Mink Brook Community Forest

The Town of Hanover, partnering with the Trust for Public Land and the Hanover Conservancy, is protecting 250 acres of upland forest, floodplain meadow, and corridor of Mink Brook, to be called the Mink Brook Community Forest.

The property, which straddles Greensboro Road, is composed of two parcels. The forested north parcel, a portion of which was recently logged, stretches up a prominent hillside to its boundary with the Appalachian Trail corridor. On its northeast side is a high-value wetland that helps control the quality and flow of Mink Brook below. The open meadow, underlain by prime agricultural soils, blankets the south parcel from Greensboro Road to Mink Brook. A rare natural community, with a high percentage of black ash, is located south of Mink Brook. The property continues to the south, rising up along boulder fields to a deer wintering area at the height of land nearly to the Lebanon border.

Here, on one of the last large undeveloped properties remaining on the south side of town, the Mink Brook Community Forest has the potential to offer new trails for walking, biking, and cross-country skiing, with trail connections to adjacent conservation lands - the newly protected Hudson Farm and AT corridor to the north, and Farr Field, town-owned lands to the southeast.

Community Forest Planning Evenings are Wednesdays at 7 pm. September 30, October 28, and December 2. All will be via ZOOM.

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On September 30, we will introduce the community forest project and team members, including Julie Renaud Evans from the Northern Forest Center who will facilitate our planning project. Ecologist Rick Van de Poll will host a virtual tour of the Mink Brook Community Forest including ten significant ecological areas, from streamside to hillside.

On October 28, Forester Jeffrey Smith of Butternut Hollow Forestry will present forest management limitations and priorities. Jeff oversaw the most recent timber harvest on the northern parcel so is very familiar with the property and its forest values. The entire property will be considered in the context of the townwide trail network and recreation possibilities will be discussed.

On December 2, Julie Evans will lead a discussion focused on conservation, forest management, and recreation priorities. What parts of this 250-acre property should be managed for which of these activities?