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The Amherst Land Trust is an entirely volunteer organization. As we grow and expand our preservation efforts, there are many opportunities for new members and interested friends to get involved. Whatever your skill or interest, there's a place you can make a difference.

Outdoors

Easement Monitoring: Accepting an easement obligates the Land Trust to ensure that the terms of the easement are met. In practice, this generally means walking around or through a property once or twice a year to observe and document conditions.
 

Trail Maintenance: As the Land Trust begins to accept and hold property, we are looking at several new places where hiking trails would be appropriate. Maintaining hiking trails is an ongoing and rewarding opportunity! The Land Trust can train you, if you’re interested.
 

Trip leading: We would like to encourage members of the community to get out and see land conservation in the area. Short hikes could be arranged on lands protected by the Land Trust, the Amherst, Milford and Mont Vernon Conservation Commissions, Beaver Brook Association as well as  the Audubon Society, Society for Protection of New Hampshire Forests, and other organizations.
 

Public Outreach: Do you have expertise in wildflowers, bird-watching, or organic lawn maintenance? How about a slide show of your hike on the Continental Divide Trail or your week at El Eden? Sponsoring conservation and preservation-related presentations and workshops can help us raise awareness of issues as well as encouraging others to join us.

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Photography: Photographs are useful for documenting existing conditions and maintaining and protecting easements. They are also wonderful tools for public education and publicity brochures, posters and handouts. 
 

Indoors

Research and documentation: Land protection projects often involve extensive research in dusty records: deeds, maps and public documents. Once a piece has been identified and, perhaps, protected by easement or fee ownership, maps and descriptions of its boundaries and conditions are essential to maintenance and enforcement.
 

Publicity: Press releases and letters, photo opportunities and public gatherings --- the more we can get the word out, the better our ability to protect and preserve land. If you like to write, take pictures, make phone calls and talk to people, you can help. Could you mind a table on the Fourth of July? Fly a sky-writing plane over Souhegan High School? Plant a geo-cache somewhere on conservation lands? We'd love to hear from you.
 

Fundraising: The bottom line is...the bottom line. Like any other nonprofit, the Land Trust needs money to accomplish its goals. Whether you have experience writing grants or running bake sales, the Land Trust can use your assistance. If you'd be willing to host a wine-and-cheese party or your group needs a guest speaker, someone from the Land Trust will be happy to be there.

 

Writing and photography: We would love to put together a photo exhibit, and run an occasional newspaper column to encourage people to support our efforts. If you have talents in these areas your help could make all the difference.
 

Membership committee: We're always trying to build our membership. If you have ideas for encouraging people to become members, we'd like to try them. If you know people who seem like Land Trust folks, send us their names and addresses and we'll invite them to join.
 

Baking cookies (and other delightful treats): Every gathering is more fun with food! Annual meetings, guest speakers and public outreach events all call for a table full of goodies. If you enjoy cooking, we can assure you of an appreciative group of tasters.
 

Librarian/Archivist and Clippings Team:  We'd also like to develop an on-going process of clipping and managing news articles related to land-preservation, especially in our area. Ideally these materials would become a resource for future projects.

Expertise: Over the years, the Amherst Land Trust has been very fortunate to benefit from the advice and donated services of scientists, attorneys, surveyors and even development professionals. Maybe you're a retired wetlands scientist, an amateur historian, or a mapping consultant. Or maybe you did your masters thesis on eastern coyote migration or accounting methods for nonprofit corporations.

We thank you for any interest in these areas and we'd love to give you a chance to demonstrate your skills!