Two local environmental projects working to protect native New Hampshire species have each been awarded $4,000 grants from the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript to support their conservation work.

The awards are part of the Ledger-Transcript’s “Preserving Our Region” solutions journalism series, funded by the Solutions Journalism Network, and presented them to the Harris Center for Conservation Education’s Turtle Heroes program and the White Mountain Horticulture Research Foundation’s Monadnock Hemlock Initiative.

A panel of community judges evaluated entries based on potential environmental impact, feasibility, community impact and originality. The judging panel included Fred Rogers, a professor of geology and environmental science at Franklin Pierce University and a member of the Rindge Conservation Commission; Tom Ahlborn-Hsu, chair of the Jaffrey Conservation Commission and former teacher and science textbook author; and Jennifer Beck, chair of the Wilton Conservation Commission, chair of the Wilton Economic Development Leadership Team and a member of the steering committee for the New Hampshire Wildlife Coalition. 

The judges praised both projects for protecting native New Hampshire species. Ahlborn-Hsu said hemlocks and turtles are both important parts of larger ecosystems and part of what makes New Hampshire an attractive place to live.

“Trees and amphibians — any place where those two things are healthy is a good place to live,” Ahlborn-Hsu said.

The Ledger-Transcript will host a public reception soon, featuring presentations from both winning programs and other contest applicants.

Turtle Heroes

Susie Spikol, community programs director and naturalist for the Harris Center for Conservation Education in Hancock, said the funds will extend the Turtle Heroes program for up to five additional years.

Launched five years ago, the program provides classroom materials to local schools so students can raise hatchling painted turtles provided by New Hampshire Turtle Rescue. The hatchlings are typically salvaged from female turtles struck by vehicles while crossing roads to lay eggs.

Students care for and track the turtles’ growth from quarter-sized hatchlings until they’re mature enough to be released into their native habitats. Because the main expense of the project — the equipment to house the turtles — is reusable, grant funds will cover ongoing programming, equipment replacement and veterinary care.

Judges praised the project for involving children in wildlife conservation.

“This is the only one that addressed our future voters,” Beck said of the Turtle Heroes program. “If kids get addicted to this stuff early on, they’ll carry it with them.”

“If you can make children care about wildlife, that’s a life-long lesson,” Ahlborn-Hsu said. “And turtles are a canary species. When amphibians start to go, you know there’s a problem.”

Spikol said that without funding, this fall’s batch of turtles was likely the last, as the program had depleted its original funding.

“We can use this to keep this project going,” Spikol said. “The children can be a steward for an animal and feel responsible for helping to preserve it, and that is something that goes into their hearts, and I hope it stays forever.”

Saving New Hampshire’s hemlocks

The other $4,000 grant will support efforts to combat the hemlock woolly adelgid, an invasive Asian insect that kills native hemlock and spruce trees by feeding on sap. Once a tree is infested, the insect can kill the tree within a few years.

Harry Wolhandler, a board member of the White Mountain Horticulture Research Foundation and chair of the Harrisville Conservation Commission, said the grant will fund the release of Laricobius nigrinus — a predatory beetle native to North Carolina that feeds specifically on the adelgid.

Individual beetles cost up to $10 to acquire and ship; the grant will directly fund a planned release around Cunningham Pond in Peterborough this fall. Previous pilot releases in Harrisville, Dublin and Peterborough showed promising preliminary results.

Wolhandler said the project began with the Harrisville Conservation Commission after he noticed he was losing several hemlock trees on his property about four years ago.

Since then, the Harrisville Conservation Commission, and now the newly formed nonprofit White Mountain Horticulture Research Foundation, have worked to identify sites in New Hampshire infested with the woolly adelgid and to fund beetle releases in those areas.

Judges said biological solutions to invasive species carry risks, but this one is fairly well-tested.

“This is about as safe as you can get when it comes to biological systems,” Rogers said, noting the predator beetle’s tested track record in East Coast forestry management.

Once established, beetle populations expand geographically by one-to-two miles annually and can eventually be harvested to treat neighboring infested stands.

“This is a solution,” Wolhandler said. “It’s not easy to implement, but is plenty doable.”

The Ledger-Transcript will host another contest with funding opportunities in the spring, funded in part by Cooperstown Environmental.