06/12/2026
On Wednesday, we took the time for something we don’t often allow ourselves to do: celebrate. Our foresters, land stewards, and conservation staff are usually hard at work out in the woods all around New Hampshire.
But Wednesday was a special day for us. We gathered staff, our board of trustees, donors, members, and volunteers and took the last two trains for the day (loaded with snacks and beverages for a mid-mountain toast) up the Cog Railway to the summit of Mt. Washington.
As we rode up to the top and enjoyed the incredible views, we found ourselves asking: what would this place look like without the work we’ve undertaken for the last 125 years? What would New Hampshire look like without The Weeks Act, The White Mountain National Forest, or The Wilderness Act? Without LCHIP? Without permanent protections for Crawford Notch, Franconia Notch, Kearsarge, Monadnock, Sunapee, Mt. Major, Gap Mountain and hundreds upon hundreds more…
We can’t know for certain what NH would look like without all that, of course. But we do know this: the work we’ve been doing since 1901 to conserve the state’s forests at scale had been timely, urgent, effective, and community-driven. And that is certainly worth celebrating.
To our friends and members that spent the afternoon with us—and especially to those who have been steadily, quietly supporting us for years and we finally convinced to join us on our adventure (😉)—thank you for such a special day. Now it’s back to work.
