Northeast OTFY: Bruce Townsend and Heidi Bundy of New Hampshire

What makes them outstanding?

Bruce Townsend and his daughter Heidi Bundy own and operate Tomapo Farm in Lebanon, New Hampshire on property that has been in their family for 250 years.   With a goal of “Leaving the land better than we found it” each generation of the family has worked to make improvements to the property and find new niches to enhance the productivity of the operation. 

The family is currently managing and planning for the expansion of their 1,600-tap sugar bush.  They produce a variety of maple products and tend a nut orchard that was planted by Bruce’s great grandfather over 100 years ago. 

Over the last 10 years the Townsends have harvested roughly 500 MBF of sawlogs, 2500 tons of pulpwood and 500 cords of fuelwood.  They also produce approximately 500 gallons of maple syrup from their sugarbush annually. 

Bruce has made a good living from his land for his family, through exceptional forest management; harvesting and selling forest products, custom sawing lumber and producing maple products.  Until recently, doing all of the harvesting with a farm tractor.  

Management efforts emphasize maintaining mast and snag trees, and buffers are maintained to protect water quality.  The property provides habitat for monarch butterflies and nest boxes are provided for bluebirds.  Every year, a colony of bats return to roost in the barn. 

They also feel very strongly about welcoming the community onto their property.  Heidi writes, “We are stewards of this land, and as such we wish to share the blessings of this property with our community.”  They encourage hunting, hiking, skiing and snowshoeing on the property, and mow a path around the edges of their fields for the public to use. They also have a recreation easement on 35 acres of their property with the City of Lebanon for use as a ski area. They welcome youth groups and maple tours on a regular basis. A conservation easement ensures that most of the property will remain undeveloped in the future.

Tree Farmer Story

Encompassing nearly 400 acres, the Tomapo Tree Farm exemplifies sound forest management and long-term forest stewardship.  And, when we talk about long-term stewardship ““ we really mean it!  This property has been owned and cared for by this family for over 250 years - since 1769 when they bought the land from the original grantee of the King’s Grant.  Bruce is the 7th generation that has been caring for this land, and Heidi is the 8th generation.  The family has seen the property through the 1938 hurricane that destroyed their sugarhouse and the sugarbush.  The forest has provided for the family from the days of axes and crosscut saws to today’s mechanized equipment.

Land stewardship runs in this family.  After attending the Thompson School to study Dairy Farming, Bruce took over the management of the farm and forest land when his father took on the job of Commissioner of Agriculture in New Hampshire.  In the 1970’s the family made the decision to sell their dairy herd and focus on the forest resources the property offered.

Throughout the years, like his forefathers, Bruce has focused on creating a sustainable farm that can be passed on to future generations.  Bruce has done his best to make improvements, seeking diversities that will complement the established workings on the farm, as well as activities that are more suited to the coming generation.  He has kept best management practices at the forefront as well as keeping the needs of the community in view.

Bruce and Heidi have been committed to Tree Farming their entire lives and they have passed that commitment on to their children and grandchildren.  They have kept this property as a working forest, and ensured that it will continue to be productive land into the future by placing a conservation easement on most of the land. 

The family has made a good living from the land, through exceptional forest management:  harvesting and selling firewood, sawlogs, custom sawn lumber, and maple products.  Until recently, Bruce and his family completed all of the harvesting using their farm tractor.

Nowadays, Bruce and Heidi work with their licensed forester, Rick Evans, and professional loggers to implement commercial timber sales on the property.  They have a forest management plan for the property which they say has, “provided us with a map for the future, making business decisions much easier and allowing our forest to be managed for better health.”

Each year, the family tends their 1,600-tap sugar bush, producing approximately 500 gallons of syrup and a variety of maple products.  They annually cut, split and deliver approximately 80 cords/year of green firewood.  They also tend the nut orchard that was planted by Bruce’s great grandfather Amasa over 100 years ago, harvesting and drying shagbark hickory nuts, butternuts and walnuts.  For many years they also ran a water business filling area swimming pools. They now use their sawmill and woodshop to produce lumber and turn wood bowls. They also recently started raising bees and producing honey.

