The Stockwell Family Forest

The Stockwell Family Forest comprises 79 acres on Stone Road in Dunbarton. The property was owned for many years by the Stockwell family who managed it for timber.

The property was purchased by the Town of Dunbarton in 2025 with money from the Dunbarton Conservation Fund. 

It fits like a missing puzzle piece into a 700+-acre block of conserved open space on Guinea and Stone Roads made up of the Stone Farm, Meadowsend Forest property and the old Farley home on Grapevine Road.

The Trust additionally transferred another 27-acre parcel it owned in Dunbarton to the Town at courtesey rate.

Dedication

“Our grandparents, Sid and Marianna Stockwell are buried side by side in Dunbarton’s Pages Corner Cemetery, but that is not their legacy. During their lifetime they acquired hundreds of acres of New Hampshire forests, and created a trust dedicated to forest preservation, conservation, open spaces, and recreation. 

Following the "pollution shock" of the 1960s our grandparents banded together with thousands of other New Englanders, from a diverse economic and political spectrum, in an environmental movement leading to federal clean air and water legislation; and, specifically in New Hampshire to the existing current land use legislation. 

This important legislation made it possible for farmers and others with large tracts of undeveloped land to afford to keep it as open space, with the land being taxed at the value of its “current use” and not as property under development. Without this law, almost no one in New Hampshire could afford to own large acreages of farm or forest land without being forced to sell it to pay the property taxes. The results speak for themselves today. 

In keeping with our grandparents’ vision for the forests, and inspired by it, the trust beneficiaries are transferring these properties to conservation groups and other current use owners. We are particularly grateful to the Dunbarton Conservation Commission for its collaborative assistance in this process resulting in three former S&M Forest Trust properties now belonging to the town under permanent conservation.”

—Trustees of the S&M Forest Trust, 2025