From Cooperator to Educator to Community Partner: CCCD Honors the 2026 Awardees of the Year!

The Cheshire County Conservation District (CCCD) is proud to announce our 2026 Awardees! Annually, CCCD gives out two awards,Cooperator of the Year and Educator of the Year, to community members or businesses that make significant contributions to our community and the natural world. This year, we are proud to unveil our new Community Partner of the Year award. This award recognizes a partner we feel deserves recognition for their efforts, not only in partner projects, but also in the overall service they bring to the Cheshire County community. 

We recognize our 2026 awardees not only for their hard work, but for their commitment to creating a more resilient community and a more sustainable world. The 2026 awardees: Oliver and EliseLevick of Monadnock Berries for the Cooperator of the Year Award, Carl Majewski of UNH Cooperative Extension for the Educator of the Year Award, and Marti Fiske and Amy Kraemer of the Keene Public Library for the Community Partner of the Year Award!

Cooperator of the Year

The Cooperator of the Year award recognizes the hard work and dedication of producers who have worked with NRCS and/or CCCD to provide delicious, vital, farm-fresh food we all love in New England. Time and time again, these producers put care and passion into their land not only to support production, but to create healthy soils, clean water, and thriving wildlife. Oliver and Elise Levick are the proud owners of Monadnock Berries in Troy, New Hampshire, and also the 2026 Cooperator of the Year awardee. The farm has been in the family since 1996, and as the second generation to work this land, Oliver and Elise embody a longstanding relationship with and respect for the land.

Elise grew up an hour north of Portland, Maine, on a hobby farm surrounded by nature and eventually chose to experience city life, attending college for business and fashion in Boston. Meanwhile, Oliver was born in England and moved to Troy in 1996, where he spent his childhood at Monadnock Berries. Similar to Elise, he chose to attend college for economics in Boston, spending his summers at an orchard his family leased in Massachusetts. With similar childhoods, passions, and the shared city of Boston, Elise and Oliver met in Aruba at a mutual friend's wedding. Elise says, “It was all just perfect timing!”

In 2022, Oliver’s parents, Fenella and Anthony, were looking to retire. Oliver and Elise jumped at the opportunity to move to New Hampshire and take over the family farm and wedding business, ultimately fulfilling Fenella and Anthony's retirement plan. At this point in their lives, the allure of the big city was starting to dissipate, much of their free time was spent outdoors, so taking over the farm felt like a natural next step for both of them. As Elise says, “They took the leap together!” While still working their corporate jobs and transitioning into managing a farm and the associated wedding business, Elise and Oliver worked hard to make Monadnock Berries their own. Oliver states, “The best time of the day was closing the laptop and spending the next four hours of daylight outside.” As their lives took on new responsibilities and their days got busier, Oliver and Elise got married on the farm. . To this day, a bench sits overlooking Mt. Monadnock as a symbol of their marriage and the many others held at Monadnock Berries. Oliver shares his sentiment: “It’s so nice to see someone sitting on the bench and enjoying our fields.”

The wedding business is one of many ways Monadnock Berries builds community. While they sell wholesale, a big part of their farm is the “pick your own” model, drawing large crowds who come not only to pick berries, but to enjoy the outdoor space with family and friends. Elise expresses the beauty of this: “We aren’t just shipping our fruit off; we get the reward of seeing everyone coming here and enjoying it. Seeing them in the fields appreciating all our hard work. It’s so heartwarming!” She continues, “Sometimes you forget to stop and enjoy the mountain and the view, but having everyone here reminds you how special this place is.”

While some might say the soils aren’t great at Monadnock Berries, they are perfectly acidic enough for the blueberries the farm is known for. In fact, the soil was utilized for berries even before Fenella and Anthony bought the farm in 1996. Oliver’s family continued that tradition, expanding the farm by clearing additional fields and purchasing neighboring land. Now, five seasons in, there are over 11,000 blueberry bushes with over twelve varieties. The blueberry bushes span twelve acres, with an additional acre of raspberries and an acre and a half of currants and gooseberries. More recently, Elise started growing flowers wholesale, “pick your own weekends”, and flower buckets for brides to DIY. Over the years, Oliver and Elise have also adopted and installed conservation practices to benefit their farm and support the land's sustainability, leading them to pursue grant contracts with NRCS and the Cheshire County Conservation District. 

