Submission information
The Nature Conservancy – Surry Mountain Preserve
The Surry Mountain Preserve is 1,300 acres located in Gilsum and Surry, NH. The forest on the preserve is quite mature with notable large oak and pine trees, but lacking in diverse or healthy tree regeneration. The Nature Conservancy worked with NH Fish and Game to develop a forest management plan that considered the challenges and opportunities for maintaining a healthy and resilient forest on this preserve given our changing climate. Management goals for the preserve include encouraging old growth forest characteristics, enhancing forest structure and composition, and managing forest regeneration. Harvests occurred in 2024 and 2025 across 175 acres resulting in some thinning, designated reserve areas, and small patch openings.
Site Location
Surry & Gilsum, New Hampshire
Surry Mountain Preserve is 1,324 acres in Cheshire County, in the towns of Gilsum (1,218-acres) and Surry (106-acres), New Hampshire, approximately 4 miles north of the City of Keene, within the Ashuelot River watershed.
43.01082177033722
-72.28047528215623
The official trailhead for the Preserve is a dirt parking lot located on Old Gilsum Road. The existing formal trails from the trailhead explore only the eastern side of Old Gilsum Road, and do not enter any of the recent harvest areas. The preserve is open to the public, and harvest areas can be found by exploring the woods west of the trailhead. The log landing for the 2024 harvest area can be easily accessed off Rt 10, ~0.5miles north of Oak Rd. The log landing for the 2025 harvest area is off an improved stretch of Class VI road (Fish Road) ~1mile up Belvedere Road.
There are three points of access for the 2024/2025 harvest areas. The trailhead parking lot can hold 6 cars. The landing site off Rt 10 can hold 20 cars. The landing site off Fish Road may be gated to prevent erosion, but 1 car can pull off by the gate.
The Nature Conservancy
+1 603-224-5853
Stand Information
1,324 acres
Central hardwoods
Hemlock-Beech-Oak-Pine Forest
Mature forest, with some limited white pine harvest activities happening in 1990’s in portions of the preserve, resulting areas of two-age shelterwood stands; and patches of regeneration/young forest associated with small group selection and thinning.
NA
beech bark disease
other foliage / shoot disease (known)
The dominant soil types are Tunbridge-Lyman rock outcrop complexes that are quite steep, dry, and very stony. Various Tunbridge type soils occupy over 60% of the Preserve. Berkshire and Marlow fine sandy loams cover an additional 24% of the Preserve.
Early-mid 1900’s
The landscape was farmed in the 1800’s and likely reforested when the farms were abandoned, and again following the impacts and salvage harvesting of the 1938 hurricane. Forest harvest activities over more recent years have been low intensity / limited.
Pre-treatment Conditions
The Nature Conservancy acquired the Surry Mountain Preserve in 2020. NH Fish and Game holds an easement that designates 50% of the Preserve as wildlife management area to be managed in a way that maintains or improves the resilience of wildlife habitats. Meadowsend Timber Consulting Company was contracted to inventory the forest stands and to work with TNC and NHFG to prepare a forest management plan in 2023. The forest management plan was implemented for 2 stands in 2024; and for an additional 2 stands in 2025.
Quercus rubra (northern red oak)
36%
Acer rubrum (red maple)
14%
Fagus grandifolia (American beech)
9%
The pre-harvest plan for the 2024 and 2025 entries identified the forest approximately 70-90+ years old, fully stocked above the B line and approaching the A line, with high quality red oak and moderate quality white pine and red maple.
Silviculture Prescription
Surry Mountain Preserve is located in southwestern New Hampshire, approximately 4 miles north of the City of Keene. It sits on a north-south running ridge within a hilly and forested landscape. Seven headwater streams originate on the Preserve and flow into the Ashuelot River, a major tributary to the Connecticut River. The watershed of the Ashuelot includes some of the least fragmented forests in southwestern NH, and the Preserve is part of a contiguous block of 50,000 acres of protected land representing a critical resilient “climate flow zone” as identified by TNC’s Resilient and Connected Landscapes analysis (2016). The Preserve is 1,324 acres, of which 50% (675 acres) has been identified as a Wildlife Management Area (WMA). TNC and NH Fish and Game Department have co-developed a forest management plan for the WMA that promotes resilience of the existing high-quality forests and wildlife habitat. Forest stands within the WMA are mature with many large trees and old forest features naturally developing. Tree species include red oak, white pine, American beech, and eastern hemlock, with pockets of richer soils supporting higher species diversity including sugar maple, basswood, and white ash. Focal wildlife species on the Preserve are primarily those of mature forests and riparian areas including many state-listed species of bats, northern goshawk, scarlet tanager, veery, eastern brook trout, wood turtle, bear, and moose.
