On Unspoiled Grounds: History, Nature, and Knowledge Collide at College’s Cabot Preserve

Keene State students Chloe March ’24 and Ryan Rotigliano ’25 are fueled by many of the same passions, including driving positive ecological change and inspiring meaningful environmental impact.

They plan to make their shared interests a big part of their livelihoods.

While they worked closely on a yearlong senior capstone project as environmental studies majors, they encountered the kinds of challenges they are likely to routinely face as professionals.

Chloe, from Hamden, Maine, aspires to work for a conservation land trust in her home state; Ryan, from Bellingham, Massachusetts, has plans to work as a forester out west.

“Our environment is connected to every facet of life,” says Chloe, who graduated mid-academic year, in December. “If we have degraded ecosystems, that carries over to us. We are not separate from nature; rather, we are deeply connected to it. Our survival is dependent on a healthy planet. By studying the environment, sustainability, and how inequality impacts marginalized people I understand better how a world with so many moving parts is connected.”

She is an environmental studies and sustainability double major and earned minors in Holocaust & Genocide Studies and Geoscience. Ryan, who will earn his degree in environmental studies, with minors in sustainability and astronomy, says “I hope to use my knowledge of forestry to spark change in others and create a network of people dedicated to conservation and protecting the natural world.”

Both students will draw from their many Keene State experiences, academic and otherwise. They understand the value that their capstone project will add to their resumes.

Their capstone project, “Years Since the Axe: Forest Biodiversity in Response to Timber Harvest,” was undertaken by Chloe, Ryan, and three other student peers, Liam Conley, Declan O’Hare, and Wyatt Fernando, seniors also.

Their research was conducted at the pristine Louis Cabot Preserve in Hancock, N.H., a 30-minute drive from campus. The preserve is a 464-acre, mile-and-a-half long heavily forested peninsula dividing Spoonwood Pond and Lake Nubanusit.

The Nature Conservancy gifted the land to Keene State, which is exempt from property taxes, in 1967. Requirements of the deed include a key charge that the property remains in its natural state.

A story in an undated Nature Conservancy publication reported that the Preserve also came to the College with encouragement that it be a “living laboratory” for science and forestry education.

The Preserve has been all of that and more as an ecological resource.

The good fortune to participate in scientific work at the Preserve is not lost on Chloe and Ryan, nor is the land’s long, fascinating, and venerable history.

It is a special place to have a one-of-a-kind, real-world learning opportunity, Chloe says.

“The project opened my eyes to a world of possibility in forestry research. I learned about standard practice forestry data collection methods and how to identify tree species and read landscape clues to determine land history.”

The Preserve was The Nature Conservancy’s first project in New Hampshire. Today, the nonprofit has helped to protect nearly 300,000 acres and 680 miles of rivers and streams in the Granite State.

The Conservancy performs an annual walk-through of the Preserve to ensure the College continues to honor the full provisions of the deed. This includes checking for rogue campsites since overnight camping is prohibited on the preserve. Also, the inspection looks for signs of trash dumping, tree harvesting or logging, disruption of natural areas, or permanent dwellings.

Joe Britton, facilities manager for the College and the institution’s liaison for the Preserve, said the land is secluded and difficult to access, giving the preserve a feeling of an undisturbed woodland that has not been touched since it was originally used as pasture. Some cattle, horses, and sheep were pastured there in the 1930s, according to an ecological survey conducted by the Conservancy.

The Preserve has been free of farming or grazing since 1948, and camping was common but not since the early 1960s. Notably, more than 80 percent of the land’s timber is estimated to have been destroyed by the hurricane of 1938.

Science Professor Karen Seaver, who presided over the students’ capstone project, says the property has a certain island feel even though it is, by definition, a peninsula.

“Either way, this is a unique geography, and a classroom unlike any other for these students. On a map, its shape looks like the side profile of a ram. The forest is very different. With so few deer browsing, the underbrush looks remarkably different. One will find some of the coolest white pines you’ll ever see. There are vegetation zones even though it’s a relatively small place. There are some hemlocks and a mix of pines and hardwoods, but few saplings in the underforest.”

