Active Conservation Begins on Squam Lake
Looking to escape the congestion and pollution of city life, a number of wealthy families were drawn to the area's pristine natural beauty and purchased land around the lake from farmers who could no longer profit from working their farmland. The new land-owners built homes on the lake's shores and hilly vistas that blended well with the natural surroundings and inspired the early adoption of many conservation efforts.
In 1887, the Deephaven and Rockywold camps were established, offering a place for guests to stay and experience the beauty of Squam. Over time, the camps grew, and guests became “regulars,” many of whom went on to acquire their own shorefront property and to build second homes. Because of all the changes in land use around the lake, Squam’s charm was starting to erode. The surrounding mountain sides were cleared by logging causing sawdust several feet thick to settle in many of the coves, driftwood made navigation hazardous, and refuse including tires, mattresses, and dead animals were just discarded in the lake.
In 1904, a group of concerned new landowners led by Laurence Webster took action to address these issues by forming the Squam Lakes Improvement Association whose prime objective was to clean up the lake. This new organization provided a forum for a continuing dialogue between shoreland owners and local residents to discuss issues that were negatively affecting the watershed and come to a consensus on how to take corrective action to preserve it.
Over the past 120 years, as times and needs have changed, five new conservation organizations have been formed to meet these changing needs of the watershed. The Squam Lakes Association (SLA) has always monitored and taken action to preserve water quality, maintain shoreline conservation and preservation, and monitor recreation areas for public use of the lake. In 1960, the Squam Lakes Conservation Society (SLCS) was formed to protect the whole watershed by conserving the land that is the water source for the lake. By 2023, the SLCS had conserved over 30% of the watershed, or about 10,000 acres. The Squam Lakes Natural Science Center was created in 1966 to educate visitors about the natural occupants and ecosystems of the watershed. In 1975, the Loon Preservation Committee, located in Moultonborough, was formed as the loon population had started to decline. Its goal was to maintain the bird’s population on Squam. In 1979, the Lakes Region Conservation Trust, located in Center Harbor, was formed to focus on land conservation on the south side of Squam and the northern part of Lake Winnipesaukee. And most recently, the Squam Archives Center (SAC) was established in 2016 to preserve Squam's cultural past for future generations.
These six local nonprofits have been working together for decades to educate, preserve, and conserve the natural beauty and cultural history of the Squam Lakes Watershed for future generations - local residents, summer residents, and visitors.
Squam Lakes Improvement Association, 1904
In 1904, the Squam Lakes Improvement Association was formed by a group of concerned landowners lead by its first president, Laurance J. Webster. In 1905, the association was incorporated as a nonprofit conservation organization and renamed in 1947 as the Squam Lakes Association (commonly called “the SLA”). The Association is dedicated to conserving the natural beauty, peaceful character, and resources of the watershed.
In collaboration with local and state partners, the SLA promotes the protection, careful use, and shared enjoyment of the lakes, mountains, forests, open spaces, and wildlife of the Squam Lakes region. Initial efforts of the SLA and its members were diligently focused on eliminating pollution from the lakes, maintenance of the water level, boat safety, and navigation. For the past 120 years, the watershed has been uniquely conserved by the SLA through cooperative relationships with sister nonprofits, local and state governments, and the dedication of multiple generations of conservation-minded people who loved Squam.
Their first action was a friendly lawsuit to establish the maximum flow of water over the damn in Ashland to maintain the water level in the lake. The next action was “the war against pollution” that was contaminating the lake. Culprits included ashes from the puffing steamers towing rafts of logs up to Mr. Nichols' sawmill in Ashland. Other contaminants included coal, broken bottles, tin cans, dead fish, dead puppies and kittens, unwanted sandwiches, orange peels, driftwood, half-sunken treetops, sometimes whole trees, raw sewage, old mattresses, broken chairs, and house refuse of every conceivable kind -- some a menace to health as well as navigation.
There were also old sunken boats full of stones including John Curry's dugout whose non-seaworthiness had drowned him in a heavy squall – so his family also drowned the boat. Sawdust from the sawmill on White Oak Brook settled feet thick on the white sand bottom of Piper's Cove, and other sandy coves were clogged with water-logged timber. With the growing popularity of automobiles, old tires and pieces of damaged machinery were plentiful, plus engine oil fouled the water surface spoiling the lake for swimming as well as killing fish and water plants.
Over the years, the SLA has helped the Marine Patrol by introducing and sponsoring legislation through the NH Legislature, financing capital needs such as new buoys, and the Department of Environmental Services that conserves and protects Squam Lake as well as other lakes in New Hampshire.
Squam Lakes Conservation Society, 1960
Laurance’s son, Frank G. Webster II continued the nonprofit conservation movement and in 1960 founded the Squam Lakes Conservation Society. He also gifted land to the SLCS with the intention of it becoming the Holderness Town Beach.
As told by F.G. Webster II’s son Peter Webster, “It always bugged my dad that the Town of Holderness didn’t have a Town Beach, so he decided to rectify that. There was a strip of land with a beach on it in Livermore Cove (formerly the beach for the Mount Livermore Hotel) that he and his aunt, Mrs. E.S. Webster owned, and he talked her into joining him in giving it to the Town of Holderness. In the transfer of ownership, my dad had to name an alternate owner in case the Town didn’t want to keep it. To him, a conservation organization would be ideal, and someone suggested The Society for the Preservation of New Hampshire Forests. He let loose a couple of expletives and exclaimed -- There is no way in Hell I want someone in Concord telling the citizens of Holderness what they can and can’t do with their beach! So, he and a friend who taught at Harvard’s School of International Law figured out how to setup a local conservation society and the Squam Lakes Conservation Society was born.”
Map of Squam Lake water shed area
Squam Lakes Science Center, 1966
Frank Webster II had another “bee in his bonnet” inspired by his frequent conversations with friend Brad Washburn, Director of the Boston Museum of Science, about starting a mini–Boston Museum of Science in Holderness. Brad Washburn was also a cartographer who made a map of Squam Lake that at the time was considered “the most accurate map of any lake in the country.” Frank Webster promoted the idea of a mini science museum to local friends and acquaintances and received both enthusiastic support and suggestions from many who agreed it would be a good idea to shrink the scope of their mandate from covering all sciences to primarily local natural sciences.
His expectation was that visitors would come to the Squam Lakes Science Center (as it was first called) to learn about New Hampshire’s local animals and ecosystems with the hope that when they returned home, they would be inspired to explore the animals and ecosystems around them. To further encourage that happening, Gib Merrill, who had for decades been the Educational Director for the Boston Museum of Science was hired as the first Executive Director of the Squam Lakes Science Center. As another incentive, he acquired and donated 200 acres of land that included Mt. Fayal.
Loon Preservation Committee, 1975
The Loon Preservation Committee was established by Rawson Wood, an ardent ornithologist, who also helped found the Lyman Langdon Audubon Society on Long Island, NY (now known as the North Shore Audubon Society). He also served on the boards of the Linnaean Society, the American Ornithologists’ Union, and the New Hampshire Audubon Society, and twice was director of the National Audubon Society. But his crowning achievement was rescuing the common loon from the verge of extinction.
In addition to the Loon Preservation Committee on Squam, Wood established the North American Loon Fund and the New Hampshire Lakes Region Conservation Trust in 1979 (www.lrct.org) and worked closely with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Tufts University to promote loon research and produce recordings of the haunting primal loon call which has become a common soundtrack in movies with wilderness scenes.