Green Woodlands

Part of Green Woodland's charter is to help people connect to nature. Through positive outdoor experiences, people gain an understanding of the importance environmental preservation has on our individual lives and on society. This "getting it" is not just reading about nature but experiencing it so that it penetrates much more of our being than just the frontal lobes of our brain.

We allow the public on the vast majority of the more than 20,000 acres of Green Woodlands property, we have only about 20 acres that we ask the public for our privacy, this area is clearly marked, I am sure you agree that this is a reasonable request.

Allowing the public onto our property is always a balancing act. We allow many uses of the property but there are some uses that just do not coexist well with our version of connecting to nature. We therefore are very strict about not allowing motorized wheeled vehicles onto the property. This prohibition includes 4 wheelers, motorcycles, cars, and trucks. We also do not allow camping or camp and cooking fires of any kind. We appreciate your assistance with these requests.

We have over 60 miles of snowmobile trails on the property.  There are three snowmobile clubs that groom trails on Green Woodlands property: Lyme Pinnacle, Baker River and Cardigan Mountain snowmobile clubs.

We do not make maps available because we do not want them to be publicized.  Also trails change and we would not want someone to use an outdated map. We will try and post maps at most intersections of the cross country ski trails in the winter but you are on your own to explore during non winter months.  The main section of Green Woodlands is about 35 square miles so learning to use a map and compass and orienteering is an extremely valuable skill to have in exploring the forest. 

Part of the culture of New Hampshire is hunting. In fact, the vast majority of people we run across in the woods are hunters and they seem to be extremely active and concerned with protecting the environment.  We do allow ethical hunting according to the New Hampshire Fish and Game rules and regulations.  Please remember that we do not allow motorized wheeled vehicles onto the property so if you harvest a large game animal you need to be prepared to get it off the property without a vehicle.  We do ask that you notify us when you come onto the property to hunt and if you do harvest an animal we ask that you tell us what and approximately where.  You do not have to tell us your secret hunting spot, but since we spend a lot of effort in wildlife management activities we would like to know what is working. 

There are seven ponds on the property with the largest being Cummins Pond at about 160 acres.  There are no fish in any of the ponds so do not bother fishing for bass, perch, pickerel, catfish, or trout.  We are pretty good about lying about the absence of fish as well as about the size of fish we catch.  If you really want to waste your time fishing we do ask that you not use gas engines on the ponds.  To insure water quality we ask that only electric motors be used on the ponds.  We do have an electric motor and battery to use as a loaner to avoid the use of gas engines.  Just ask and we will tell you were the loaner electric motor and battery is kept.

Green Woodlands is not a zoo or a staged nature preserve, this is a real wilderness area with an abundance of wildlife.  If you want to see wildlife on Green Woodlands property you need to put forth the time and effort.  The wildlife in this area are not accustomed to people, this is their natural habitat.   Some of the wildlife are, moose, bear, deer, coyote, bobcat, fisher cat, mink, fox, beaver, porcupine, rabbit, muskrat, raccoon, weasel, and otter.  The winged neighbors are turkey, eagles, falcons, loons, egret, grouse, herons, kingfishers, mergansers, hawks, owls, and much more.  A good resource is New Hampshire’s Fish and Game website, http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us.

Green Woodlands is located in the towns of Lyme, Dorchester, Wentworth and Orford which were all founded between 1740 and 1780.  At one time New Hampshire was only 20% forested because most of the land was logged and in farm use.  Today New Hampshire is over 80% forested and those abandoned homesteads and farms from the 1700’s still exists in the forest with hundreds of thousands of miles of stone walls and cellar holes.  So far we have found over forty homesteads on Green Woodlands property along with close to 800 apple trees that were planted in the 1700 and 1800’s adjacent to these homesteads that were abandoned in the mid 1800’s.   It certainly was surprising to us to even find a number of cemeteries that were lost for over 20 years on the property.

There are absolutely no fees to use Green Woodlands property but we do ask for a SMILE in exchange.  This type of payment is much more valuable than any kind of monetary gain we could ever receive.  Bringing that SMILE home after visiting Green Woodlands property is also a way of multiplying the exchange.