Quddus Snyder: Soul of Eaton

Eaton is failing.

In anticipation of our Fourth of July picnic, I invite you to think about the following scenarios. On Independence Day, we’ll be staring directly at the most iconic image in North America. But it’s not just Crystal Lake and the Little White Church that count; nay, the hillside behind it matters even more.

Just imagine clearcut acreage and vinyl sided McMansions on the ridge, the kind we see in Glen and Jackson. The entire image — the soul of Eaton — depends on the green hillside. We may now lose this cherished view forever.

It’s easy to sleepwalk into a terrible predicament because we weren’t sufficiently attentive early on in a sequence of events. And now we find ourselves in a huge mess.

And you can blame me. Or more accurately, you can blame my family. Or even more accurately, you can blame my shortsighted grandfather and patriarch, Robert Thoms, who lost control of this massive tract of land, and failed me, the family and the town.

As I speak, a large 116-acre lot with a direct view to the beach is getting the “rape, reap and re-sell” clearcut treatment. Public record shows that the Fadden and Whitaker logging operation has contributed $53.64 in property taxes to Eaton. On the basis of that contribution, they will destroy a fragile wetland and scar five streams. On the basis of that contribution, they will disrupt daily life with noise, dust and 120 logging trucks’ worth of wear and tear on a residential dirt road. On the basis of that contribution, they will degrade the water quality of Crystal Lake. And finally, they will mar our cherished viewshed.

Next, they’ll carve it up like some pig on a table — ridgeline lots because that’s where the big money is — and get rich.

It's hard to hate a Center Conway bottom-feeder for scavenging carcasses like some scrappy crustacean. Nay, the shame is on you and I.

Everyone is out to lunch except the road agent — degraded roads and breakneck development are a wonderful annual justification for bloated salary hikes and a new toy. Meanwhile the Little White Church will look like a dog house in front of a hillside that resembles a mangy pooch. And what do we have to show for it? Disgrace. And higher property taxes.

The same things that make a town great are the very same things that make a family strong. We saved the Little White Church. We saved Foss Mountain. We saved the Eaton Village Store. It takes a village to achieve that which no single villager can do alone.

If we do not find a way to save the Lyman Mountain view shed and the water quality of Crystal Lake, then something truly special will be lost forever.

When Dennis Sullivan and I met with the sterling folks at the Upper Saco Valley Land Trust, they understood the stakes. Doug Burnell, a man larger than a great hemlock, immediately saw that in addition to the viewshed, the Lyman watershed feeds Crystal Lake, it's a wildlife corridor, and adjacent to other nearby Land Trust acreage. But the USVLT needs the support of the town and the friends of Eaton.

Long distance runner, what are you standing there for?

My father, Channing, held the cross country running title as a UNH buck. Legend has it he went for a jog with my grandfather, wearing his Limmer boots. In 1984, the two also walked the boundary of Lyman Mountain, and dad argued for a conservation easement. “That’s not necessary,” my grandfather said, “I’ll never allow it to be developed.”

But then he was weakened by Parkinson’s and swindled by a gold digger. And just like that, 460 acres on the mountain were lost. Grandpa Bob, as God is my witness, I disown you. A conservation easement is the only way, you damn fool.

As with my grandfather, if we don’t act decisively, decisions will be made for us. One hundred times I’ve heard the words, “there’s nothing I can do about it.” Do not insult my intelligence by degrading your own. We can, and must, secure the Soul of Eaton in a public nature preserve.

Quddus Snyder lives in Eaton.