Jim Salge Photography Blog

A special place that needs your help…

I mentioned in the last blog post that it would be difficult for me to get out much during the month of June, as a few good friends are getting married, and the camera would be fairly stagnant. That was before the Spirit Airlines strike, that found me stranded in New England this weekend. Making the best of it, I headed out today with a couple fellow photographers to Evans Mountain in Strafford to look for an orchid that has eluded me the last few years.

One of the people I headed out with was Scott Young, a naturalist, amateur botanist and fine photographer. I’m glad that there are people like Scott in this world. First off, while I can give you the name of most of the plants in the woods…Scott can rattle off the Latin name, let you know that there are three varieties, and which of those it is and why. And more importantly, Scott dedicates and donates an extensive amount of his time to the Bear-Paw Regional Greenways, a land-trust that permanently preserves tracts of land in Southeastern New Hampshire.

The property that we hiked on today is a parcel of land that NEEDS to be conserved. It is an extensive wetlands, uplands and watershed that abuts already preserved land. It has varied habitat for moose, bobcat, fisher, birds, and active efts, and has ledges with fine views from the Seacoast to Mount Washington! Of interest today though was a small peat bog tucked in the back of the property that likely Scott and only a few others know about. I couldn’t find it again, which is probably good, as I’d want to go there too often for the habitat to handle. Why…orchids!

We were there today to find the Rose Pagonia, a species I’d never found before, and we found plenty. It’s not all that rare, but the habitat that it grows in is rather inaccessible. And it is beautiful. Today its petals were heavy and tucked, laden with water from the incessant fog and drizzle this weekend. Many weren’t open, but the water saturated the colors and made for nice compositions.

Scott believes he might know where another colony of this flower is…and I may try a drag/kayak trip to another this week if time allows, as I’d like to try to find these more open. But if not, I’m more than happy with these shots!

As a final note…next weekend, the Bear-Paw Greenways is hosting a Biothon fundraiser to help preserve the Evans Mountain property. They need about $500,000 to lock it away from development, and are hoping people will sponsor a naturalist next weekend as they fan out to catalog the property. You can sponsor Scott in a fixed amount, or per species that he logs. More information can be found here…and thank you!

Now…no posting until after wedding season…hopefully!