NH Lakes Lake Smart Program

At the 2022 annual meeting, Bob Gogolen mentioned that NH Lakes offers something called the Lake Smart Program, which will come to your property to analyze how lake-friendly your property is and provide an evaluation report. If there are actions that you can take to improve your property, the report will suggest upgrades.

NH Lakes has more information about this program at this web site: https://nhlakes.org/lakesmart/

And on that page you will fid a link to fill out a form to start the process. To save searching the site for the link, here is the link to the form: https://s.pointerpro.com/lakesmartstart

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on NH Lakes Lake Smart Program

Meeting will be at Brantwood

Since the weather is predicted to have zero chance of rain, we will be holding the annual meeting at Brantwood Camp on Saturday morning as planned.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Meeting will be at Brantwood

2022 SLLT Annual Report

Please find below a link to the 2022 Annual Report of the Silver Lake Land Trust; click the image below to open it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on 2022 SLLT Annual Report

Annual Meeting on Saturday, August 13, 2022

Please join us for the Silver Lake Land Trust Annual Meeting at 10 a.m., Saturday, August 13, 2022 at Brantwood Camp, Breed Pond Road, Nelson. We welcome all SLLT Members and non-members to join us.

This year we have no formal program but thought that we could all share remembrances and celebrate the life of Paul Geddes.

The rain location will be announced on the web site by Friday, August 12 if required.

Directions to Brantwood Camp from the Harrisville end of Silver Lake: Drive Breed Road heading northeast past Silver Lake, with the lake to your left, all the way to the stop sign at the end, with Childs Bog to your right. Turn left onto Nelson Road. After about 1 mile, turn slightly left onto Hardy Hill Road (a gravel road, and the rest of the roads are gravel). After about 0.7 miles, make a sharp left onto Lead Mine Road. After about 0.7 miles, make a left turn onto Breed Pond Rd. Drive carefully up the bumpy road for about a half mile to Brantwood Camp.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Annual Meeting on Saturday, August 13, 2022

2021 SLLT Annual Report

Please find below a link to the 2021 Annual Report of the Silver Lake Land Trust; click the image below to open it.

Posted in Annual Report | Comments Off on 2021 SLLT Annual Report

Announcement of a vote on proposed changes to the By-Laws of the Silver Lake Land Trust

The Board of Trustees is proposing a couple of changes to the By-Laws of the SLLT to be voted on by Members at the Annual Meeting on August 7. 

At the start of the pandemic last year the Board had the intention to cancel the Annual Meeting of members in August to protect our members from a possible COVID-19 spreading event. The Board also considered reducing or eliminating dues for one year when there were questions about the state of the economy. Unfortunately, we discovered that the By-Laws currently have some provisions that would prevent us from doing either of these things.

The By-Laws require an annual meeting before Sept 1 every year and specify that all meetings must be held in a location in Cheshire County, NH. There is also a provision in the By-Laws that requires a minimum of 12 members of the Board of Trustees. Last year we had 10 Board members whose terms were expiring in 2020, which would have left us with 9 Trustees, and the Trustees lack the power to appoint a new slate of Trustees – that power belongs to the members. We solved these issues by having a brief and small outdoor Annual Meeting last August that had only the minimal business necessary to continue operating with attendance by only a very small number of members. 


The Board is therefore proposing some changes to the By-Laws. The proposed changes include a method to declare a temporary emergency that will allow the Trustees to either cancel the Annual Meeting, or hold one via video conference (with the Zoom service, for example), and also allow the Trustees to temporarily take on powers reserved for Members, such as voting in a temporary slate of Trustees, or extending the term of retiring Trustees, or reducing or eliminating (but never raising) membership dues. Any actions taken by the Board with emergency powers must be approved by the Members at the first meeting after the emergency has lapsed. And the emergency will be limited to no more than one year so that there cannot be a permanent state of emergency.


It is important to note that the Board intends to avoid using these powers unless absolutely necessary, and hopes that we never need to do so again.


You can read the current version of the By-Laws at this web page: https://slltnh.org/documents/by-laws/


The proposed changes to the By-Laws are as follows:


Under Article III – “Board of Trustees” – we add the following Section 7. [These powers are currently reserved for Members, not Trustees. Section (e), as I noted above, will allow the Trustees to reduce or eliminate dues requirements for members during the emergency if, for example, the emergency may create a financial hardship for our members. This also requires that any changes made by the Trustees must be ratified by the Members at the next meeting of members.]

Section 7. Emergency Powers for Trustees.  If there is some event that prevents the Silver Lake Land Trust from holding its Annual Meeting of members before September 1 – an event such as, but not limited to, a declared national, state, or local emergency – the Board of Trustees may temporarily adopt the following powers normally reserved for members: 

(a) Determine how many of the vacancies in the Board of Trustees should be filled; 

(b) Nominate Members of the Corporation to serve as Trustees;

(c) Elect nominees needed to fill vacancies in the Board of Trustees;

(d) Allow Trustees whose terms are expiring to continue in their positions until the next Annual Meeting of members;

(e) Reduce or eliminate annual dues requirements during the emergency. If dues requirements are changed, they will remain in effect through the rest of the membership year and revert back to the prior levels for the next membership year.


The Board of Trustees will communicate any of these decisions to members using postal and/or electronic means as soon as possible after these actions are taken. These powers will lapse when the Board of Trustees votes to end them (which should ideally be when the emergency has ceased), or after a full year, whichever comes first. 


All actions taken under emergency powers by the Board of Trustees must be ratified by the membership at the first Annual Meeting or Special Meeting after the emergency has ceased. 

