As the days grow shorter and the nights colder, we at the Cheshire County Conservation District are lucky to feel the warmth and support of our outstanding community!
Since 1945, the CCCD has worked to promote the conservation and responsible use of our natural and agricultural resources.
While program focuses have shifted and evolved over these 79 years, our commitment to our community and conservation focused programs has continued to strengthen!
2024 was an exciting year for our organization’s programs and internal operations!
Every December our team gathers to look and plan for the year ahead, so we’d like to take the opportunity to reflect on the year behind!
This year our organization has grown to a team of three! By expanding our team, we have the opportunity to serve more community members in our region, expand district resources, and refine our programs to better support the conservation needs of our region!
In 2024, we continued our ongoing conservation efforts and programming, along with introducing new programs and opportunities to our community!
This year, we offered on-farm workshops focused on energy efficiency and renewable energy. In conjunction with these workshops, we also distributed 20 stipends totaling $40,000 to specialty crop producers throughout our region to support their on-farm energy efficiency and renewable energy goals! This initiative will support our farmers by lowering energy costs, reducing energy usage, and in-turn will strengthen local farm viability!
Image Description: Maple Efficiency Tour at Stuart and John's Sugar House in Westmoreland, NH
In 2024, we also worked with the Monadnock View Community Garden, located on the west side of Keene, NH, along with the NH Association of Conservation Districts (NHACD) and USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), to improve water supply infrastructure, create pollinator habitat, and improve access to needed equipment and supplies for gardeners to adopt practices to improve soil health, manage pests, and conserve water. In addition to supporting best practices for local gardeners, a portion of garden produce is donated to the Community Kitchen, providing fresh, locally grown produce to community members!
This year, the CCCD partnered with the Windham Natural Resources Conservation District and other Conservation Districts and partners in the CT River Valley of NH and VT to identify best management practices (BMPs) for reducing nitrogen runoff in the CT River Watershed. The focus of this project has been the creation and implementation of a survey for farmers to identify practices they are most willing to adopt. This is a multi-year project that will lead to on the ground projects which will support regional local soil health and healthy rivers and streams!
This year, we continued to bolster our farm equipment rental program by offering an additional on-farm equipment field day in the summer focused on field renovation and fall seeding to improve on-farm soil health.
Image Description: Summer Equipment Field Day at Ballam Farm in Walpole, NH
While conservation districts historically emerged to support local soil health, our district has grown to support numerous initiatives such as forest stewardship! In 2024, we offered an exciting multi-part workshop opportunity and partnered with Distant Hill Gardens, UNH Cooperative Extension, the Monadnock Conservancy, and the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service to make this series possible! This series of educational events focused on private forest management and conservation. We aimed to facilitate communication among forest owners, practitioners, and educators, to strengthen an ethic of forest stewardship in the region.
Topics included:
· Snags and downed woody material: the wildlife benefits of dead trees
· Small-scale forest products: extracting and processing trees for personal use
· Forest trails & roads: BMPs to protect water resources & prevent soil erosion
· Restoring Fish Habitat - in-stream wood additions for habitat & water quality
· Regenerating oak in stands where beech is present
· Forest Stewards Social
2024 Grant Highlights:
Six grant awards totaling $41,400 were made in 2024 through the Monadnock Food Co-op Farm Fund. Four for emergency relief; two for infrastructure improvements and equipment to Five Sigma Farm and Picadilly Farm. Now in its eighth year, The Farm Fund has awarded $193,400 to 25 local farms! In 2025, the Farm Fund will award up to $32,000 for area farms! We are currently accepting applications and offering an informational session for interested applicants! Learn More and Apply by February 1, 2025, here!
Since 2022, the NH Conservation Districts Climate Resilience Grant has distributed 95 grant awards for a total of $714,000 invested in New Hampshire farms. 2024 Cheshire County awardees include Abenaki Springs Farm, Britton Farm, Brookfield Farm, Five Sigma Farm, Foggy Hill Farm, Lucky 13 Farm, Partners’ Gardens, Stonewall Farm, and Windyhurst Farm! In 2025, there will be over $300,000 available to NH Farms. We are currently accepting applications and offering an informational session for interested applicants! Learn More and Apply by February 1, 2025, here!
Image Description: The Britton Family smiles in front of their Climate Resilience Grant funded project
We awarded $20,000 to NH Land Trusts through the NH Farm Future Fund. The mission of the NH Farm Future Fund is to provide funding for farm viability planning in concert with the conservation of important agricultural soils. This program will leverage the singular opportunity of putting a conservation easement on farmland to also invest in the future viability of the farm business. The goal of this fund is to ensure that farmland is conserved, productive, and available for future generations. The 2025 grant round will be announced soon with an application deadline of May 2025, more details to come!