Maintain and enhance the compositional and structural diversity of forested habitats on the Preserve to support the focal wildlife species and other Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SCGN). • Increase/maintain structural diversity to create browse, pollinator areas, and young forest structure. • Monitor to increase our understanding of focal wildlife species use of the Preserve and the response of wildlife to changes in management. • Maintain tree cover, possibly including a replacement for Eastern hemlock, within buffer areas of small stream to minimize erosion and reduce summer stream temperatures. • Manage for high overall tree species and functional diversity to increase the amount of local species adapted to future climate conditions and disturbance compared to the current condition. Maintain and accelerate healthy development of old forest characteristics. • Protect interior forest conditions, and areas with well-developed old forest characteristics (e.g., designate reserve areas) of the forest for Wildlife Action Plan focal species. • Increase carbon storage through the accelerated development of old forest structure and tending of large legacy trees. Promote resilient forest carbon stocks. • Increase snag and downed wood abundance and diversity. Manage regeneration to ensure future forest maintains high quality forest habitats for Wildlife Action Plan focal species long-term. • Increase oak regeneration, and other healthy mast-producing tree species and reduce prevalence of regenerating diseased beech. Demonstrate techniques for managing for forest resilience and transition in the face of uncertain climate futures. • Set up trial areas to test and monitor management actions and report out on results.
Same as silvicultural objectives
Thin matrix forest on 60% of stand (continuous irregular shelterwood), approx. 70-80ft2/acre; retain large, wind-firm oaks, birches, maples and beeches; leave tops and stems in the woods as downed woody debris; create snags and recruit larger downed woody material (<18” DBH) Create large group/patch cuts in approx. 20% of stand, with openings ranging from 1-5-acres in size. Create additional snags and retain diverse seed trees on patch perimeter to improve wildlife habitat and support regeneration of red oak, red maple, and black birch. Designate reserves in 20% of stand. Anchor reserves around healthy large Legacy trees of desirable species such as black birch, pine, red oak and red maple (>20” DBH), or in areas of complex structure or historic features (cellar holes).
Increase diversity in forest regeneration. Desirable species include mast producing trees to replace loss of beech and species expected to thrive under future hotter and drier climate, including red oak, red maple, and black birch.
combination of small cuts and irregular shelterwood
- forest health
- climate change
- wildlife habitat
- landscape context
Climate adaptation considerations very strongly drove the forest management plan, prescription, and harvest goals for this site. The easement on the property requires TNC to manage the preserve for wildlife and climate adaptation. TNC, NH Fish and Game, and Meadowsend Consulting Company participated in a NIACS (Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science) workshop in 2023 and co-developed the climate adaptation plan for this site as shared on the Climate Change Response Framework website. The forest management goals are focused on enhancing overall forest health and resilience to reduce its vulnerability to climate change impacts. By promoting recruitment of tree species more tolerant of our predicted future climate (black birch, red maple, red oak) and diversifying the forest structure, age, and species we are managing for a forest that will have multiple avenues for recovery following disturbances.
Prescription was carried out as described by DH Hardwick. Trees were harvested whole, skidded to the landing where they were cut to size and sorted according to species, product, and mill destination.
Post-treatment
yes
yes
We have data for only the first year post-harvest. We intend to continue with annual monitoring, and will summarize treatment results when we have enough data to do so.
Miscellaneous
no
Statistics
139
feet squared per acre
284
9.5 inches
Contact Information
Joanne Glode
Southern NH Stewardship Ecologist
The Nature Conservancy
Newmarket , New Hampshire. 03857
Supplementary Content
