The moment I stepped out of my car after a 40-hour road trip, something about New Hampshire’s lands, woods, and communities felt oddly familiar. I have spent much of my life in the West, where it is known for its dramatic peaks, open landscapes, and roaming wildlife that creates a kind of wild rawness that is distinctly its own. I will admit, yes, the West is striking, yet I found that its grandeur reaches to a point that feels almost out of reach. I found the exact opposite feeling when we hiked West Rattlesnake, during our LRCC orientation.
I will never forget what awaited me, upon reaching the top of West Rattlesnake, after what was a straight incline hike up the mountain (since switch backs are somehow unheard of in New England). I was taken aback by one of the most beautiful views I had ever seen. The contrast from Arizona couldn’t have been more stark. I was used to views with a haze or dustiness brushed across its landscape where the kooky cacti and oddly sculpted rock formations seem to almost belong in an Abstract painting. It is why, when I saw the view of Squam Lake, with its waters mirroring the blues of the sky and its islands and forested shores painted in every shade of green imaginable, I was completely entranced in what looked like a scene from a Romantic painting.
I have noticed there is a humility to New Hampshire’s rolling forested landscapes, speckled with lakes, and small community-based towns. The land feels intimate and tangible, like a landscape that invites you in to connect with it, rather than ask you to stand back and admire from afar like the land out West. While I don’t condone the competition between the East and the West (each is distinctly different and remarkable in their own way), I have to say, the humble and quiet beauty of New England is what makes it one of the most beautiful places I have ever lived.
My first few weeks at Chocorua Lake Conservancy (CLC) were filled with training, as I learned what it meant to be a Land Steward. Some of my training included how to read the landscape: from learning to identify the incredible diversity of trees in one of the country’s most forested states, to recognizing historical markers that help distinguish a property’s history and boundaries. After that initial training period, it was off to the races, and I began reaching out to landowners to schedule their annual stewardship visits.
Walking alongside landowners during stewardship visits has become one of my favorite parts of my role at CLC. As a history enthusiast, I have especially loved how these walks feel like a portal to the past, stepping back in time as we talk of stories of the land’s past and reflect on how the landscape has changed and continues to evolve over time. Over these past few months, the local knowledge and stories shared with me have given me an ever deepening appreciation for the land around the Chocorua Lake Basin, not only for the land itself, but for the people, histories, and memories woven into it that make this place so special.
My time with CLC is soon coming to a close. I will miss living in a town where building community has felt so easy: from the second Saturday contradances, to game nights at the library, to sunny afternoons along Chocorua's shoreline, to mornings at the Tamworth Bakery (aka the heart of Tamworth). I will never forget the feeling I had when I first stepped out of my car. I understand now that what felt familiar was not simply the landscape itself, but the energy of connection that radiates between the people, community, and natural world that surrounds it. There is a warmth and sense of belonging in that connection that I had been searching for without quite knowing it, which is why I am so deeply grateful for my time serving with CLC and the LRCC. If I am being honest, I am not yet ready for this chapter to come to a close, but I look forward to the time I have left here and, perhaps most of all, to the possibility of calling New Hampshire home for years to come.
Olivia is serving as a Land Steward with the Chocorua Lake Conservancy and is originally from Northern California. She studied Conservation Biology and Ecology and has a strong passion for connecting people with nature. After working primarily in research, Olivia is excited to be back in the land trust space and to be serving here in the Lakes Region. Learn more about her here.