Nearly 1,000 acres of forestland in Springfield could become an important new link in a vast network of protected lands stretching from the Mount Sunapee region toward the White Mountains.
The Pillsbury Ridge Forest sits along the Grafton town line between the 6,675-acre Gile State Forest and the 820-acre Carter Brook Wildlife Management Area. Conserving this property would help create a nearly contiguous protected landscape of more than 12,000 acres extending toward Pleasant Lake in New London.
Pillsbury Ridge also lies at the northern end of the Quabbin to Cardigan conservation area, a 2 million-acre corridor stretching from the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts to Mount Cardigan and the southern edge of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Protecting this land would strengthen an important connection for wildlife while safeguarding forests, wetlands and headwater streams.
A Forest Rich in Wildlife
The property’s remote, high-elevation and rugged terrain supports a wide variety of wildlife habitat. Forest Society foresters have documented signs of deer, moose, coyote, porcupine, fisher, bobcat and black bear.
Rocky outcrops provide habitat for porcupine and bobcat, while younger forest areas offer food and cover for moose, deer, woodcock and ruffed grouse.
Several streams begin on the property and flow north toward Smith Brook and, eventually, the Smith River. Native Eastern brook trout have been confirmed in these cold-water headwater streams, and a spruce-fir forested wetland lies along the property’s northern boundary.
Help Us Protect Pillsbury Ridge
The Forest Society has an agreement to purchase Pillsbury Ridge Forest and permanently protect it as part of our network of conserved forestlands.
To complete the project, we must raise $1.9 million for the purchase, project costs and long-term stewardship of the property.
About $700,000 has already been identified, including a $200,000 grant from the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP). Now we need your help to close the remaining funding gap and complete the purchase by March 2027.
Every gift brings us closer to permanently protecting this remarkable landscape.