Belknap County Conservation District

05/31/2026

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05/29/2026

It's for young ones like this that I have a NH Conservation License Plate on my car to help support our natural resources. I'm impressed by the amount of wildlife that travel through the Belknap County Complex during the day. Multiple species of birds, a woodchuck or two, and today this icon of New Hampshire. Image taken by Jon Bossey, Facilities Director at the Belknap County Complex, Laconia, NH May 29, 2026.

05/24/2026

FaceBook: Kindness For All Living Things
The mammals in your yard right now range from one year old to forty. The one that lives the longest isn't the one you'd guess.
Deer mouse — one to two years. She compensates with four litters a season.
Eastern cottontail — one to three years. Breeds from February through September. Speed over longevity.
Virginia opossum — one to two years. The shortest-lived mammal of her size in North America.
Red fox — three to five years in the wild. The fox under the shed has likely been raising kits there for two or three seasons.
Eastern gray squirrel — six to twelve years. She's cached tens of thousands of acorns over her lifetime. The ones she forgot are now saplings.
White-tailed deer — six to fourteen years. The doe eating the tulips remembers every fence gap and garden on the block.
Little brown bat — twenty to forty years. She weighs a fraction of an ounce and may outlive the family dog, the family cat, and the family car. The longest-lived mammal per unit of body weight on the planet.
Same yard. Seven different clocks

05/05/2026

Hi All, JUST A BRIEF UPDATE:
1) 2026 Tree Sale has completed with almost all plants sold! Thank You! Funds will be used to help keep Conservation projects active in Belknap County. We do still have a few potted flower plants (Pink Lanterns Columbine, Dwarf Columbine, Bitterroot, and Blue Flag Iris). Call or text me if interested 603-527-5880.
Thank you to Conservation District volunteers for making this possible: Shirley Stokes, Rick DeMark, Deb Williams, Eloise Coudert, Jan Hooper, Jaylin Tully, Picnic Rock Farm and Gilmanton Iron Works Fire Department.
2) Thanks to MariMark Farms in Tilton and the Merrimack County Conservation District, we have been able to get 50 dozen eggs donated to the Vineyard Church food pantry and Restoration Acres in Meredith. In partnership with Merrimack County Conservation District and Hillsborough County Conservation District, we will be a co-host of a strategic planning meeting for program sustainability.
3) Through the statewide Climate Resilience Grant, we have been able to provide funding to 4 different farms to assist them with their projects that support on the farm conservation.
4) We will be sharing information on the actions plans developed with 3 local schools using the Farm to School cirriculum.
5) We will participate in the Love Our Earth Day event on May 9th being held at the Congregational Church in Laconia between 10 AM and 1 PM.
6) Through the NH Charitable Foundation, we have secured $5,000 to help support and provide administrative assistance to provide a purchase subsidy program for military veterans at Market at Weirs farmers' market for selected dates this summer. This program helps veterans stretch their food dollar and helps support local farms participating in the farmers' market.
Thank you to all of you for your interest in what your Conservation District is actively doing to promote and support conservation of our natural resources.

04/20/2026

TREE SALE CUSTOMER PICK UP !! For Pre-orders and our Surplus Sale. Friday, April 24th from 5-7 PM at the Gilmanton Iron Works Fire Station, 1824 Route 140, Gilmanton Iron Works, NH (near the Iron Works Market). Saturday, April 25th from 10-2 at Picnic Rock Farm, 85 Daniel Webster Highway (a.k.a. Route 3), Meredith, NH (on the stretch of Route 3 between the Tamarack Restaurant and the Mello Moose Coffee House).
Our surplus sale is on a first come, first serve basis. We have apple and crabapple trees, strawberry plants, garlic bulbs, horseradish root, high bush and low bush blueberry, black walnut saplings, serviceberry seedlings, red maple seedlings, and a variety of potted flowering plants. Payment can be cash or check, not credit or debit cards.
We look forward to seeing you all this weekend!
Thank you for your purchases, they help us put conservation practices into action in Belknap County.

04/11/2026

from Garden to Wellness Facebook post: The trellis already in the garden might be the reason half the harvest never makes it, the right match takes 5 minutes to figure out
A string trellis holding pumpkins. A flimsy bamboo cage under indeterminate tomatoes. A flat panel that cucumbers can't grip. None of these plants fail, the structure fails them. Matching trellis strength to crop weight is the single most overlooked decision in vegetable garden planning, heavier fruits need rigid metal or strong wood, light climbers need something to weave through, and heavy sprawlers need an arch strong enough to walk under. Four trellis types cover every climbing crop in any garden. The flat string panel handles tomatoes, peas, and climbing beans — the grid spacing gives every tendril something to grab. The A-frame folds flat for winter and works from both sides. The cattle panel arch supports cucumbers, melons, and squash on each side, 4 to 5 vines per side, fruit hanging down for the easiest harvest in the garden. The reinforced sturdy arch handles watermelon, butternut, and full-size pumpkins, the only structure with the weight tolerance for them.

