Almost 50 years after its founding, the Chocorua Lake Conservancy has hired our first full-time employee!
We are excited to welcome Lynne Flaccus to the position of Stewardship Director. Lynne will be responsible for advancing the stewardship program of the Conservancy, which is responsible for managing or stewarding 3,800 acres of protected land in the Chocorua Lake Basin.
As Stewardship Director, Lynne will establish personal contact with each owner of protected land and will work with the landowner to create a “current conditions” report for each covenant or easement, to establish a baseline against which changes in the land can be assessed for compliance with the governing document. The report will be reviewed with each landowner or his/her designated representative to assure its accuracy, and the Conservancy and the landowner will each retain a copy of the report as a permanent record.
Building on these initial contacts, she will recruit and train volunteers to assist with annual landowner contacts and property visits, to offer assistance with land management questions, and to update Conservancy records to reflect any changes in protected properties.
Many of Conservancy’s conservation covenants date from the early days of land conservation in New Hampshire and the United States. The creation of conservation covenants represented a pioneering and herculean effort on the part of leaders of the Conservancy’s predecessor organizations. The Conservancy’s records contain important information about each covenant or easement, but modern standards of land trust practice require that we establish up-to-date systems for maintaining relationships with the owners of protected lands and for assuring that our information about each parcel remains current with the passage of time.
Lynne has a lifelong connection with the Chocorua area. She spent her childhood summers and many vacations at her grandmother’s’ house in Tamworth, of which she is now a co-owner. She spent much of her youth and early adult years exploring, hiking, fishing, and canoeing throughout Chocorua, Tamworth and the Sandwich Range. After college, she spent four years living and working in the area. Lynne says, “There has always been a special spot in my heart for Tamworth and the Chocorua Lake area!”.
Lynne has extensive experience working with landowners on conservation strategies for their lands, mapping, educational programs, stewardship of conservation lands and trails, interpretive trail creation, managing volunteers, and drafting conservation plans and conservation easements.
Lynne brings to the Chocorua Lake Conservancy almost 30 years of experience in land conservation and stewardship, managing protected properties, studying wildlife, and educating adults and children. Most recently, she served as Education and Stewardship Specialist at Midcoast Conservancy (Wiscasset, Maine), where she was the point person for all stewardship activities. Lynne spent the prior five years as Programs Manager at the Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association (Newcastle, Maine), where she implemented a wide range of stewardship and conservation programs, and natural history education.
From 1988 to 2011, she worked at the Chewonki Foundation (Wiscasset, Maine) as a teacher and Head Naturalist. At Chewonki, she served as a Wilderness Trip Leader and led many extended canoe trips for youth throughout Maine and Canada with her husband Greg. She holds a B.S. in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Vermont.
This Stewardship Director position is partially funded through generous grants from the Tamworth Foundation, the New England Grass Roots Foundation, the Davis Conservation Foundation; and the Norcross Wildlife Foundation.
Lynne will be supervised by Peg Wheeler and Alex Moot, with support from Paul Doscher, who recently retired after 27 years at the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
Conservancy members can reach Lynne via email at lflaccus@chocorualakeconservancy.com.