The family continues to evolve and adapt their management, striving to make their living from the land while leaving it better than they received it.  Heidi has homeschooled five children and the children are part of the family business as well.  Heidi sells a variety of the farm products ““ maple, nuts, honey, and homemade wood turned bowls to customers at local farmers markets as well as by mail order.

Timber stand improvement work and thinnings in the sugar bush supply the family’s small sawmill with wood they use on the farm for projects such as fixing the sap house, making hive parts, and maintaining the other buildings.

They also feel very strongly about welcoming the community onto their property.  Heidi writes, “We are stewards of this land, and as such we wish to share the blessings of this property with our community.”  They encourage hunting, hiking, skiing and snowshoeing, and have collaborated with the Lebanon Recreation Department to host an annual March Moon Madness Progressive Dinner on their very windy, very cold North Field.  They also have a recreation easement agreement for 35 acres of their property with the City of Lebanon for use as a ski area. They welcome youth groups and maple tours on a regular basis.

Describe any outreach on behalf of sustainable forestry that the Tree Farmer has done 

• Hosted 2017 New Hampshire Tree Farm Field Day featuring tours of their forest management and maple sugar operation.  Highlighted other uses of the land including the nut grove and bee hives, as well as offering equipment demonstrations of their wood processor, sawmill and lathe. 
• Numerous maple and youth group tours.
• Very active in NH Maple Producers Association. 
• Members of the NH Farm Bureau and NH Timberland Owners Association.
• Over 20 articles about the farm and family:
•  May/June 63 The Orange Disc A New England Tradition
•   6/30/67 Valley News What Goes Best with Pancakes?
•  March/72 Contact Preserving a Vanishing Craft
•  11/28/72 The Connecticut Valley Reporter Storrs Hill Almost a Reality
•  12/1/72 Union Leader Townsend Knows His Farm Chores
• featuring the family farm and Bruce's father
•  3/?/73? Valley News Townsend Still Healthy Despite Three Part Job
• focusing on Bruce's father
•  6/73 Northeast Ag
•  12/24/75 Union Leader Townsend Family Tilling 200-year Farm at Lebanon
• Features Bicentennial aspect of farm
•  5/15/76 Union Leader 53 Farmstead Families in State Awarded Bicentennial Medals
•  5/27/87 Valley News The Official Word: A Terrible Maple Season
•  4/3/92 Valley News Hoping the Good Weather Holds
•  June/July 2001 Farm and Ranch Magazine Spring Brings Big Hopes for Sweet success in the Woods
•  3/16/06 Connecticut Valley Spectator Sweet Season
•  post 2006 Valley News picture: Bruce picking up logs from damage occurring 'last April'
•  6/14/08 Valley News: Girls at Market
• 3/18/10 Your Voice Making Maple Candies for Generations
• 3/22/15 Valley News Region's Sugarhouses Prepare for Open House
• 3/24/15 Valley News Sugar Makers Uneasy as Cold Continues - Short Season Looms
•  Tomapo Farm, LLC featured on New Hampshire Farms Network Website
• 9/20/19  Tomapo Farm Barn featured in Valley News advertising John Porters new book Preserving Old Barns which also features the Tomapo Farm Barn
• 2/19/20  Front page photo of Heidi tapping in Valley News

 

For the following areas describe how the landowner's management addresses it

Wood: Over the last 10 years the Townsends have harvested roughly 500 MBF of sawlogs, 2500 tons of pulpwood and 500 cords of fuelwood.  They also produce approximately 500 gallons of maple syrup from their 1600 tap sugarbush annually.

Following harvesting, all of the reforestation on the property is natural.  Harvesting and thinning practices are implemented to encourage species that will thrive in the particular soils and sunlight conditions.

In May, 2019, the family hired a logger to remove 260 red pines that had been serving as a wind break, but were beginning to decline.  They milled out lumber and beams in preparation for constructing a new equipment shed and used the rest for firewood for the maple sugar operation. They plan to replant the windbreak with spruce.