6 Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) produce farms in the region worked with CCCD to make the Monadnock Farm Share and SNAP Farm Share accessible to 40+ local participants. These programs increase food access for community members who otherwise would not be able to participate in a local community supported agriculture program and support local farm viability!
We awarded $11,113 to nine awardees for wildlife improvement projects through the Conservation Opportunity Fund! Awardees included: Eileen Casey, Edgewood Neighborhood, Gemmo Forest, Albie Mason and Phylicia Roberts, Jake Pipp, Eli Rivera, Laura Shim, James Sullivan, and Lynn Zimmerman. We are currently accepting applications and offering an informational session for interested applicants! Learn More and Apply by February 1, 2025, here!
Image Description: A Conservation Opportunity Fund Project in Bloom
In 2024, 20 scholarships were distributed to local youth to attend summer farm camp through the Jeffrey P. Smith Farm Camp Scholarship, connecting young people to agriculture, the natural world, and supporting local farm viability!
2024 Program Highlights:
CCCD held and organized 27 workshops and events and engaged a total of over 800 participants!
We continued to offer farm rental equipment to local farmers to encourage healthy soil practices in an economically accessible way! Along with our rental equipment program, we offered 3 technical workshops utilizing our available equipment!
We celebrated pollinators at our 3rd Annual Pollinator Palooza in June! Spreading awareness of pollinator health and education to 100+ community members at Keene’s Ashuelot River Park, with over 14 local organizations participating!
Image Description: Local Youth Paint Pots for Planting at the 2024 Pollinator Palooza
We worked with seven community organizations to organize the 28th Annual Source to Sea River Clean Up! A two day volunteer event of cleaning the Ashuelot River and its tributaries in Keene and Swanzey! Thank you to this year's incredible volunteers! In total, 56 volunteers participated with 2,450 lbs of trash removed!
We continued to offer Granite State Market Match at local farm stores and farmers’ markets! This program allows SNAP/EBT users to double their dollar when purchasing locally grown produce!
Our Veteran Appreciation Month had the highest turnout on record! This year, 490 unique Veterans participated in the program, with $20,160 in vouchers distributed!
We continued to partner with local organizations to offer our Birding on the Farm series! This annual series of quarterly workshops is designed to increase community understanding of the unique role farms play in providing wildlife habitat. Community members are invited to improve their birding skills, learn more about farm management practices, and build their understanding of seasonal changes and the ecology of our region. Farms visited in 2024 included: Five Sigma Farm and Hillside Springs Farm in Cheshire County NH as well as Scott Farm Orchard and Wild Carrot Farm in Windham County VT. We hope to see you at our upcoming Birding on the Farm workshop on Saturday, January 25th at 9:00AM at Lucky 13 Farm in Winchester, NH. Register Today!
Image Description: Birding on the Farm at Five Sigma Farm in Sullivan, NH
Monadnock Outdoors is a regional partnership of community leaders representing municipalities, schools, businesses, nonprofits, coalitions, faith, and civic groups. This group is facilitated by the CCCD. Our mission is to foster connections to nature and improve community well-being through education and the promotion of active living through physical activity, active transportation, and recreation in the outdoors. This October, we are celebrating one year of the Monadnock Gear Library! The Gear Library provides all Cheshire County residents the ability to borrow outdoor recreation gear at no-cost. Gear includes camping supplies, fishing equipment, watercrafts, nature exploration tools and more. The gear library is located at the Keene Public Library
We held a fantastic 79th Annual Celebration where we honored our 2024 award recipients: 2024 Educator of the Year: Laura White and 2024 Cooperator of the Year: Britton Farm. Read more about our awardees here!
We organized the Land & Community Track for the seventh year in a row at the Radically Rural Summit! This year's sessions focused on supporting the next generation of rural farmers through land access initiatives, and on working collaboratively over property boundaries for conservation projects! Over 70 attendees from across the country and locally attended the sessions!
Image Description: 2024 Radically Rural Working Across Fences Session
Read more about what we have accomplished in our 2024 Annual Report, here!
We feel immensely fortunate to work with such an incredible community and to support the conservation and stewardship of the beautiful Monadnock region! We look forward to continuing our work in 2025 and celebrating 80 years of conservation in our community!
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