Jane Difley

With a logger grandfather, Jane Difley says she has sawdust in her veins. On the first Earth Day ever, she decided to become a forester because she knew too many environmentalists who didn’t have enough facts and too many scientists who didn’t have enough passion. She credits her parents for simply forgetting to tell her that there were things girls didn’t do, and onward she went into the forest.

Jane would later be elected the first woman president of the Society of American Foresters. For the past 23 years, she served as the president/forester of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, one of the country’s most effective land conservation organizations. Founded in 1901 by a handful of concerned citizens, the Forest Society today is 10,000 members strong and protects more than 200,000 acres of New Hampshire’s landscape.  Under her leadership, 85 new Forest Society reservations were established protecting 31,064 additional acres and 404 additional easements were in put in place to protect more than 76,000 acres.

Jane believes its mission “to perpetuate the forests of New Hampshire through their wise use and their complete reservation in places of special scenic beauty” still resonates as clearly today as it did when first written over a century ago. The Forest Society is also an unofficial training academy for young conservation and sustainability leaders. 

Eight years ago, when Northern Pass first proposed to cut a 192-mile scar through the middle of New Hampshire by placing towers of up to 155 feet from the Canadian border to Deerfield, she declared the Forest Society as “all in” the fight. The organization’s leadership is largely credited for crippling Northern Pass. That is just one reason we presented Jane with the first Alnoba Moral Courage in Leadership Award in 2018.

In 2019, The Land Trust Alliance, a national land conservation organization working to save the places people need and love by strengthening land conservation across America, bestowed on Jane the distinguished Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award for her pioneering work.   The award honors “an outstanding individual whose vision and creativity have resulted in extraordinary accomplishments for land conservation and the land trust community.” It ranks among the organization’s highest honors.

See Jane in Action

Enjoy this beautiful retrospective on the remarkable career of Jane Difley, created in honor of her retirement.

The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests

Founded in 1901, the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests is one of the country’s most effective statewide land conservation organizations.  Today, the Forest Society is 10,000 members strong, protects more than 200,000 acres of New Hampshire’s landscape and manages xx reservations.  We support the Forest Society leadership work to stop or bury Northern Pass, conserve forest land and rebuild their beloved Rocks conservation site.  For her leadership to defeat Northern Pass, we presented Forest Society, President Jane Difley with the first Alnoba Moral Courage Award in 2018.