In the summer and fall of 2018 and 2019, Bruce and Heidi began actively clearing brush and logging white pine growing in a past sugar bush which will be re-tubed for future maple syrup production.

Thinnings and invasive species control are important in the sugar bush to maintain healthy and vigorous trees.  Invasive species control work is ongoing throughout the property. Buckthorn control in sugarbush, and buckthorn, barberry, bittersweet, multiflora rose along field edges and in nut orchard.

One of the butternut trees in the nut orchard is recognized as the Grafton County Champion butternut.

Water: The Townsend/Bundy harvests always adhere to the NH Best Management Practices (BMPs) for timber harvesting guidelines. While there is only one year-round stream on the south side of the property, they have strictly followed wetlands crossing guidelines. During the 2014 harvest in this area, the stream was bridged and a 50’ no cut buffer was followed along the stream.

There are four seasonal drainages that originate on the north slope of Storrs Hill on the northern portion of the Townsend’s Farm. When working in these areas, the timber harvesting has been limited to either the driest months of the summer or frozen ground in the winter. Skid trails were carefully planned to remain between the streams and not cross any of them. Sites with poorly drained soils have only been treated during frozen ground conditions.

When closing out harvest roads, water bars are installed by logger Fred Weld or by the family with their own equipment when necessary.

Wildlife including threatened and endangered species: 

 The property is identified as a Significant Ecological Area in the City of Lebanon's Natural Resources Inventory.

All of the silvicultural treatments have considered and benefit the wildlife found on this property.  There are abundant hard mast sources for the deer and wild turkey (oaks and beech), as well as soft mast (black and choke cherry). The farm fields offer clover and grasses during spring and summer.

Nesting and cavity trees have been identified and retained during harvests.

There are healthy populations of deer, turkey, fox, squirrel songbirds and hawks that live on the Tomapo Farm.  The family encourages hunting and trapping in an effort to maintain healthy herds of deer and turkey as well as keeping the coyotes at bay.

Hunters are allowed to install game cameras and USDA has installed game cameras in our woods in an attempt to locate feral pigs from Corbin Park in Croydon, NH.

The family maintains a monarch butterfly sanctuary in that they do not mow areas of butterfly feed (milkweed and fall asters) until the Monarchs have headed south.  A neighbor has bluebird houses posted on the property which the family helps to monitor ““ they have seen an increase in the Eastern Bluebird in recent years as a result.

The family welcomes and co-exist with a colony of bats that return annually to roost in their barn.

Recreation and Aesthetics including special sites: The family mows the edges of their fields as walking and running paths for the public to use. And the local school ski teams use the fields for training and practice.

The family placed a conservation easement on much of the property in the 1980’s.

Approximately 35 acres of the property are part of a recreation easement agreement with the city of Lebanon for use as a community ski area featuring a poma lift.  Approximately half of the ski area is on Tomapo farm and the Townsend/Bundy family have retained the timber rights from any harvesting to expand the ski trails.

A local horse club uses the fields for an annual sleigh ride event in February.

A nut orchard (hickory, walnuts and butternuts) planted by Bruce’s great grandfather back around 1906.

The family has participated with the Lebanon Recreation Department to host an annual March Moon Madness Progressive Dinner.

Tours of the maple operation introduce many people to the traditions involved with making maple syrup.

Describe other forestry programs or organizations in which the Tree Farmer participates

• Recognized as a bicentennial farm 200 years of lineal family ownership in 1976
• NH Maple Producers Association
• Bruce served as the President of New Hampshire Maple Producers Association for several years in the 1970’s as well as serving on the Board of Directors.
• Bruce served as Can Committee Chairman of New Hampshire Maple Producers for 6 years in the 1990's
• Bruce’s grandchildren Sarah, Nathan and Merinda Bundy have all received NH Maple Producers Association Felker Awards with the guidance and assistance of their grandfather.
• NH State Legislature
• Bruce participated in the NH Constitutional Convention in 1973-1974 and served as a State Representative in 1975-1976.
• NH Farm Bureau
• NH Timberland Owners Association