This past May, the Center for Northern Woodlands Education held our annual board and staff retreat at Appalachian Mountain Club’s Highland Center in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. At the retreat, we learned about the natural and human history of Crawford Notch and the White Mountains and discussed the year’s priorities for the nonprofit. The board also paid tribute to retiring member Mike Jurnak, elected incoming member Kevin Porter and new officers, and met new staff member Jen Durgin. As treasurer and chair of the finance committee, Mike has made essential contributions to Northern Woodlands’ budgetary management, including through some lean years, and especially in moving today’s funds into investment. Kevin, a sustainable-forestry autodidact and entrepreneur in spirit, will provide the board with continued financial expertise. He has decades of experience in community development finance and extensive knowledge about clean energy and affordable housing – both matters intersecting meaningfully with northeastern forests and our region’s future. Since coming on as outreach and editorial coordinator, Jen, whose writing appears in this issue and who features in Behind the Pages (see page 7), has driven numerous development and publication projects forward and has been a welcome addition to our team.
By the time we return to Highland Center, it will be October, the peak of autumn, another time of change and turnover. At the lodge, forest lovers will gather for what the retreat previewed: the Northern Woodlands Conference. Inspired by the experience of reading this magazine, the weekend will bring together regular contributors to these pages with other writers, scientists, educators, stewards, and naturalists for workshops, hikes, and presentations. If you haven’t already, please take a look at the complete schedule posted on our website and consider registering while spots remain (or else joining the waitlist). This conference takes place thanks in large part to the dedicated efforts of Communications and Circulation Director Emily Rowe (also featured in Behind the Pages) and to supporting organizations, with special credit to our lead sponsors: Bailey Charitable Foundation, Amherst Mushroom Company, The Trust for Public Land, The Nature Conservancy, LandYield, Northeastern States Research Cooperative, Mount Washington Observatory, Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, University of New Hampshire Extension, and New Hampshire Coverts Project. Their generosity (and many others’) has helped to ensure the event’s sustainability, accessibility, and overall quality.
In another case of tremendous generosity this past year, we have received two substantial bequests: from couple Emory Westlake Ackley and Marilyn (McKnight) Ackley of Maine and from Thomas Kelsey of New Hampshire. The Ackleys lived creative lives close to nature and to their Buckfield community, and they helped advance the work of numerous environmental groups we take pride in calling our peers. Mr. Kelsey, too, showed deep connection to the Northeast landscape, particularly Squam Lake, and I took great pleasure in discussing with him nature writing, birds (especially his beloved loons), and visual art. In this season of thanks, when we must believe in the renewed life that lies ahead, our small nonprofit has immense gratitude for these longtime readers’ gifts, and we consider them signs of faith in our future.