Landowner Profiles

April Bacon -

A pile of house-sized boulders that rival the ones in nearby Pawtuckaway State Park, an ancient white oak that lords it over a thriving younger forest, and a half dozen or more vernal pools are among the special features that will be protected by the new easement on April Bacon's 50-acre Nottingham property. She has lived on the property since the mid-eighties after leaving the life of an artist and social worker in New York City. Memories of her rural childhood in Maine drew her back to New England, but, as she said, "It's all grown up around Gorham where I lived, and I wanted somewhere undeveloped and natural, and to make sure it would stay that way!"

This parcel has enormous development potential with its 860 feet of frontage on route 156, but April offered to give up the right to develop it for only $15,000. At just $300 an acre, this "bargain sale" is a considerable gift to Bear-Paw and the Town of Nottingham. The Town agreed to pay this amount as well as the transaction costs of setting up the easement. Bear-Paw will monitor the easement with an executory interest held by Nottingham. The public may enjoy passive use of her woods for non-motorized activities such as hiking, bird watching, or educational field trips.

Bear-Paw thanks April Bacon and the town of Nottingham for this important addition to the local greenway.

Corey Colwell -

Two vacations and a conservation easement have all played a part in helping Corey Colwell realize his dreams. Corey grew up in Strafford and always hoped someday to have his own home on a good-sized piece of Strafford land. It was 1997 and he had just turned 32 when he found what he wanted - 218 forested acres on a hillside above Bow Lake. But you can imagine the price! Corey had a good career with his own surveying company following a degree from the UNH Thompson School, but the deal still seemed impossible.

Here's where creative use of a conservation easement made it possible. With his plan to conserve 150 acres of the property, Corey worked with the Planning and Zoning Boards to get a subdivision of three lots to sell and a private road extension into the middle of his remaining 206-acre piece. His conservation easement became Bear-Paw's first in 1998. His property now contains the 150 acres protected by the easement, and a reserve area large enough for house sites for future Colwell's.

What about those vacations? In 1999, Corey took 3½ weeks of backed up vacation time in North Carolina where he worked hard as an apprentice in a post and beam construction outfit. Back home he realized another dream designing and crafting the beams for his own house. His surveyor colleagues helped assemble those beams in a long weekend of "house raising."

And in 2002, Corey decided to visit the home of his favorite form of martial arts, the Philippines. There he met Dahriz Lucero and persuaded her to come to New Hampshire. They were married in 2005. Dahriz is still getting used to sighting the occasional bear, moose and beaver that call Corey's property home. Aside from the forest, wildlife, and scenic values of the Colwell easement itself, it has added worth because it abuts the 600-acre Strafford Town Forest lands, which in turn link to the vast acreage of the Blue Hills Trust properties. Bear-Paw thanks Corey Colwell once again for an easement that builds an important greenway.

Al Jaeger -

It isn't easy living "off the grid," and a driveway half a mile long seems even longer after an old fashioned nor'easter. But to our Bear-Paw board member and artist, Al Jaeger, the pleasures of living deep in the middle of his 186-acre Deerfield property outweigh the difficulties. He's had a long history with the property since he bought it in 1968 and spent summers there in a tent while he built his first house with materials from the land. He had to begin again in 1990 when that first house burned down, but the land again supplied wood and stone for a new house and an artist's studio and kiln. Passive solar and wood provide heat, and rooftop solar panels allow a limited supply of electricity.

Bear-Paw wasn't established in the late eighties when Al began to think about conservation options for his land, but working through the State's Land Conservation Investment Program (LCIP), he placed 111 acres in an easement in 1989 - perhaps Deerfield's earliest private conservation easement. Several neighbors joined him to create the Great Brook Corridor of protected private lands. Al is working with Bear-Paw to add 15 more acres to his easement.

Al spent many years teaching high school art, including ten years at Concord High where he began his concentration in ceramics. He moved to teaching at the New Hampshire Institute of Art (NHIA) and spent his last eight full-time years there as chair of the Ceramics and Sculpture Departments. His present part-time schedule at NHIA gives him more time for his own projects which are on exhibit at the 1st Stock Gallery in Deerfield, the Millbrook Gallery in Concord, and through the League of NH Craftsmen outlets.