it is presented in an inviting way. Roach, a popular and prolific expert on sustainable gardening, walks readers through the often-confusing world of cultivars and explains why the choices we make can influence ecological outcomes.

As Roach explains, not all cultivars are equal. Some, particularly those that remain close to the “straight species” or wild type, can retain much of their ecological value. Others, especially those bred heavily for appearance—double-flower forms or altered structures—can reduce or eliminate access to nectar and pollen for insects. A flower that looks more dramatic to us may, in effect, be unusable to the pollinators we are trying to support.

At the same time, the article avoids rigid conclusions and doesn’t assume knowledge of the vocabulary. Roach explains that cultivars exist on a spectrum, from relatively natural selections to more heavily manipulated forms, and encourages readers to think in terms of tradeoffs rather than rigid rules.

What struck me most was her tone. She started with shared curiosity, defined her terms, introduced complexity gradually, acknowledged tradeoffs, and left room for people to make better—not perfect—decisions.

As a true expert, she could easily have proselytized. But she didn’t. And that kept me reading.

Real gardens, real lives

Messaging style is a choice many of us make unconsciously as we gain knowledge and confidence. We can become gatekeepers, focused on protecting the integrity of best practices and quick to point out where the choices of others fall short. Or we can become guides, helping people take their next step.

In my own life as a relative novice interested in the topic, I’m balancing two jobs, a shared yard with a husband who has somewhat different priorities, a limited budget, and only so much time and energy for gardening. I also have unrealistic fantasies about effortless, spectacular, tick-free gardens and woodland areas that somehow maintain themselves while supporting every native pollinator, bird, and critter in New England.

Since I don’t have the magic wand to make that happen, I make compromises and incremental improvements. That’s why it can feel wearying to encounter sermons about perfect plants, perfect pollinator support, or perfect ecological choices.

Most people are not designing ideal landscapes from a blank slate. They are making incremental decisions in the middle of full lives. And within that reality, many are still trying. They swap out a few plants. They begin noticing pollinators. They ask better questions than they did the year before.

That is meaningful progress.

The value of a million imperfect yards

One of the reasons Doug Tallamy’s “Homegrown National Park” idea resonates with so many people is that it quietly reframes the conversation.

The goal is not for every homeowner to become a native-plant scholar with a perfectly optimized landscape. The goal is to create enough habitat, spread across enough ordinary yards, that collectively it begins to function like a patchwork national park.

That is a much more inclusive mindset.

It means the person who swaps out a burning bush for a native shrub matters. The person who leaves part of the leaves in the fall matters. The person who plants one pollinator bed next to the driveway matters. Even the person who simply becomes curious enough to start noticing bees for the first time matters. And in my experience, success and action breed more success and more action.

Those contributions may not satisfy the strictest definition of best practice. But multiplied across neighborhoods, towns, and communities, they become ecologically meaningful. And that feels deeply hopeful to me.

I think about this sometimes when conversations drift into intense debates over cultivars, ecotypes, or whether someone’s plant choices are sufficiently rigorous. Many people are already trying harder than they were five years ago. They are reading labels at garden centers. They are asking questions. They are reconsidering lawns. They are learning the names of native plants and pollinators for the first time in their lives.

That kind of cultural shift matters. And perhaps one of the best ways to accelerate it is through gentler invitations to what is possible and preferable. And for many people, that kind of approach might inspire them to train for and participate in the marathon rather than watching from afar.

You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World

By Ada Limón

Review by Dennis McFadden, NRS ’18

Recent reporting on the targeting of a pristine wilderness in the Upper Midwest for mineral extraction and the loosening of restrictions on potent chemical herbicides has added to the deep pessimism many of us share about the future of the natural world. The forces being marshaled against it seem both powerful and well-coordinated. And while those who champion its exploitation confidently assure us that the benefits will far out way their costs, we have our doubts. Faced with slick marketing of “progress” we are inclined to turn inward to deeply rooted personal values we assign to the natural environment. For a lot of us, the central place nature occupies in the creative arts is prominent among these. You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, edited and introduced by Ada Limón and published by Milkwood Editions in 2024, offers evidence of the potency of those values and the collective genius of a group of individuals who share them.   

