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Buck’s Ledge Community Forest

COMMUNITY FOREST OFFERS ACCESS TO THE OUTDOORS AND ICONIC VIEWS

Just east of the White Mountain National Forest in the western mountains of Maine, Buck’s Ledge Community Forest stands above North Pond and provides views of the Mahoosuc and Presidential Ranges. With miles of hiking, walking, and snowmobile trails, key features like Lapham Ledge and the summit of Moody Mountain attract recreationists, artists, and photographers.

What makes Buck’s Ledge iconic isn’t just its unique scenery, but that it’s an example of when a community loves a special place and commits to making the experience of visiting an opportunity everyone can enjoy.

Jane Chandler, a local resident and volunteer on the Woodstock Conservation Commission, speaks to how stewards work with school groups, community organizations, local volunteers and businesses to make the forest a place to enjoy and care for together.

“I have a spiritual connection with the place. When I have had a bad day, I go there for a hike to feel better,” Jane explains. “Lots of people go to Bucks Ledge for the connection.”

The local community is actively involved in designing and maintaining trails, ensuring habitat and wildlife protection, and creating features such as benches, signs, and artwork to make everyone feel welcome.

“So many people are involved in the trails. Not just people in Woodstock, but the greater region,” Jane emphasized. “When we host our once-a-week trail workdays in the summer, people come from all over to help work on the trails. When you encourage people to feel connection to the place, they will take care of it.”

The community forest is owned and cared for by the Town of Woodstock, permanently protected with a conservation easement held by the Mahoosuc Land Trust. The town also recently acquired 70 acres to make permanent connections from the local elementary school to the trails.

“The partnership with Woodstock Elementary School allows the littlest kids to now help work on the trails with the new tool library we created from the grant we received from the Northern Forest Center and L.L. Bean.”

The Mahoosuc Way Principles in Action

  • Explore Wisely: Volunteers help maintain trails and ensure signage is easily visible throughout the forest, which minimizes environmental impacts while hiking.
  • Care for the Land: Youth hiking groups instill the values of caring for the land, supporting conservation, and respecting landowners in the next generation.
  • Care for the Land: When Woodstock Elementary School students regularly hike the trail to clean up, they typically don’t find any trash! Hikers are doing a great job of leaving no trace.

How can others be mindful and considerate when visiting Buck’s Ledge?    

It is vital that everyone takes care of what they are walking on. These trails are maintained, we’ve encouraged carry-in carry-out. Encourage dogs on leashes, and for people to take out doggy bags.

What collaboration or new projects are going on at the community forest?

There is a 230-acre special management area that will not have trails because it has some of the rarest plants in the state. Coastal Maine Botanical Garden wants to come to Bucks Ledge to collect samples of these rare plants for the garden.

In addition to working with Maine Adaptive to build an accessible trail in 2025, there is also an improved access road to what will be the Trail for All.  

Karen Bieluch, a Practice-Based Learning Specialist in the Department of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College who lives in Bethel, brings Dartmouth students here to study climate change and carbon sequestration. They have involved students from Telstar High School with plots on Bucks Ledge to measure tree growth over time, so we get to see college students teaching high school kids. 

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