Forest Society Adds 370 acres to the Morse Preserve in Alton

The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests has purchased 370 acres of land in Alton, New Hampshire, adding to the Forest Society’s 680-acre Evelyn H. & Albert D. Morse, Sr. Preserve (Morse Preserve). The addition of this property to Morse Preserve has brought its total to 1,050 acres, further enlarging the protected network of conservation land in the Belknap Range. 

The landowner, Marlene Meinelt, reached out to the Forest Society seeking to conserve her family’s woodlot. Her father, Curtis Meinelt, purchased the land in 1939 and Marlene has honored her father’s wishes for the land to be conserved. Curtis Meinelt started working with Moreno Forestry in 1980 with a keen eye on sustaining healthy forests and wildlife habitat.

Marlene Meinelt with Forest Society Land Conservation Project Manager Stacie Hernandez

The project was supported with grant funds from the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP), the New Hampshire Drinking Water Groundwater Trust Fund Source Water Protection program, the NH State Conservation Committee Moose Plate Grant Program, and the Town of Alton conservation commission.

The property includes the ridgeline from Pine Mountain to Rocky Mountain and is visible from lower elevations, including from Alton Bay. The ridgeline provides exceptional habitat and serves as an important higher elevation wildlife corridor. A beaver pond along the property’s northern boundary hosts a great blue heron rookery and active signs of beaver are present. Ninety acres of the property is within a wellhead protection area for Alton Water Works. Frohock Brook originates on the property and continues to Sunset Lake, a conservation priority for the Town of Alton. 

“This addition to the Morse Preserve in Alton continues the Forest Society’s commitment to protecting connected forestland in the southern Belknaps,” states Jack Savage, president of the Forest Society. “We are immensely grateful to Marlene Meinelt for trusting the Forest Society to protect and care for this land into the future. Our ability to purchase this land thanks to grants from state conservation programs is a good reminder of the impact these programs have across New Hampshire.”