Here for the good of communities and people — since 1901

Anne Truslow of the Forest Society delivered the following remarks at a Foundation community event at the Forest Society’s Rocks Estate in Bethlehem in September.

My name is Anne Truslow, I am the Vice President for Development at the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. I am grateful to be here for so many reasons, and among them is to see — and participate in — the Forest Society’s vision for recent renovations here at The Rocks coming to fruition. Our hope was to create a space with value to the community, and also to draw people to Bethlehem for a variety of natural and cultural experiences — and here we are tonight. Thank you for being part of the next chapter at this place. The Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund, and a number of New Hampshire Charitable Foundation donors, were instrumental in helping us raise over $8 million to support the project here — so we wouldn’t be here without you, in more ways than one.

As many of you will know, the Forest Society is a statewide conservation and forestry organization that was founded in 1901. Today, the Forest Society owns 65,000 acres in more than 100 towns across the state and holds conservation easements on an additional 140,000 acres. These are places managed according to science-based management plans, some for sustainable timber, some designated as eco-reserves that are essentially untouched, and many with networks of recreational hiking trails and historic features. Our priorities today revolve around protecting and managing land for climate resilience as well as recreation, advocating for policy and funding, and engaging people of all walks of life and ages in the outdoors. We do this from three “base camps,” our headquarters at the Conservation Center in Concord, here at The Rocks, and from our education center at Creek Farm in Portsmouth.

It is an organization with its roots in citizen action, created by a coalition that included the NH Federated Women’s Clubs, former and future governors, business people, and “thought leaders” of their time. The galvanizing force at the time was deforestation in the White Mountains, and it its first ten years the Forest Society mounted a broad-based effort that resulted in the passage of the Weeks Act of 1911, which enabled the formation of the White Mountain National Forest.

In the century since, we have led numerous grassroots campaigns for both conservation and policy action. Most recently, perhaps, was the nine-year opposition to the Northern Pass. In that case, as a landowner in the North Country entrusted/obligated with upholding conservation commitments on the lands we own, the Forest Society was in the role of convener of like-minded groups and defender on behalf of many, which re-connected us with many North Country residents. In a sense, for many though not all, it was a case of “being here for good, in good times and in bad.” Which brings me back here to The Rocks.

The Forest Society has managed the Rocks, which was donated by the Glessner Family, as a Christmas tree farm and education center, since the 1980s. Over the years, there has been a vibrant volunteer docent program here, natural history and education programs, work with the local schools, and much more. But, as many of you may recall, in 2019, a fire destroyed the main barn buildings.

And so, the Forest Society came to a crossroads in early 2019, and actually made the decision to “be here for good.” With input from local community members and groups, and some internal soul searching, it was clear that re-investing in The Rocks and in fact leaning-in to our Northern New Hampshire presence was important to the organization as a whole, and could add new value as a community resource. And so, from 2019 to 2024, we undertook a major renovation that centralized farm operations to the red house and barns down the hill, created a hillside amphitheater facing the White Mountain view on the site of the Tool Building that burned, and renovated this 1884 Carriage Barn as a net-zero program center powered by solar and geothermal. The goals were to model green energy use, as we have done at our Concord headquarters, be able to locate more staff here in Bethlehem (now seven), create public spaces that would be of value to the community as well as the Forest Society, and to recommit to educational programs and offerings that bring people to this place, to welcome them here, and create a platform for delivering our mission, increasingly about forests, climate and connecting people with the outdoors. Now, we are looking forward to being here for good, in old ways and in new ways to come.