Every other week on NHPR, we like to highlight a local non-profit that’s providing a great service for the Granite State. On this week’s episode of Give Back New Hampshire, we’ll focus on Tin Mountain Conservation Center.
Since 1980, Tin Mountain Conservation Center has offered hands-on environmental education programs in schools, summer camps, and within communities throughout northern New Hampshire and western Maine.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Lori Jean Kinsey: I'm the executive director at Tin Mountain Conservation Center.
Ed Barosky: I run marketing and communications for Tin Mountain.
Allison Byrd: I'm the research manager.
Heather McKendry: I do outreach, membership and development at Tin Mountain Conservation Center.
Lori Jean Kinsey: Tin Mountain's been around for 45 years and started out as a small center up in the Jackson area, working with a handful of schools in the local school districts. We serve 18 schools and over 3,000 students yearly in the greater Mount Washington Valley and western Maine.
Ed Barosky: We had 250 campers last year, with a total of 18 camps for 2024, which covered the ages of 4 to 16 years old. These kids get to catch frogs. They do nature crafts. They've got a bug Olympics. One of the cool things is we're focusing on the year of the Olympics, and we have categories or athletic categories of the longest jump category, the fastest flight category, and many others. And the kids just absolutely, they're going to love it this year.
Allison Byrd: We have interns that help us out with the research that we conduct. There's an intern cabin that was completed in 2015. We have an avian ecology program that started in 2008, a stream restoration and habitat improvement program that's been going since 2010.
And then we also do a lot of community science work where we do things like a Christmas bird count, a butterfly count, or a big night, which is moving amphibians across the road and monitoring them and getting them safely to their vernal pools and breeding grounds. So there's a lot going on. There's a lot of good research that's taking place, and we also collaborate with other research that's going on locally and nationwide.
Heather McKendry: There's something very welcoming about Tin Mountain for everyone. Whether you are an expert in a field or whether you're just wanting to get your feet wet and discover what's outside and and walking and hiking and have never done any of it before. Whether you're an avian expert or you know what a bird looks like and you want to learn more about them, and I love that. So everyone feels really welcome.
Lori Jean Kinsey: Funding of all of our programs is always is always tough. You know, we're lucky in that we have a lot of the schools that we work with are able to support us through through their school budgets. But it's, you know, it's it's we're always fighting that battle.
All: Nature - There's no better classroom!
