At about 1,800 acres, Willard Pond Wildlife Sanctuary is New Hampshire Audubon’s largest property. The Sanctuary is composed of a diverse topographic arrangement of northern hardwood-pine forests, perched hemlock stands, and red maple wetland forests across a mountainous landscape of moderate-to-steep slopes. The landscape features ridge-top balds, boulder fields, and many perennial streams and vernal pools. Other outstanding features include Willard Pond, a pristine water body of about 100 acres that is home to nesting loons and supports a vigorous natural aquatic fishery that allows fly fishing only. Habitat surrounding the pond supports over 120 plant species, 18 amphibians, 10 reptiles, 50 mammals, and 136 bird species.

The summits of Bald Mountain and Goodhue Hill, huge glacial boulders, and an abundance of wildlife across the sanctuary can be viewed from trails that support passive recreation. Across the property there is historical evidence of colonial land use including stone walls, apple orchards, and open-grown wolf trees within second-growth forest recovering from use as agricultural pastures in the late 1800s and early 1900s. At the landscape scale, the Sanctuary is situated in the middle of a 10,000+-acre “super sanctuary” of conserved lands in the south-central part of New Hampshire.

In 2012 and 2013, approximately 200 acres of the preserve harvested using group selection to remove both mature and poor quality trees. White pine, red maples and white birch were harvested with crop tree release planned for mostly hardwoods (red oak, sugar maple, yellow birch and white ash). Snag were created and downed-log and large mast-producing trees were retained throughout the harvest areas. About 6.3 acres was clearcut near Goodhue Hill to create a small area of young higher elevation forest for wildlife improvement and early successional plant and animal species.