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Jeffrey P. Smith

Born and raised outside of Boston, Jeffrey Poole Smith (1902-1988) spent many summers as a boy visiting family at Buttonwood Farm in rural Hollis, New Hampshire. After inheriting the property from his aunt Marion Nichols at the age of 21, he moved to Hollis and devoted the next four decades of his life to dairy farming. In retirement, he pursued his passion for conservation, horticulture, and civic service.

Troubled by the rapid population growth in Hollis and surrounding communities, Jeff resolved to act. In 1964, he and his cousin Hollis P. Nichols established Beaver Brook Association as a nonprofit land conservation and environmental education organization. What started with Nichols’ donation of eighteen acres grew nearly a hundredfold over fifteen years as the two negotiated 86 land transactions, including the addition of 200 acres of Jeff’s land.

Today, Beaver Brook is one of the largest land trusts and nature-based education centers in southern New Hampshire and neighboring Massachusetts, encompassing nearly 2,200 acres. It features 35 miles of trails and 13 themed gardens and offers public programming that enriches the lives of thousands of children and adults each year.

Jeff helped the Town of Hollis establish the first municipal conservation commission in New Hampshire, which petitioned the Governor in 1966 to stop the pollution of the Nashua River. The commission went on to encourage Massachusetts conservation commissions along the Nashua to do the same.

He was also instrumental in the formation of several other regional environmental organizations, including the Nissitissit River Land Trust (1968), Nashoba Conservation Trust (1969), and Nashua River Watershed Association (1969). This early work laid the foundation for sections of the Nashua, Squannacook, and Nissitissit Rivers to attain the federal “Wild and Scenic” designation in 2019.

Described, in memoriam, as “a cornerstone of [the Hollis] community,” Jeffrey P. Smith’s vision and legacy lives on through the work of the conservation organizations he co-founded and namesakes such as the Nichols-Smith Conservation Land Trust (1997), Jeff Smith Trail, and Jeffrey P. Smith Farm Scholarship Program.

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