Jack Bronnenberg didn’t set out to be a woodlot owner – or to run a logging and trucking company. His dream as a young man was to raise beef cattle in southeastern Kansas or northeastern Oklahoma, where his family is from. That dream is what brought him to New Hampshire. After completing a two-year program in agribusiness, Bronnenberg took a one year post running an Angus beef operation in Northwood, New Hampshire.
“I was 21 years old and had never been east of the Mississippi River, and I had itchy feet,” said Bronnenberg. “I decided I would come to New Hampshire and see what it was like for a year and then go back out west and get serious about raising cattle.”
Of course, life is unpredictable, and dreams evolve. That first year in New Hampshire, Bronnen-berg met his future wife, Mary, and “I quickly got converted to trees,” he said. The couple celebrated their 43rd anniversary in 2024. Since 2010 they’ve owned 150 acres in Upper Village Hillsborough, a property they call Three Oaks Tree Farm, after their three sons, now grown. The property, where they live, includes 18 acres of hayfields (hayed by a local dairy farmer), 38 acres of high-quality white pine, 70 acres of northern hardwoods, 20 acres set aside as an “ecological reserve,” and two 2-acre wildlife plots planted for pollinators and other wildlife. Three Oaks sits on a large stratified aquifer and has two brooks and a vernal pool, and there is a 300-foot elevation gain to where the hardwoods grow. The forest management plan for the property includes timber harvests and wildlife habitat improvement.
Bronnenberg founded Bronnenberg Logging and Trucking (BLT) in 1988, during a time, he said, when there was “a lot of land conversion and liquidations happening around central and southern New Hampshire.” From the start, however, he saw the forest as more than a way to make a quick buck.
“I kind of made an ethical choice to not get caught up in that in my business. I resisted the short-term gains of liquidations and revenue harvests. That choice pointed me in the direction to where I am,” he said. “The criteria of the landowners I ended up working for and still do – and I hope have become – are those that reflect more interest in the outcome of a project rather than the income from it. If done right, the income from a well-managed forest, over time, can provide much more income than an initial liquidation harvest.”
This thoughtful approach to logging jibed with the values of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (Forest Society). In 2003, the Forest Society contracted BLT to manage a 10-year stewardship program across 32 properties. Learning from Forest Society pros during that time, he said, “was a game changer,” further enhancing his understanding of sustainable forest management. He’s continued to learn from others since then.
“I learned early in my career the value of serving on the boards of various industry groups and conservation organizations,” Bronnenberg said. He spent 12 years on the Strafford Conservation Commission, 16 years on the board of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association, 15 years on the state’s Forestry Advisory Board, 35 years on the board of the New Hampshire Timber Harvesting Council, and 6 years on the board of the state’s Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP).
The Bronnenbergs acquired their first woodlot in 2005: 80 acres in Loudon, New Hampshire, which they purchased from The Nature Conservancy. During nearly 20 years of ownership, the couple placed a conservation easement on the property, used a Natural Resources Conservation Service EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program) grant to create wildlife habitat and forest access there, joined the state Tree Farm program, and sustainably harvested roughly 900,000 board feet of high-quality white pine. In June 2024, the Bronnenbergs sold the property, which is now the Boisvert & Normand Nature Preserve.
“It was always kind of our succession plan to sell if we found the right person,” Bronnenberg said. “It was a win-win. I was so excited that what we’d done had been pushed to the level that it can be there forever in the state that we shaped it to. I’m still working with the owners and managing it. It’s so rewarding to get to stay involved.”
Another long-term plan – once the boys had all graduated from high school and college – was to move away from their home on 4 acres in Strafford, New Hampshire, to a less densely populated area.
In 2010, a forester friend asked Bronnenberg to conduct a conservative timber harvest on a property in Hillsboro. The last time a cutting had happened there was in the late 1980s, when a forester oversaw a light, low-grade thinning for firewood. Bronnenberg fell in love with the place and instead of signing on to do a timber harvest, he asked the owners of the property if he could purchase the 150 acres. So was born Three Oaks Tree Farm.
“Our plan was to build a retirement home here. We lived 34 years in Strafford. I’d never got to do on my own land what I do for everyone else as far as managing and creating habitat,” Bronnenberg said. “This was a dream come true for me. We built a house in 2017–2018 and moved the 60 miles from Strafford to Hillsboro.”
Working with a licensed forester, Bronnenberg created a management plan and obtained an EQIP grant to help fund some of the projects. He’s worked to create habitat for pollinators and other wildlife and to establish numerous forest age classes – from early successional to mature. And he’s planting trees with an eye toward both enhancing habitat and growing high-quality saw timber.
Bronnenberg has planted many Dunston chestnuts, a hybrid known for good nut production. He’s also transplanted numerous white oaks from a 64-acre woodlot across town that he and Mary own, which is also part of the Tree Farm program. And in one of the 2-acre wildlife plots, he’s planted various species, from chicory and clover to winter rye and forage oats. In the other 2-acre plot, he does early plantings of buckwheat for pollinators and sunflowers for a later season food source. Mary has also established a small orchard of apple, peach, and cherry trees and has two large gardens.
“Diversity equals resiliency,” Bronnenberg said. “You can put that in a lot of contexts.” He noted that diversity gives forest managers more leeway to adapt to climate change, invasives, and other challenges.
“I’ve learned over the years to look at forests forensically. The forest is always in a state of change,” Bronnenberg said. “Noticing how the forest and wildlife react to these changes is how you learn how mother nature manages on a large scale. I try to do the right thing for the land, the wildlife, and the environment. And to do the right thing for my clients as well.”
Those logging clients now comprise a few landowners whom Bronnenberg has worked with for a long time, including Proctor Academy, a prep school in Andover that owns 2,500 acres of woodlands, where Jack has been involved for the past 22 years and now serves as woodlands manager. While son Jake, who earned a forestry degree from University of New Hampshire, worked with his father for 15 years, he now runs his own business, Jake Bronnenberg Forest Services. Jack Bronnenberg’s steady work colleague these days is a chocolate lab, aptly named Timber.
Bronnenberg’s work now includes managing his own property. Three Oaks is bordered on two sides by 1,100 acres of land conserved through the Forest Society. While Three Oaks does not have a conservation easement, it is protected by a deed restriction that allows only two residences to be built there.
“My day job has always been to pursue my passion for all these other people and their woodlots, create habitat, and massage the forest,” Bronnenberg said. “It’s so fun to get to do it on our own property.”