Location
New Boston, NH

Size
16.9 Acres

Year Protected
2007

Benefits
Habitat Protection
Wetland Protection
Timber Production

Key Features
Forest Land
Beaver Pond

Stave Easement

Photo: Joel Stave

Becoming Part of Something Bigger

In 1998 PLC members and valuable volunteers Joel and Cindy Stave purchased a small patch of forest and a house overlooking a small beaver marsh. In time, this forest slowly changed their lives. The great and ancient trees on their land stamped their strong architectural presence indelibly on the Staves' memories.

In deep shadows at the base of a black gum tree, crystalline water meets invisible air for the first time, flowing on in a silver ribbon under checkerberries and other viney growth. Wildflowers nod fancy faces in springtime, Mountain Laurel greets summertime, and berries decorate the forest floor well into fall.

Owls hoot, woodpeckers ring, coyotes yip, herons yap, frogs peep and chug – all in a cappella, all in notes and chords from lives free and vibrant.

These woods were waiting to relate their multiple stories.  Joel and Cindy listened and understood their good fortune as well as their responsibility; a conservation easement was created and signed at the close of 2007.  Now the ladyslippers can dance, Jack can stand in his pulpit and preach to his ladies, the wild turkeys can scratch whatever, and Mr. Fox can smack his lips just thinking about a blue jay breakfast.

Joel and Cindy put it this way: “When we protected the land, we became part of something bigger – a part of the whole cycle of life.”