Antrim resident Peter Beblowski was awarded Volunteer of the Year by the Monadnock Conservancy this fall for his years of service as a land steward.
“I am very pleased to be awarded Volunteer of the Year. I never thought that that would be a possibility. I don’t do my volunteer work for recognition, but it’s very nice to be recognized,” he said. Beblowski estimates he’s been an active Monadnock Conservancy member and volunteer steward for more than 15 years, in addition to serving as a Conservation Commissioner in Antrim, and working with the Harris Center.
When a landowner agrees to a permanent conservation easement, volunteers like Beblowski get in touch to answer any questions or concerns they might have about the stipulations of the easement. “It becomes a very pleasant working agreement,” he said, as he gets to know them and their land over the years, walking the properties to make sure they’re maintaining their conservation values. Volunteers monitor properties in towns outside their own, and Beblowski oversees nine properties in Nelson, Harrisville, and Greenfield.
There are always exciting encounters while walking the properties, he said. A couple years ago, Beblowski took his daughter paddling on a lake to check a property’s shoreline. He was watching an eagle overhead when a loon surfaced within a paddle length of his kayak. “We were both surprised, the loon and myself,” he said. “You generally do not get to see a loon that close.” A bicycle club builds and maintains trails on other properties Beblowski monitors. “I can run into all sorts of people riding their bikes out on the trails,” he said. “Hopefully everybody has the same respect for the land and nature.”
The Monadnock Conservancy awarded Beblowski on Sept. 19, and staff member Katrina Farmer paddled out with him to Loon Island on Silver Lake in Harrisville, one of the properties he monitors, to make a short video in advance of the conservancy’s virtual 31st annual celebration, which can be found on YouTube. “It was a very pleasant day and it was a wonderful experience,” Beblowski said, and that the Conservancy also gave him a framed photo of former Antrim water supply, Campbell Pond, a place he likes to visit.
Beblowski intends to continue serving as a volunteer steward, and feels passionate about the local work by the Monadnock Conservancy and other land trusts. “I think they’re a very good organization and they do a great deal of good with their advocacy and everything that they do,” he said. “In the future, [conservation land] will only become an increasingly valuable resource for both the region, and the people who live in the region,” he said.