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	Deering
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About the Deering Sanctuary

A proposal prepared by Audubon prior to the gift highlighted our intention to actively manage some areas for wildlife through various tried and trusted practices. This included the setting up of small forest management plots in the woods to encourage particular tree species like white oak, hemlock, and aspen, known for their high wildlife value, to flourish while discouraging other species. In one area there are the remains of an old apple orchard. Highly competitive trees and shrubs were removed here to promote the growth of blueberries and hawthorn, cherry, and apple trees, all of which are important wildlife food sources. Bird nesting boxes were erected around the pond and in the more open parts of the property to encourage species like bluebirds, Great Crested Flycatchers, and Wood Ducks. A network of trails was created to encourage educational and aesthetic experiences.

A twenty acre parcel around the family homestead in the middle of the Sanctuary has been retained by the donor as a private home. A conservation easement on this parcel provides additional protection from development and a right-of-way allows visitors the use of a shoreline trail. The fields within this homestead are kept open to provide an additional important wildlife habitat. All these management practices have enhanced the wonderfully rich natural ecosystems found here. In 1990, an additional 11 acre easement was added along the southwest corner of the property.

We will continue to preserve this beautiful property in the way the donor wished it to be preserved, as a haven for wildlife and an area for refreshing the spirit and experiencing and savoring the delights of New Hampshire's woodland communities.

From the first parking area take the yellow-blazed trail into the woods: this is the Old Orchard Trail. The first part of this trail takes you through an area of mature mixed forest where several large white pines tower above the smaller hardwoods. Notice how most of these pines are next to old stone walls. This is a telltale sign of this area's agricultural past. These walls were once the boundaries of fields long since abandoned and overgrown. During the great forest cuttings of the late 1700s this whole area was turned under the plow. All through these woods one can find old walls and cellar holes where once houses and barns stood, sheltering early pioneers and their livestock. These walls are the ghosts of a bygone age, struggling to remain visible through the dense forest-floor cover.

A little way along the trail you will come out into a clearing with scattered black cherry and apple trees. Notice that the white pines here have been "girdled." This is a wildlife habitat management practice that kills the affected tree, to allow smaller trees to grow towards the opening canopy, and leaves the dead tree standing to create den and nesting sites for cavity-dwelling animals. Woodpeckers, flycatchers, porcupines, and raccoons all find refuge in these skeletal snags.

Follow the trail out into the old orchard. Here again trees have been girdled and brush cleared to allow the survival of the apple trees against the ever-encroaching white pine.

Old orchards are wonderful places for wildlife. Birds like the Scarlet Tanager and Indigo Bunting nest in such places, often singing together from the tops of the apple trees. What two birds could possibly complement each other more in color and spectacle than these two gems? White-tail deer and foxes come to feed on the fallen fruit in the fall, as do migrating thrushes and catbirds. The ground cover in the spring and summer is a carpet of wildflowers; maiden pinks and starflowers jostle for space amongst the wood strawberry and meadowsweet, providing a perfect habitat for butterflies and other nectar-loving insects. The summer brings an army of dragonflies hawking for mosquitoes on the warm afternoons when the scent of pollen is thick and the grasses are veiled with a million tiny spiderwebs that drift on the breeze. Days could be lost here, but we must move on down to the centerpiece of the sanctuary: Black Fox Pond. This is an artificial pond created by the damming of Smith Brook. The pond area totals just over 36 acres, with an entirely undeveloped shore line. As you approach the pond you will begin to see signs of beaver activity. Well chewed birch and other hardwood stumps indicate the work of this industrious rodent, nature's champion of habitat manipulation. Well worn paths betray their nightly forays well back from the water's edge. Other mammals make their homes here too. If you are lucky you may see one of the resident otters. You are more likely to see signs of them in the winter when they create slides in the snow and tracks across the frozen pond.

In the summer the water's edge is alive with green frogs which scatter with a splash amongst the lily pads as you approach. Red-winged Blackbirds chatter and whistle from their sentinel posts on the island shrubs, and Wood Ducks and Hooded Mergansers frequent the specially erected nesting boxes which are dotted around the pond's perimeter. Migrating birds stop off here on their long journeys including spring time Ospreys.

The trail leads you along the shore for a short while then back up into an area of fine open mature forest, then back to the pond at a small private boat dock. From here you get a good view of the whole pond. A little further along you have a choice of trails. You can turn right, cross the concrete dam and continue on the Black Fox Pond Trail. This trail takes you through some beautiful pine, balsam fir, and hemlock forest around the shore of the pond to Old Clement Road. You can follow this woods road north-east back to the main road and then back to the parking lot where we started.

Back at the end of the Old Orchard Trail your other choice is to get onto the Smith Brook Trail. Look for the yellow blazes to your left. After only a few yards you will see a most spectacular tree. This huge red oak once grew in an open pasture where its limbs grew without the competition of other trees. Now it almost looks out of place: a lone "field tree" in the forest. Two short sections of trail both take you back to the road.

From the road, look for the yellow blazes of the Smith Brook Trail. The southern trailhead takes you into an area of pine and mixed hardwoods and along the edge of an extensive beaver swamp full of large dead trees. This area is a good place to see the Eastern Kingbird perching on the very top of a dead tree, then performing his display flight, circling on outstretched wings and tail while proclaiming his territory with his staccato calls. The trail continues up the brook in the shade of dense white pine and hemlock. At the little footbridge you have a choice: continue on the yellow-blazed Smith Brook Trail back to the road, or take the red-blazed Hemlock Woods Trail. This trail goes through predominantly mixed hardwood forest up to and along one of the northern boundaries of the property, where there is an area of mixed swamp hardwoods, red maple and birch, and some mature beech and oak. Further along there is a large grove of hemlocks. This is a good place to look for porcupines. These fascinating creatures den in the larger dead stumps or in the numerous boulder outcrops here. Look for the telltale marks on trees, usually around the base of the trunk where they have stripped and eaten the bark. The trail takes you back to the road passing alongside a large red maple swamp.

The last of our trails here is the Patten Farm Trail. Look for the red blazes off to the right of the Smith Brook Trail. This trail meanders through a mature mixed woodland close to our eastern boundary, then heads back to the road passing the cellar hole of the old Patten Farm. Close to the point where the trail meets the road is the old Patten Cemetery, where one can get an idea of the history of local occupancy dating back to previous centuries.

From here you can walk back along the road to either of the two parking areas.