- Foot travel only – please stay on trails
- Sanctuary open during daylight hours only
- Dogs are permitted on trails only & they must be on a short leash at all times
- Carry in – carry out, including all pet waste
- Swimming, smoking, camping and fires are prohibited
- Please do not disturb wildlife or vegetation
There is no current trail access on the Smith Sisters Wildlife Sanctuary.
From Newmarket: Take Main Street/Route 152 West for 1.9 miles to a large parking lot on the north (right) side of the road (next to #332 Wadleigh Falls Rd). The lot is marked by the hanging roadside sign and kiosk in the field.
From Lee/Epping (Route 125): take Route 152 East for 4.5 miles to a large parking lot on the north (left) side of the road (next to #332 Wadleigh Falls Rd). The lot is marked by the hanging roadside sign and kiosk in the field.
How This Land Was Protected
The two properties that make up Follett’s Brook Wildlife Sanctuary were each, at different moments, very close to being lost.
In 2008 the Kwaks family, who had operated the Wadleigh Falls Golf Driving Range here for twelve years, retired and faced a choice. The property already had conditional approval for an 18-lot residential development. Thanks in part to encouragement from community members and the conservation work of the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership, the Kwaks chose a different path. On behalf of the Partnership, The Nature Conservancy purchased the 57-acre parcel using federal conservation grants and transferred it to New Hampshire Audubon to manage for wildlife and public access.
Later that same year, a second piece of the puzzle fell into place. Five sisters – daughters of Florence Arendt Smith, whose family had farmed this land for generations – jointly owned 115 acres along Follett’s Brook. The property had been under contract with a developer who planned to mine and subdivide it. Working through the Partnership, The Nature Conservancy brought together an extraordinary coalition to protect it: the towns of Newmarket and Durham, the Lamprey River Advisory Committee, the NH Department of Environmental Services, NOAA, the North American Wetlands Conservation Act program, and private donors all contributed. The land was transferred to NH Audubon, and the parcels to the north and west now form a contiguous protected landscape of over 300 acres.
“It has meant so much to our family,” said Adrienne Rubino, one of the five sisters, “and it’s great to know the land will remain intact and healthy for generations to come.”