In Oliver’s words, “I wish there were thirty hours in a day; you have these lists of what you want to do to the property, so when we can have support with projects, it feels like reinvesting in the farm.” Initially, Oliver was unfamiliar with NRCS or CCCD programs, beyond the memory that his father had worked with them in the past. He says, “It wasn’t until I was approached by an NRCS Conservationist with some ideas that I realized.” He further elaborates, “It has been super helpful; they even came to the farm and drove around, and we talked through operations and pain points. They had so many suggestions of programs available to help.” Many projects are currently in the works, but through NRCS, Monadnock Berries installed a weather station to make weather tracking and management easier for growing degree days and invasive species management. A few more significant NRCS projects are set to be implemented over the next five years, including mulching for disease and weed suppression, invasive species management, and erosion control on many of the fields. 

Elise and Oliver are excited for the upcoming NRCS projects because a huge concern for them is invasive species, specifically Buckthorn. Oliver elaborates, “The berries that come on buckthorn get strewn around by the birds. I spend a ton of time every fall going around with a weed wacker with a metal blade - I walk every row trying to knock it out and dab it with a little bit of stuff to kill it off. It takes over entire bushes, and we almost lost a field to it.” Erosion is also a consistent issue on the farm, but with increasingly sporadic weather changes, particularly from the 2023 floods, the farm took a lot of damage. As Oliver reminisces, “The erosion went from a three to a ten! Grasses didn’t grow back.”

In partnership with the  Cheshire County Conservation District, Monadnock Berries also received the Monadnock Food Coop Farm Fund grant, installing a walk-in cooler and making infrastructure improvements to their pack house. All of these updates allow them to pack and store berries more efficiently for wholesale. 

Monadnock Berries is a beacon of successful community building, creating beautiful spaces for outdoor recreation, feeding our local communities, and doing so with care for the land and long term conservation in mind. Oliver says, “You can say you own the land, but you really are just a caretaker. The land will be here long after we’re gone, and making certain improvements helps the land to function.”

Educator of the Year

The Educator of the Year Award has long recognized educators in our community, including teachers and less conventional educators in our community. This year, Carl Majewski with UNH Extension, is the 2026 Educator of the Year. Carl's longtime role as a Field Specialist allows him to work directly with New Hampshire producers to teach soil management practices that keep our soils healthy and productive. 

Carl always knew he wanted to be involved in agriculture. During his high school career day, he met with the Cheshire County Extension Agent who specialized in livestock and unbeknownst to him, that serendipitous meeting would lead him in a similar direction.From working on a dairy farm in his teens to pursuing Dairy Management at the University of New Hampshire, his interests shifted from working directly on a dairy farm to working as a service provider for farmers, which led him to a master’s program at the University of Vermont.. , After earning his master’s degree, Carl worked for a fertilizer company and Connecticut River Agriculture until he ran into the same county extension agent he had met in high school during a routine farm visit. There, Carl learned he was transitioning into a new role, leaving the UNH Extension office with an opening. In a full circle moment, Carl took on his old role. His official title is Dairy, Livestock & Forage Crops Field Specialist, but many know him as the “county agent” or the “extension guy”. He has now been in the job for 24 years. 

Carl’s day-to-day work varies. Whether he is in the office, on a field visit at a local farm, or facilitating an educational program, every day is an opportunity to educate. Carl expands, “It is really a lot of one-on-one education. It is not formal education. Even if it is a small course or workshop, it tends to be informal. That’s what I like about it.” When it comes to working with producers, Carl states, “There are so many different ways of farming and so many different ways individual farms achieve the same goals. The way you work with them will be different, and it takes work to figure out that individualized approach. You do a little bit of everything in your approach, so everyone should be able to take something from it.” 

For Carl, his work is more than a job. It’s about building relationships with farmers and their farms. Many  of those relationships have existed for over 25 years, and as a result, he has been part of how they change. From new ideas to new generations, Carl has been able to help educate, but also, learn from those evolving relationships. Carl says, “One of the things I like about the job is that not only can you keep learning, but you are expected to keep learning.” As farms produce new crops or pursue new practices, Carl has to stay on top of the expanding research so he can inform and support producers in his role. 

