KROKA at LAKE WARREN

For the past twenty years Kroka staff and students have enjoyed access to nearby Lake Warren – a 185 acre shallow freshwater sanctuary located just 2 miles from Kroka with a public-access boat ramp and wilderness island.   Unlike most New Hampshire Lakes, Lake Warren has more than a mile of undeveloped shoreline and an un-inhabited island that is protected by a conservation easment.  Thanks to partnerships with landowners on the lake, countless local school children and Kroka summer campers have enjoyed their first experience of swimming and canoeing here.  The care that is given to the health and water quality of the lake, and the engagement of the Warren Lake Preservation Association, and the communities at Chase’s Mill, The Center at Orchard Hill, and the Monadnock Conservancy have made this the most precious natural resource of our local Marlow/Alstead region.

We have recently learned that the beautiful wooded peninsula where we have been taking our students is currently for sale and being promoted for the construction of new vacation homes.   This threat comes at a time when access to other local lakes is becoming increasingly difficult, and in a season when sustained drought conditions have affected the Kroka campus pond such that by mid-summer it has shrunk into a warm mud puddle that is unsuitable for swimming.

Concerned by this news, we have been mobilizing our resources in order to protect it from development and ensure that Kroka can continue to access the lake for the long-term future.