Ada Limón served as the 24^th Poet Laureate of the United States from 2022 to 2025. She has published six books of her own poetry, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2018. Most recently she published Against Breaking: On the Power of Poetry. In that book, Limón reflects on her experiences as Poet Laureate, producing what the New York Times described as an “approachable meditation on poetry as a lens through which readers can view themselves and the world.” She is a past recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations.

Though not required, it has become typical for Poet Laureates to define a signature project they wish to undertake during their tenure in the post. Speaking of hers, Limón said, “I wanted something that could both praise our sacred and natural wonders and also speak the complex truths of this urgent time.” You Are Here is one of the ways in which she sought to accomplish this. A second was Poetry in Parks, the installation of poems at seven National Parks across the country. At each park, a historic American poem meaningful at that site was installed on a picnic table, making it a public art installation.

You Are Here is not a publication of Limón’s own work as a poet. Rather, it is a collection of poems by fifty of her contemporaries. These are poets representing a broad range of backgrounds and interests who share a preoccupation with the natural world in their work. In her introduction to the volume, Limón suggests that poems are like trees. “They let us breathe together. In each line break, caesura, and stanza, there’s a place for us to breathe.” A few paragraphs later Limón returns to that metaphor, suggesting, “The words collected here—in this small forest of poetry—were made specifically for this anthology, and they are some of the finest I have ever read. From rhapsodic love poems about natural landscapes and vibrant odes to trees and sky to poems that ache with what we have lost and fear for what we might become, these poems represent the full spectrum of how we human animals connect to the natural world.”

When I picked up You Are Here, I did something I don’t always do with a volume of poetry; I read it straight through from beginning to end. With these Book Notes in mind, I wanted to get a sense of the whole. What I found was a collection of fifty discreet entries, each with a brief biographical sketch of the poet followed by their contribution to the volume. This gave a certain rhythm to the book with a predictable alteration between biographies with their lists of publications, awards, and in some cases academic appointments, and the poems themselves. Some of the latter were fewer than a dozen lines in length. Others stretched to three or even five pages. Having done this once I then reverted to my usual practice with poetry of picking up the book from time to time over the course of several weeks and opening it to whatever poem the fates determined. The biographies were secondary at this point and I consulted them only occasionally.   

In some cases, it might only be with a second or third reading that I began to get what a poet was trying to convey in a poem and how they were doing it. There were even a couple times when I finished a first reading puzzling about its presumed connection to nature. It could take several return visits to begin to find it. As I often discover when reading poetry this way, there are certain poems that I only begin to appreciate after several visits when I happen to return to it in a different mood or state of mind. 

While a few of the poets Limón enlisted for her project were familiar names: Joy Harjo, Limón’s immediate predecessor as Poet Laureate; Carolyn Forche; and the New Yorker’s poetry editor, Kevin Young for example; others were new to me. In this regard, I consider You Are Here a real gift, offering evidence of the value of a thematically structured anthology like it. So many poets who write interesting work publish in small journals or chapbooks that reach only limited audiences. As a result, we may never learn about them and their poetry. This book opens a door to a wonderful group that includes some of them. It also provides convincing evidence of the inspiration the natural world provides for the creative among us. I look forward to reaching for it often in the future.

Another Great Usonian Landscaping Experience in Manchester

By jo Russavage, NRS’10

*Usonian: a term made popular by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, refers to his utopian vision for affordable, nature-integrated middle-class homes in the American Landscape in the 1930s.

The Second Tuesday in May was once again a high-energy collaboration between Natural Resources Stewards and Master Gardener volunteers as we prepared the Zimmerman and Kalil House gardens for the Spring tour season.  The group was a solid mix of experienced volunteers and first-timers, including a few still-studying Master Gardener students.  All were led by our ‘veteran’ team leaders – Mary Tebo Davis, Jan Beaulieu, Ron Trexler and Jan Litvin on the fine gardening of the bed areas, and Mike Barwell and George Theodoros leading the pruning of the massed shrub areas. The Currier Museum once again were great hosts, their staff doing a lot of the prep, heavy lifting and end-of-day cleanup as well as providing a delicious lunch for all the volunteers.

