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The 57-acre Kwaks Sanctuary provides excellent habitat for a variety of wildlife species. There are excellent examples of many natural community types from dense upland hemlock, mixed conifer, and rich hardwood forests to prime wetland communities which play an important role in protecting the water quality of the Follett’s Brook Watershed.
The open field adjacent to the parking lot was formerly home to a golf driving range. This will be maintained as a meadow to provide habitat for a suite of species including bobolink, Eastern meadowlark, and red fox. On our trails, you can enjoy some easy hiking that will expose you to a variety of habitats while revealing the agricultural and timbering history of the area.
New Hampshire Audubon is a member of the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership, which is a group of organizations who are all committed to the common goal of protecting this Great Bay region through conservation planning, land conservation, stewardship, education, and outreach.
Noted for its relatively unfragmented area of forests, streams, and wetland ecosystems, the approximately 1,200 acre Follett’s Brook Watershed is an area of high priority for the Partnership.
The Kwaks Sanctuary is a key component in the protection of the Follett’s Brook Watershed. By providing intact upland connected to high quality wetlands, the Kwaks Sanctuary and other forested lands in the area play an important role in maintaining water quality, ensuring wildlife habitat, and allowing for light-impact recreational activities.
By protecting the Follett’s Brook Watershed, New Hampshire Audubon and our partners are helping to care for not only the plants and animals, but also the vital waters of this planet.
Use the buttons below to explore past sightings at this sanctuary on iNaturalist and eBird, and make sure to add your own observations when you visit!
There is no current trail access on the Smith Sisters Wildlife Sanctuary.
From Newmarket: Take Main Street/Route 152 West for 1.9 miles to a large parking lot on the north (right) side of the road (next to #332 Wadleigh Falls Rd). The lot is marked by the hanging roadside sign and kiosk in the field.
From Lee/Epping (Route 125): take Route 152 East for 4.5 miles to a large parking lot on the north (left) side of the road (next to #332 Wadleigh Falls Rd). The lot is marked by the hanging roadside sign and kiosk in the field.
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How This Land Was Protected
The two properties that make up Follett’s Brook Wildlife Sanctuary were each, at different moments, very close to being lost.
In 2008 the Kwaks family, who had operated the Wadleigh Falls Golf Driving Range here for twelve years, retired and faced a choice. The property already had conditional approval for an 18-lot residential development. Thanks in part to encouragement from community members and the conservation work of the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership, the Kwaks chose a different path. On behalf of the Partnership, The Nature Conservancy purchased the 57-acre parcel using federal conservation grants and transferred it to New Hampshire Audubon to manage for wildlife and public access.
Later that same year, a second piece of the puzzle fell into place. Five sisters – daughters of Florence Arendt Smith, whose family had farmed this land for generations – jointly owned 115 acres along Follett’s Brook. The property had been under contract with a developer who planned to mine and subdivide it. Working through the Partnership, The Nature Conservancy brought together an extraordinary coalition to protect it: the towns of Newmarket and Durham, the Lamprey River Advisory Committee, the NH Department of Environmental Services, NOAA, the North American Wetlands Conservation Act program, and private donors all contributed. The land was transferred to NH Audubon, and the parcels to the north and west now form a contiguous protected landscape of over 300 acres.
“It has meant so much to our family,” said Adrienne Rubino, one of the five sisters, “and it’s great to know the land will remain intact and healthy for generations to come.”
Photo, top: open fields and meadows of the Kwaks Wildlife Sanctuary, by Phil Brown.