While Carl focuses a great deal of his role on educating and supporting producers, one thing he really hopes to continue in his work is helping to inform the general public of where their food comes from. Understanding the importance of small farms and the intricate benefits they bring to the world is something more of us can benefit from. Carl expands, “People don’t always understand how much good that farm being there is doing for the landscape. All the things they are doing that do keep the environment clean, minimize pesticide use, contribute to the economy, and connect food with their local community.” 

Education is about connection and community. Carl embodies this day after day in his work and as an individual. He encourages everyone to utilize the extension office, attend workshops, and be open to learning. To sum it up, Carl says, “It’s not just me. I am proud of the work I do, but I wouldn’t be able to do it on my own. It’s my extension colleagues, the conservation districts, and the farms that I work with. They all help me do a better job.” 

Community Partner of the Year Award

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The Keene Public Library is a staple of the Keene community. Its mission statement, “Keene Public Library is your place for community and learning,” truly captures its commitment to being a free, accessible place for the community to connect, build, use, and learn. The Keene Public Library not only creates and distributes needed resources, but also partners with many different organizations to provide a wraparound approach to best serve the community. 

The Cheshire County Conservation District is proud to partner with the library through the Monadnock Outdoors work group as a part of the Healthy Monadnock Alliance. This partnership paved the way for creating the Monadnock Gear Library and the Garden Tool and Seed Library at the Keene Public Library. This resource allows Cheshire County residents to borrow outdoor recreation gear at no cost! Like most library programs, this gear library was designed to address financial and access barriers that might otherwise limit Cheshire County residents' access to equipment to get them outside and appreciate the natural beauty and land our region has to offer. 

Marti Fiske, the Library Director, and Amy Kraemer, Head of Youth and Community Services, will be accepting the Community Partner of the Year award on behalf of the Keene Public Library. Their work and commitment as partners to CCCD and others have been inspirational and fruitful in developing important community resources. Both Marti and Amy are particularly motivated by the resource development and community support elements of their positions, which reinforces the library's commitment to remain a place of community and learning. 

Marti started at Keene State College for her freshman year, eventually transferring to a college in Vermont, where she earned her bachelor's in History and Secondary Education during the recession in the 1990s. Because teaching positions were scarce, she worked as a substitute teacher and several other jobs, while volunteering at her local library. Her time volunteering sparked a passion for working in public libraries. As she pursued her master's in Library Science at Syracuse University, her teaching certification allowed her to work as a school librarian. After spending 20 years directing two Vermont libraries, Marti was delighted to rejoin the Cheshire County community as the Library Director at Keene Public Library.. For the past seven years, Marti has appreciated and worked to expand the connections different programs and resources create in the community. 

Amy has a background in visual art and digital media. Her commitment to community development led her to an MLIS degree from Simmons College. She has held the position of Library Director at several New England libraries and as a passionate advocate for library services, she currently serves as Head of Youth & Community Services. She has worked with Keene Public Library for nine years.

Both speak on their favorite programs and favorite aspects of working at the library and partnering with the community. Marti says, “The Gear Library and the Garden Tool and Seed Library programs are among our strongest programs because they involve so many different organizations and cover so many different angles. From the seeds and garden tools, it turns into programs on how to cook, pickle, freeze, and dehydrate your harvests. People can start flower gardening, then someone comes in and teaches flower arranging and aromatherapy. It was natural to add an outdoor gear collection to all of this. It brings people with interests out to share their experiences and skills. ” 

Amy says, “The cool part for me is doing community organizing, becoming community partners, and sharing resources to make our community stronger.” She further elaborates, “Connecting people and organizations and information in many forms makes all of our work more impactful. The library is a community anchor that provides support  where we can with other organizations who share commonalities.”

The Keene Public Library is not only a vital community partner to CCCD and other organizations, it is also a vital community partner to the people of Cheshire County. Amy shares that sentiment by stating, “The library makes people more independent. It’s like teaching a person to fish; if you teach them to access resources once, they now know to come back to access more resources. They read a book about magic, and the next thing you know, they grow up to be a magician .” 

Join us in celebrating our awardees at CCCD’s 81st Annual Celebration on October 22nd from 6:00PM to 8:30PM at Walpole Town Hall! Tickets are $38 each! 

Register here!

RSVP by October 9th!