“Because there is a lot less mammal pressure, combined with the lack of human disturbance and a leave-no-trace aesthetics rule, it makes for a rare place,” she adds.

The students’ research at the Preserve took eight hours over two visits and focused on collecting data on forest tree diversity, the size of saplings or mature trees, and forest biodiversity and density. This was not just at the Preserve but at four sites in all. Plots in Pisgah State Park and two parcels in Stoddard managed by the Harris Center for Conservation Education also served as abundant outdoor research grounds.

Working over two semesters, the students used data to draw comparisons across a temporal scale, with timber harvesting and pressures on it being a unique data point.

Students used posters, a PowerPoint, and verbal presentations to report findings to campus and community partners; they also submitted a comprehensive written summary of their research.

“Our efforts at Cabot yielded interesting data since this parcel hasn’t been logged since Keene State acquired it,” Ryan says. “Time since forest disturbance was a key variable in our study; exploring this older growth gave us an insight into how a forest regrows and thrives.” Ryan has been interested in the outdoors for as long as he can remember, recalling how his parents would take him and his siblings on road trips to multiple National Parks every summer.

“I loved the feeling of collaboration and being able to say I participated, completed, and engaged in a research project,” Ryan says. “Data collection was a fun portion of the project, but the analysis, discussion, and planning made this a valuable project for my future. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without the faculty, classes, and experiences I have had at Keene State.”

The leap from the classroom to the field is hard to describe as a way to learn, and it gives context to what a career in conservation work might look and feel like, Chloe says.

At Cabot, each student was assigned a unique task, making the work of determining the diversity and species composition of mature trees and saplings in designated areas a collective effort.

One student used a prism to conclude if a tree was in or out of a particular sample area, another measured tree diameters, another logged data, and another ran a tape measure to any tree the group was unsure was within the sample area. Lastly, another student measured the saplings.

GPS was used to locate sample areas. Data included tree species and tree diameters at their breast height.

It wasn’t all about data. Fringe benefits of being at the preserve were many. For example, students ascertained that beavers were there, as chewed trees were visible. Seaver says it’s easy to imagine that minks, weasels, chipmunks, and smaller predators that eat rodents and small mammals are on site. “A lot of things that can fly in, too; there is probably great Owl activity there at night.”

They all saw a lot of noisy blue jays and chickadees, which are classic year-round forest birds. They pulled out a loon raft to find that it was not being used successfully for nesting this time.

Ryan and Chloe are among the more than three dozen Keene State students who have been paid summer interns at the Hancock-based Harris Center for Conservation Education, a donor-supported nonprofit connecting people and nature in the greater region. The Harris Center has also protected more than 26,000 acres of land in the Monadnock Region.

The seven-week internship, funded equally by the College and the Harris Center, offers students specialized training, research, and education. This summer will mark the 12th year of this important program.

It’s been mutually beneficial on all fronts, Seaver, and Brett Thelen, the Center’s science director, agreed.

“There is still much to learn about the Harris Center’s network of protected lands and our lands, in turn, have much to offer in biology, ecology, geology, and other conservation sciences,” Thelen says. “We love working with student researchers to learn more about the lands in our care and our summer internship program provides students with real-world experience that simply can’t be obtained in a classroom. It’s been exciting to see alumni of the internship program build on what they learned during their time with us, and to incorporate our conserved lands into their capstone research.” Chloe didn’t take the easy route at Keene State. Ambitious and passionate, she immersed herself in her varied academic disciplines and found time to join several student-run organizations, such as Eco-Reps and the Art Collective.

Seaver says there is nothing like working with students in the outdoors, the bonds you make, and the work accomplished together.

“I’ve known Chloe since she was a first-year student, so watching her transformation has been rewarding. The capstone, and going through a scientific process with others, is always fun. I’ve always wanted to spend more time at Cabot, so it feels like I made good on some goals for myself.”

There is no doubt that the premises of this ram-shaped peninsula are special, for educators and students. Not to mention the Louis Cabot Preserve has a fascinating, page-turning preservation history, and a pure, unspoiled quality that is savored–naturally.