Program Updates
Program Updates
- Details
- Category: Community Vitality
Crews are finishing up demolition work at the Center’s Parker J. Noyes renovation project in Lancaster, NH, and will soon move on to structural repairs and exterior upgrades.
Meet the project team and take a quick video tour of the top floor with Center President Rob Riley.
- Details
- Category: Community Forests
The Center is working with residents of Hanover, NH, and partners the Trust for Public Land and the Hanover Conservancy to create a Community Forest that will protect 250 acres containing the headwaters of Mink Brook, mature forests and a scenic hay field.
Center Program Director Julie Renaud Evans will help prepare community members for owning and managing the 250 acres as a town resource. “I’ll will help residents identify management and recreational priorities to balance sustainable forestry with ecological protection and development of new trails and recreation opportunities,” said Renaud Evans.
Hanover is a town of about 11,000 people, well known as the home of Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, though the surrounding landscape is rural. The Mink Brook Community Forest project will stave off development that has threatened the property and help conserve the rural character close to downtown.
- Details
- Category: Community Vitality
Center Hires Garland Mill to Manage Renovation of Parker J. Noyes Building
Renovation of the historic 11,000-square-foot Parker J. Noyes building on Main Street in Lancaster, NH, begins June 29 as part of the Center's Community Investment work in Lancaster.
“This gem of a building is getting a 100-year upgrade,” said Ben Southworth of Garland Mill. “It’s a very significant historic restoration and we’re excited to be part of it.” The Northern Forest Center hired Garland Mill as construction manager for the project.
The Center purchased the building in the fall of 2018 and is renovating the building to contribute to revitalizing Lancaster's downtown and supporting the local economy.
“We want the Lancaster area to benefit from this project from the beginning,” said Julie Renaud Evans, program director for the Northern Forest Center. “Working with designers and builders from the region is supporting local jobs now, and when the building is complete Taproot’s expanded operations and the new apartments should both make a very positive contribution to the vitality of Main Street.”
- Details
- Category: Community Forests
The town of Woodstock, Maine, has formally started the process to consider creating a Community Forest in town.
Voters attended Woodstock's socially distanced Town Meeting on June 22 in their cars, while the Board of Selectmen and the meeting's moderator, Steve Wight, used the bed of a truck as a stage. Center Program Director Julie Renaud Evans gave a brief presentation about the benefits of Community Forests and the ways they can serve town goals before the vote.
Voters passed a Warrant Article to create a committee to explore the feasibility and practicality of creating a Community Forest.