Mission & Key Values
As a land trust for southwestern New Hampshire, our mission is to work with communities and landowners to conserve the natural resources, wild and working lands, rural character, and the scenic beauty of the Monadnock region. We care for our conservation lands, and we engage people in ways that strengthen their communities and their connections to the land.
Key Values
Every year the Monadnock Conservancy helps the people of the Monadnock region protect and care for hundreds of acres of open space land. We work with individuals, families, groups of neighbors, and towns. Our work is voluntary and collaborative. And it is forever.
What You Care About
What matters to you? What matters to the communities in this region? These are the questions that drive the work of the Conservancy. It’s your answers that we care about.
Our work is rooted in supporting and embracing the connections between the well-being of people like you and the region’s unique rural character. Here are the key values to which we are most committed:
Clean Water
We need it every day. Drinking water comes from rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs, wells, and underground aquifers. Maintaining clean water both at the source and downstream is important for us and for our furred, finned, and feathered friends too. Healthy wetlands and waterways are good for farming, for flood control, and for recreation.
Wildlife
Every animal needs a home. Large tracts of undeveloped land can provide food and shelter to a variety of wildlife, and room to roam for large mammals. Here moose browse on spring buds and black bears forage for blueberries; the deeper lakes are home to nesting loons, and native brook trout thrive in coldwater streams.
Forests
Maple, birch, and beech. Hemlock, pine, and red oak. A rich tapestry of trees makes up our local forests, which are mostly owned by private landowners. New Hampshire is the second most forested state in the nation (after Maine), providing both critical wildlife habitat and renewable sources of wood for energy as well as lumber for construction, pulpwood for papermaking, or veneer for fine furniture.
Farms
Farmland remains among the most threatened types of land due to the ease of its development, the aging of farmers, and the inability of new farmers to afford to buy land. This region has some of the best soils in the nation. Supporting farms will ensure the livelihood of farmers, provide healthy local food, and save the region’s rich agricultural heritage.
Health & Recreation
Healthy eating. Mental well-being. Active living. Conservation can help with all of these. Farmland is kept open to grow high-quality foods. Scenic views can calm your nerves and enhance spiritual growth. Old woods roads and trails provide great access for hiking, walking, biking, and snowshoeing — whether leisurely or at a fitness pace.
Children & Nature
Making stick forts. Digging in the dirt. Splashing in the stream. Having fun experiences outside helps children connect to the land. The Conservancy offers places and opportunities to learn about blooms and butterflies, rocks and bugs — all the critters and natural history of the region. It’s about gaining a sense of place and a sense of self. It’s about joy and wonder.
History
In 1989, a group of friends had an idea. What if there was a local organization to help neighbors and communities protect forever the land they love? From that conversation, the Monadnock Conservancy was born.
Initially based in Dublin, New Hampshire, the group operated as a 501(c)(3) environmental organization, conserving 25 properties in 10 towns during its first decade. The Conservancy shifted from an all-volunteer nonprofit to a professional organization in 1998, hiring Ben Mahnke as the first executive director and expanding its service area west to the Connecticut River. Executive Director Richard Ober (2001 to 2007) oversaw a period of dramatic growth, leading the Conservancy through the acquisition of its 100th conservation easement and the first parcels of land we own outright.
Under Ryan Owens’ leadership, the Conservancy has gained recognition as a leader in the national conservation scene, becoming the first land trust in New Hampshire to be accredited (2008) and putting more emphasis on how the land is used and the interplay between ecological, economic, and social values. Ryan left the Conservancy in 2024, and in March of 2025, Amanda Littleton, formerly of Cheshire County Conservation District where she served as District Manager for 18 years, was appointed as executive director.
Why I Care
Conserving our land was so important to my family. The views, trails, and wildlife here impact all of our lives in incredible ways, and now it can continue to do that forever.
— Monica Lehner, Greenfield, N.H.