My time serving within the Lakes Region Conservation Corps has certainly been a challenging yet rewarding experience. With this being my first time serving for an organization such as the Newfound Lake Region Association there were certainly skills I needed to acquire such as flexibility as well as management of different projects. There have been many benefits to this process as well though. I have become much more acquainted with the workings of a nonprofit and have been able to work on projects with my watershed steward partner Colleen that will help to benefit the ecosystem surrounding Newfound Lake for many years to come. There have been an array of different projects we have put our time into with our most prominent project being our land management at our Grey Rocks Conservation Area in Hebron, New Hampshire. This property has a great permaculture system with plants present on site while at the same time holds a great sense of beauty and aesthetic to it as well. Colleen and I have been hard at work reestablishing our garden beds there through weeding and mulching practices and have also worked to establish better accessibility among trails in and surrounding the property. While doing our service, of course we have gotten great glimpses of an array of different wildlife from snapping turtles to bald eagles to the occasional beaver as well. The property is teeming with life and it certainly feels good to support these animals and their habitat through our hard service.
In the past few months there have been some other good projects we have worked on as well. One of these said projects is our water quality sampling we do both on the lakes and in the streams stretching throughout the watershed. Being able to collect this information with the tools we have was certainly a new experience for me but it’s very beneficial to collect this data for further sampling and be able to share this data with the public. Moving forward, some of the other projects we have worked on involved our Youth Conservation Corp members Luke and Lauren. Along with their cooperation we have aided in the building of different stormwater mitigation structures such as trenches and swales to help reduce pollution runoff around the watershed. These kinds of projects not only benefit the ecosystem but the people living within these communities as well. With a few more months within the program the winding down of the summer season begins but there is certainly still a lot more to accomplish. I’m interested to see what projects will be lined up for us in the future and I hope to build on the skills I have acquired through this position. If you ever get a chance please take a look at all the hard service we have accomplished at our Grey Rocks property, certainly will be worth your time!
Ryan, a graduate of Plymouth State with a degree in Environmental Planning & Sustainability, is a half-time member serving at the Newfound Lake Region Association. You can learn more about Ryan here!