HANOVER — The Upper Valley Land Trust’s longtime leader will end her nearly 40-year tenure at the Hanover-based land conservation organization this summer.
Jeanie McIntyre, who joined the organization as its part-time bookkeeper in 1987 and became its president in 1995, will retire June 30.
“I believe it’s important for leaders not to stick around too long,” McIntyre, 66, said in a Tuesday phone interview. “I knew that this was the right time.”
The organization, which was founded in 1985 and now serves 45 communities in Vermont and New Hampshire, has been celebrating its 40th anniversary. McIntyre, of Lyme, had that milestone in mind when she decided to retire because it felt, in part, like a nice time to end her tenure.
She plans to stay involved with the organization on a volunteer basis, including serving on the UVLT’s Development Committee to assist with fundraising efforts, in addition to doing some physical work on the properties the organization owns.
“As UVLT’s leader, I didn’t have as much time to be outdoors on the places we conserve as I now will have,” McIntyre said. “I think those ways of caring for the place that we love are really special. I know that will be a meaningful part of my life.”
McIntyre grew up in Lyme and graduated from Hanover High School. She earned a degree in American Studies from Davidson College in Davidson, N.C., and lived in the state for about a decade before returning to her hometown in 1987.
She was the Upper Valley Land Trust’s second employee, joining then-executive director Tim Traver. She had written her college thesis about the history of land use in the United States.
“It was perfect for me because I had a baby, so I worked part time,” McIntyre said. “Then as the organization grew, I took on more different roles.”
She became involved in the inner workings of the nonprofit, including writing a newsletter and coordinating volunteers. McIntyre eventually rose to the position of associate director, and when Traver left to lead the Vermont Institute of Natural Science in Quechee, the UVLT’s board of trustees hired her to lead the organization in 1995.
At that time, there was one full-time and five part-time employees and its operating budget was $193,500, with a $290,000 endowment.
At that point, the UVLT had completed 100 land conservation transactions, which including placing easements on properties. Conversation easements are legal documents tied to a property that specify what it can be used for in the present moment and into the future, McIntyre said.
“It’s a very flexible instrument in that you can say a piece of property will never be developed at all, never develop except for a house in a specific place, or build farm buildings,” she said. The land trust’s job “is to uphold those specific terms forever.”
As of the fiscal year that ended last June 30, UVLT had 12 full-time and one part-time employee, a $1.3 million operations budget and an endowment that grew to nearly $9.9 million.
And it has a portfolio of 582 properties, encompassing more than 59,000 acres, according to a Monday news release announcing McIntyre’s retirement. Over the years, McIntyre has been honored by other conservation organizations including the Audubon Society of New Hampshire and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
“She’s fostered connections and cooperation between communities, helped sustain working lands, and protected our natural resources in an evolving economy,” Patty Armstrong, who chairs the board of trustees, said in the release. “In a neighborly and highly effective way, she has invited us all to learn from and appreciate our landscape and habitats.”
Manning Rountree, of Lyme, will serve as interim president of UVLT as the board of trustees launches a national search for McIntyre’s successor, according to the release.
He previously served on the board from 2011 to 2017, and retired as CEO of White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd. in 2025.
Information about the search, including a job description, will be posted to the organization’s website uvlt.org as it becomes available.