The second change that the Board are proposing is to Article IV – “Meetings”. [This is to allow us to cancel or hold a virtual Annual Meeting if there is some reason why we cannot have one; an Annual Meeting is required by the By-Laws to be held prior to Sept 1 every year, according to Article IV – Section 1.]

Section 7. National, State, or Local Emergency. If there is some event that prevents the Silver Lake Land Trust from holding its Annual Meeting of members before September 1 at a location in Cheshire County – an event such as, but not limited to, a declared national, state, or local emergency – the Board of Trustees may vote to: 

(a) Cancel the Annual Meeting and take on emergency powers as specified in Article III, Section 7. 

(b) Hold a virtual Annual Meeting open to all members in good standing using electronic means using audio and video which allows Members to participate as if the meeting were held in a physical location.

The Board of Trustees will propose these changes to the Membership at the Annual Meeting. We hope to see as many of you as possible at this year’s Annual Meeting on August 7.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Announcement of a vote on proposed changes to the By-Laws of the Silver Lake Land Trust

Annual Meeting on Saturday, August 7, 2021

Please join us for the Silver Lake Land Trust Annual Meeting at 10 a.m., Saturday, August 7, 2021 at Brantwood Camp, Breed Pond Road, Nelson. We welcome all SLLT Members and non-members to join us.

This year’s speaker will be Karen Seaver. Karen is a staff ecologist at the Harris Center for Conservation Education as well as an instructor at Keene State College. She will speak on cyanobacteria monitoring in lakes. Karen had an article in the spring 2021 Harris Hearsay newsletter called “The Buzz on Blooms” about cyanobacteria blooms

The rain location is at Wells Memorial School, 235 Chesham Road, Harrisville, NH 03450. We will post on the web site as soon as a decision has been made to move the meeting if the weather requires it.

Directions to Brantwood Camp from the Harrisville end of Silver Lake: Drive Breed Road heading northeast past Silver Lake, with the lake to your left, all the way to the stop sign at the end, with Childs Bog to your right. Turn left onto Nelson Road. After about 1 mile, turn slightly left onto Hardy Hill Road (a gravel road, and the rest of the roads are gravel). After about 0.7 miles, make a sharp left onto Lead Mine Road. After about 0.7 miles, make a left turn onto Breed Pond Rd. Drive carefully up the bumpy road for about a half mile to Brantwood Camp.

Posted in Annual Meeting | Comments Off on Annual Meeting on Saturday, August 7, 2021

Public Hearing April 8 on Stoney Beach parking restrictions in Harrisville

The Harrisville Select Board voted to limit parking at the public boat launch at Stoney Beach to 31 parking spaces, with no parking allowed along the farm side of Breed Road, no parking south of West Side Road, and a limited number of spaces adjacent to the dam on Seaver Road. There are specific spots designated for trailers and one reserved for official use only, and signs will be installed to clearly explain the restrictions.

The Harrisville Select Board will hold a public hearing to explain this policy on Thursday, April 8, at 7:30 p.m.

Details about the meeting can be found at Harrisville’s web site here, including a link to a map showing the parking restrictions and proposed signage, and instructions on how to get a link to connect remotely via Zoom.

If you plan to connect to the meeting remotely via Zoom, please remember to mute your microphone before connecting.

[edit – Zoom meeting link removed].

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Public Hearing April 8 on Stoney Beach parking restrictions in Harrisville

Looking for Comments on Stoney Beach Research Group Memo to Harrisville Selectboard

Update: the comment period is over. Thank you for your comments and suggestions.

The Stoney Beach Research Group (SBRG) was formed in 2019 to gather information about Stoney Beach, the area around the boat landing at Silver Lake. The result of their research is a memo requesting that the Harrisville Selectboard take some action with regard to Stoney Beach.

The memo:

The SBRG has asked The Silver Lake Land Trust (SLLT) and The Silver Lake Association (SLA) to endorse this memo before it is presented to the Selectboard. Both the SLA and the SLLT Board of Trustees have reviewed the memo and endorsed it with a few suggestions which have been incorporated.

To summarize the recommendations, the memo requests that the town enforce the rules that already exist at the boat landing and make 2 changes in the rules: (1) limit the parking to 30 spaces on the north side (i.e., the lake side) of Breed Road, 15 for single vehicles, 15 for vehicles with trailers, and (2) reduce the hours the boat landing is open to reduce partying at night. When SLLT was involved in redesigning the boat landing in 2010 this parking limitation was part of the plan but the signs prohibiting parking on the south side of the road were never installed. The boat landing is currently closed from 11:00 pm to 6:00 am. The new curfew hours requested in the memo are the ones customary at many NH boat landings: 9:00 pm to 6:00 am. The memo also requests reasonable increased signage and increased enforcement of these rules.

The memo supports these recommendations with comparisons to the parking and curfews established at other lakes in NH.

The Board of Trustees of the SLLT is interested in any comments or suggestions that our members may have on this memo in the next ten days (until November 15, 2020). Please do take the time to read the memo.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Looking for Comments on Stoney Beach Research Group Memo to Harrisville Selectboard

2020 SLLT Annual Report

The SLLT is pleased to share the 2020 SLLT Annual Report; click the image below. Because of COVID-19 worries this year’s annual meeting will be confined simply to the business the organization must pass, but we all hope that we can gather together for a full meeting next year.

Please check back in a few weeks as we will add the Annual Reports from past years to a section of the web site.

Posted in Annual Report | Comments Off on 2020 SLLT Annual Report