04/09/2026

From FB page Gardening Made Simple A cold frame is a bottomless wooden box with a salvaged window on top. No electricity, no heater, no complex build. Roughly $15 in lumber if you don't already have scraps — and the window is usually free from a salvage store, a Facebook Marketplace listing, or a neighbor's renovation pile.
One afternoon to build it. Six extra weeks in spring. Six extra weeks in fall. Three extra months of food from the same garden.
What you need:
- 1 salvaged window (free)
- 2 boards — 1x12 at 4 feet long (front and back)
- 2 boards — 1x12 at 3 feet long with an angled cut (sides)
- 20 screws
- 2 hinges (optional)
Size: back wall 18 inches tall, front wall 12 inches tall, 4 feet wide by 3 feet deep. The taller back slopes the glass toward the south for maximum winter sun exposure. The box sits directly on soil — no floor needed.
How to build it in four steps:
Cut the angle — the back board sits at 18 inches, the front at 12. The two side boards taper between those heights.
Screw the box together — four boards, four corners, bottomless frame. Set it on soil or on top of an existing raised bed.
Set the window on top — hinged if you want convenience, propped with a stick if you don't. You'll use the prop more than you'd expect.
Plant inside — the frame runs 10-20°F warmer than outside air. Start crops six weeks before your last frost date.
The one thing that kills seedlings in a cold frame isn't cold — it's heat buildup on clear sunny days. Prop the window open when temperatures inside hit 60°F and close it again at sunset.
Best crops: lettuce, spinach, radish, kale, chard, and carrots. Spring: start six weeks before last frost. Fall: keep producing through and past first frost.
One window. Four boards. Twenty screws. Your neighbors are still waiting for May.

04/04/2026

Thinking about gardening this year? Some tips on when to plant from FaceBook post by Gardening Made Simple.
The mistake isn't buying the wrong plants. It's assuming one weekend fits all of them.
A standard flat from the garden center can have four different planting dates inside it — hardy crops that want to go out while nights still dip to freezing, and heat-loving crops that need warm soil before they'll do anything useful.
The timing groups, and why they matter:
Broccoli, cabbage, and kale go out two to four weeks before your last frost date. Cold doesn't hurt them. Heat does. Broccoli planted three weeks late forms loose, grainy florets instead of tight heads. Kale planted late in warm zones turns bitter fast. Their enemy is a delayed start, not an early one.
Lettuce, chard, and celery go out around your last frost date. These need to build root systems in cool soil. Put lettuce out too late and it bolts before you get more than a few harvests from it.
Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant go out after last frost — but only once nights stay reliably above 50°F. A cold snap on a young pepper plant can look like nothing happened. The damage shows up at fruiting time, weeks later, when it sets fruit slower than a plant put out at the right moment.
Melons, cucumbers, and squash are last. They want soil at 65°F or warmer. Cucumbers exposed to cold soil early in the season can turn bitter. Melons planted two weeks too soon grow vines and set fewer fruit than the same variety planted when the ground is actually ready.
Hardy crops lose quality when planted late. Warm crops lose production when planted early. The right week beats the first warm Saturday.

04/02/2026

OUR OFFICE HAS MOVED! We are now located at the Belknap County Complex, 34 County Drive, Laconia, NH 03246. It's best to call ahead to make an appointment if you want to stop by: 603-527-5880.
Please use email: [email protected]

Thank you to the Belknap County Administration for continuing to house our office.

03/26/2026

Norway is showing the world that renewable energy doesn’t always need giant dams, flooded valleys, or disrupted ecosystems. Engineers and clean-energy innovators are developing damless river turbine systems designed to generate electricity directly from the natural flow of moving water—without blocking rivers, stopping fish migration, or drastically changing the surrounding landscape.
Unlike traditional hydropower, which often depends on large reservoirs and concrete barriers, these next-generation turbines aim to work with the river instead of against it. They can be placed in flowing water to capture kinetic energy while allowing the river to keep moving naturally. That means cleaner electricity with far less ecological damage, making this type of innovation especially attractive in a world searching for sustainable power solutions.
What makes this idea so powerful is its simplicity. Rivers flow day and night, offering a steady source of renewable energy. If this technology scales successfully, it could bring electricity to remote communities, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and provide a more nature-friendly alternative to conventional hydroelectric systems. In a time when many clean energy projects still face criticism for harming habitats, Norway’s approach points toward a smarter balance between innovation and environmental protection.
This is exactly the kind of future-focused engineering the planet needs—solutions that don’t force us to choose between energy and nature. Norway has long been a leader in hydropower research, and its work on more environmentally responsible water-energy systems reflects a broader push to make renewable energy both efficient and ecosystem-friendly. Research groups in Norway, including institutions like NTNU and SINTEF, have also emphasized fish-friendly hydropower and lower-impact river energy design.
If the future of electricity can flow as freely as a river, then innovations like this may become one of the most important clean energy breakthroughs of the decade.