We made some new inroads into shaping the Kalil House landscape this year.  The pruning crews gave the Ilex shrub mass a fantastic new shape, lifting its skirts to let the groundcover be seen, and sculpting the top to create a more pleasing shape.  A few hearty souls moved some stones from the rubble wall along the back boundary to break up an erosion trail forming in the front shrub bed.  Several others moved the lawn edge out and added transplanted groundcovers to reshape the bed edge and fill in the gaps to slow water heading down slope and reduce erosion.  From the front drive it looks much more intentional and cohesive. 

NOTE: The Currier is looking to form a design committee to help drive a Kalil House landscape redesign process similar to what was undertaken over 20 years ago at the Zimmerman House.  Anyone interested in being a part of the process should reach out to jo at jo.russavage@unh.edu

Mary Tebo Davis guiding the pruning the flowering shrubs in the perennial beds

The front façade at Kalil House, newly primped and pruned

Jan Litvin, (NRS ’04) transplanting ground covers while Mike Barwell (NRS ’19) wheels over another stone to break up the eroded ‘path’ through the shrub bed

Pruning leads Mike Barwell (seated) and George Theodoro (NRS ’22) take a well-deserved lunch break

Photo Feature: Spring at the NH State Forest Nursery

By jo Russavage, NRS ’10

We’ve got a few happy snaps to share of all the fun at the nursery this spring.  So many terrific volunteers came to support the seedling harvest, both experienced and first-timers. Queen of the Harvest Stella once again kept us all informed and productive as we worked through the many species of natives, from conifers to wetland shrubs. Our stellar Stewards joined Master Gardeners, Coverts and Dept of Forests & Lands folks to get the harvest sorted, counted and ready for distribution.

April saw one of the driest seedling harvests on record, with Nursery Manager Billy Kunelius saying he’s never seen the seedling beds so dry while lifting the plants. Despite the snow loads this winter, we are still in drought here in NH. The deep dry snow cover also led to some crop damage from rodents desperate to find something to snack on.  The result was a shorter harvest season for volunteers.

Since people had already signed up, we shifted gears after all the seedlings were sorted and tackled a few other things on Billy’s TO DO list – pruning in the hedgerows, doing some invasive removals, clearing out the invasives and plants-out-of-place in the crabapples, …LOTS of pruning practice! Many thanks to ALL who helped at the nursery this Spring.  We’ll be heading back to the nursery through the growing season – first Wednesday of the month. If you’d like to join us, sign up at https://signup.com/go/gZPKQAg.

A day in the life of seedling sorters – aprons on as well as big smiles.

View from the top of the belt

Too big to ship! Red Cedar seedlings getting the BnB treatment.

Cleaning up the crabapple hedgerow – pruning and cleanup

Tackling one of the seed hedgerows

Digging and bagging up advanced seedlings for the demo garden

Shading the seedling rows – protects young seedlings from sun as well as predation from turkeys and other critters

Schoolyard Tree Canopy Program Continues to Take Root in NH

By jo Russavage, NRS ’10

Stewards are invited to support the N.H. Division of Forests and Lands’ Urban and Community Forestry Program again this year.  Applications for this year’s Schoolyard Canopy Enhancement Program, which provides New Hampshire schools with trees and helps turn growing and maintaining them into a learning experience, close on April 3, 2026.  Planting events will begin when weather permits, generally May – June; all will be completed by June 13, 2026.

Thirty-three schools across seven New Hampshire counties have participated in the program, now in its fourth year. Selected schools receive two or three trees, depending on availability, with an emphasis on native species. Evergreen species such as juniper and white spruce and deciduous trees, including serviceberry and red maple, have been planted in the past. 

Trees will be delivered the day of the planting event and mulch, stakes and ties will be provided by the Schoolyard Canopy Enhancement Program. There is no cost to participate in New Hampshire’s Schoolyard Canopy Enhancement Program. For more information,  contact Liz McKinley, community forester, elizabeth.c.mckinley@dncr.nh.gov.

 New Hampshire’s Urban and Community Forestry Program runs the Schoolyard Canopy Enhancement Program in partnership with UNH Cooperative Extension. Funding is provided by the USDA Forest Service.

New Hampshire’s Division of Forests and Lands is part of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. NHDFL’s mission is to protect and promote the values provided by trees, forests and natural communities. This mission is accomplished through responsible management of the state’s forested resources; by providing forest resource information and education to the public; and through the protection of these resources for the continuing benefit of the state’s citizens, visitors and forest industry. Learn more at nhdfl.dncr.nh.gov.