Dartmouth College and The Trust for Public Land entered into a land deal that promises to protect an old farm estate that offers birding and hiking opportunities just 3 miles from Hanover, New Hampshire’s Main Street.
Immediately after purchasing the 175-acre Hudson Farm from Dartmouth, the trust gave it away to the National Park Service so that it could be added to the Appalachian Trail.
It’s a prime location. All the neighbors use it for hiking and snowshoeing and skiing in the fields in the wintertime.
A mixture of forests, wetlands and open fields, the property includes a trail system that links areas of Hanover to the Appalachian Trail.
The preservation of those grassy fields is particularly good news for bobolinks, songbirds that are in decline in the state and have lost about 2 percent of their numbers for a 10-year period ending in 2013, according to New Hampshire’s Wildlife Management Plan, which cited habitat loss as one of the driving factors.
Dartmouth bought the property in 1963 and worked the land, according to a Dartmouth spokeswoman. “For years, the fields were hayed and the land was used by the College for research and teaching” subjects, including biology and terrestrial ecology.
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